Advancing Buy Clean Policy in Canada
Authors: Ali Hasanbeigi, Dinah Shi, Navdeep Bhadbhade
Green public procurement (GPP) is a policy instrument where public entities seek to procure goods with a reduced environmental impact throughout their lifecycle relative to similar goods that provide the same function. GPP adoption is increasing around the world as national governments, sub-national governments, and multilateral entities develop policies to reduce their carbon footprints and create new low-carbon markets.
Canada spends billions of dollars each year on public procurement: the purchase of goods and services by public authorities such as government departments. In 2020, Canada spent approximately CA$ 278 billion on public procurement (by all levels of government). This large-scale purchasing power gives governments leverage in driving markets toward the development of low-carbon goods and services.
In Canada, some elements of a Buy Clean policy are already in place. The federal Greening Government Strategy announced in 2017 established a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, including the procurement of goods and services. The government aims to reduce embodied carbon by 30% starting in 2025 through the use of recycled and lower-carbon materials, material efficiency, and performance-based design standards, and conduct a whole building life-cycle analysis by 2025 for major projects. In service of this, the government is building a repository of reliable emissions data through the Low Carbon Assets through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA2) initiative.
This report focuses on three energy- and carbon-intensive industries/products: cement, steel, and aluminum. Together, the three sectors account for around 20% of global CO2 emissions. They are also covered by the United States proposed Buy Clean strategy, which is highly relevant due to the large volume of trade of these materials across the Canada-US border. In 2019, total cement, steel, and aluminum consumption in Canada were 9.5 million tonnes (Mt), 14.4 Mt, and 0.6 Mt, respectively. It should be noted that in the majority of cases, the government or its contractors do not purchase cement and instead purchase concrete (mainly ready-mix concrete) which is the final product used in construction projects. The values shown in this report include the cement used in concrete that is then used in construction projects.
We estimated the CO2 emissions associated with cement, steel, and aluminum used in public construction projects and the potential impact of the Buy Clean policy to reduce those emissions. Public procurement of cement, steel, and aluminum in Canada accounted for approximately 2.3 Mt CO2, 5.5 Mt CO2, and 0.1 Mt CO2 emissions in 2019, respectively. Figure 1 shows the annual CO2 emissions reduction potential resulting from Buy Clean for cement, steel, and aluminum in Canada in 2019. We also developed similar estimates for selected provinces in Canada (see chapter 3 of the report).
Figure ES1. Annual CO2 emissions reduction potential resulted from Buy Clean for cement, steel, and aluminum in Canada in 2019
(Note: Potential indirect impact assumes that changes in cement plants to reduce CO2 emissions would impact the CO2 intensity of all cement produced and sold even to non-government-funded projects.)
While Buy Clean has political support in Canada, the pace of implementation could be improved. Some of the challenges include consistent emissions reporting, establishing feasible quantitative limits on embodied carbon, highly decentralized procurement, lack of expertise and bandwidth, and a highly integrated North American market.
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