Lessons from Canada for green procurement strategy design

Abstract We derive lessons for green public procurement (GPP) by examining it in the context of Canadian federal government expenditures in several sectors. These show that successful GPP is neither simple nor automatic but requires alignment of green policy visions between payers, purchasers and producers, and the existence of appropriate procurement frameworks to allow this alignment to persist. Attaining and maintaining this alignment longitudinally is especially difficult as priorities, and governments can change over time, ‘de-aligning’ any initial agreement on the merits of the strategy behind ‘strategic procurement’ of any kind. While less acute for short-term procurement, this problem exists for many longer-term green procurement projects and can lead to government attempts to downplay long-term efforts and seek less complex short-term purchases where alignment is easier to establish and maintain but where green efforts may be less impactful. These dynamics are illustrated in the case of green procurement efforts made in Canadian federal programmes including the little-examined but important defence sector.