Standards: Not your standard fare
This series of blogs talks about social purchase as a way to bolster demand for the goods and services produced by social enterprises. The last post described community benefits agreements in Vancouver in 2010.
Previously, initiatives in Vancouver and Glasgow were featured; but the City of Calgary has also helped pave the way. Ethics are doing the driving.
Due to the significant scope of procurement activities within the City, it has adopted a Sustainable Environmental and Ethical Procurement Policy to help guide its purchases. The Policy has been applied through a phased approach.
A pilot project first examined how the implementation of the Policy would affect the purchase of four commodities: apparel, food, and chemical and custodial services. The City next explored whether the Policy could be integrated into other purchases including appliances, cleaning products, and courier and freight services. The Policy eventually will apply to the procurement of all City goods and services. The City’s Supplier Code of Conduct provides a minimum set of environmental and ethical standards that suppliers must meet. It must be signed by the supplier as a condition of doing business with the City. Way to go, Calgary!
Its ethical standards oblige suppliers to meet basic human rights and labour practices as legislated by jurisdictional requirements. This expectation ensures that workers who produce City products and services are treated fairly according to local and international standards. Suppliers must also meet basic environmental standards. These include environmental permits and reporting, pollution prevention and resource reduction. Suppliers must use products and services that are energy efficient and that contain low toxicity and packaging, and high recycled content. The City has taken steps to minimize the potential cost burden on suppliers. It also helps them understand how to achieve the required standards within an acceptable timeline.
Social purchase holds promise for social enterprises because it helps create a bigger market – and vital capital – for their goods and services. However,challenges do exist. The final blog in this series explains some of these.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreajoseph/5928410944/in/set-72157606526118826
