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Supplementary Tables
1. Context for the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy
Although the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is not bound by the Federal Sustainable Development Act and is not required to develop a full departmental sustainable development strategy, the NRC adheres to the principles of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) by implementing the Policy on Green Procurement.
The Policy on Green Procurement supports the Government of Canada's effort to promote environmental stewardship. In keeping with the objectives of the policy, the NRC supports sustainable development by integrating environmental performance considerations into the decision making process for property management through the actions described in the "FSDS goal: low-carbon government" table in section 2, below. In addition, the NRC will sustain its on-going best-practices in green procurement. They include:
- Ensuring that the annual performance evaluations of all procurement personnel includes considerations of green procurement and low-carbon economy;
- Consistently using green consolidated procurement instruments issued by Public Services and Procurement Canada and Shared Services Canada, including Standing Offer Agreements and Supply Arrangement Agreements;
- Ensuring that all procurement personnel have completed the Public Service Green Procurement course and that the importance of green procurement is continually reinforced by functional managers across the NRC;
- Ensuring that all janitorial contracts specify the use of products, equipment and processes that minimize the environmental impact; and
- Optimizing the use of the NRC's ground vehicle fleet through analysis of data from installed telematics global positioning systems in all NRC vehicles.
2. Commitments for the NRC
FSDS goal: low-carbon government
| FSDS target | FSDS contributing action | Corresponding departmental action(s) | Support for UN Sustainable Development Goal target | Starting point(s), target(s) and performance indicator(s) for departmental actions | Link to the NRC's Program Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from federal government buildings and fleets by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, with an aspiration to achieve it by 2025. |
Support the transition to a low carbon economy through the launch of a NRC-wide low-carbon strategy. |
As part of the NRC's Low-Carbon Initiative, which was launched in 2017, the NRC will reduce emissions through awareness, energy management, space rationalization and energy retrofit projects. |
Reduction of emissions relative to 2005 Starting point: 29% (March 2019) Target: 40% |
Real Property and Fleet |
|
|
Disclose and take steps to reduce the most significant carbon and broader environmental footprints of department supply chains. |
Support the transition to a low-carbon economy through green procurement. |
Procurement officers are required to take green procurement training.
Maintenance contracts require proponents to include green considerations as part of their services. |
Percentage of "green"-trained procurement officers Starting point: 100%
Percentage of maintenance contracts with "green" considerations Starting point: 86% |
Real Property |
3. Integrating sustainable development
The NRC will continue to ensure that its decision-making process includes consideration of FSDS goals and targets through its Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process. A SEA for policy, plan or program proposals includes an analysis of the impacts of the given proposal on the environment, including on FSDS goals and targets.
Statements on the results of the NRC's assessments are made public when an initiative that has undergone a detailed SEA is announced (http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/sea-ees.nsf/eng/h_ey00004.html). The purpose of the public statement is to demonstrate that the environmental effects, including the impacts on achieving the FSDS goals and targets, of the approved policy, plan or program have been considered during proposal development and decision-making.