Reporting on Green Procurement

This supplementary information table supports reporting on green procurement activities in accordance with the Policy on Green Procurement.

Context

The Department of Justice Canada is bound by the Federal Sustainable Development Act but did not develop an optional 2022–23 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy Report. Instead, to comply with the reporting requirements under the Policy on Green Procurement for 2022 to 2023, the Reporting on Green Procurement supplementary information table was prepared and listed in the 2022–23 Departmental Results Report.

JSDS 2020 to 2023 – Commitments

Greening Government: The Government of Canada will transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient, and green operations

Greening Government: The Government of Canada will transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient, and green operations
FSDS target(s) FSDS contributing action(s) Corresponding departmental action(s) Starting point(s)
Performance indicator(s)
Target(s)		 Results achieved
FY 2022-23		 Contribution by each departmental result to the FSDS goal and target
Actions supporting the Greening Government goal and the Policy on Green Procurement Departments will use environmental criteria to reduce the environmental impact and ensure best value in government procurement decisions Explore measures to increase awareness and uptake of environmental considerations in procurement activities. Starting Point:
  • Obtain approval to incorporate modest environmental criteria in procurement evaluation as a pilot project.
Performance Indicator:
  • Incorporating a green procurement rating criterion in procurement evaluation pilot projects.
Target:
  • Three pilot projects to incorporate green procurement rating criteria.
 Result: Completed
  • Justice Canada has successfully included green procurement evaluation in three procurements:
    1. Two requests for proposal (RFP) for court reporting, transcription, and reprographic services to include the usage of 30% recycled paper and;
    2. A RFP for suppliers to be ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems requirements certified. This ISO certification meets United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 12 for Responsible Consumption and Production. The RFP was for Project Manager Resources.
 Exploring measures to increase green procurement allows Justice Canada to establish the tools and processes that will successfully encourage clients to incorporate environmental considerations into purchasing decisions and motivate suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of the goods and services they deliver, and their supply chains.UN SDG 12 - Target 12.7
Support for green procurement will be strengthened, including guidance, tools and training for public service employees Continue to ensure decision makers, material management and specialists in procurement have the necessary training and awareness to support green procurement. Starting Point:
  • 100% of specialists in procurement and materiel management have completed training on green procurement within one year of appointment.
Performance Indicator:
  • Percentage of specialists in procurement and materiel management who have completed training on green procurement.
Target:
  • 100% of specialists in procurement and materiel management have completed training on green procurement within one year of appointment to Justice Canada.
 Result: Completed
  • As of March 31, 2023, 100% of procurement and materiel management officers have completed the mandatory green procurement training within one year of appointment to Justice Canada.
 Green procurement incorporates environmental considerations into purchasing decisions and is expected to motivate suppliers to green their goods, services and supply chain. Ensuring that procurement and materiel management specialists have the necessary training to provide effective guidance and direction to clients and suppliers.UN SDG 12 - Target 12.7
Actions supporting the Greening Government goal and the Policy on Green Procurement Departments will adopt clean technology and undertake clean technology demonstration projects Expand the use of Justice Canada’s eSignature pilot project to address specific departmental needs and increase operational efficiency. Starting Point:
  • The eSignature Pilot has been completed in the National Capital Region, and structures are in place to expand eSignature to regions and new business lines and/or processes
Performance Indicators:
  • Number of business lines and processes adopting eSignature
  • Percentage of digitized transactions as a result of the adoption of eSignature
  • Percentage completed of regional roll out
Targets:
  • eSignature is successfully implemented by at least 10 business lines or processes
  • 80% of transactions requiring signatures for business lines or processes which have implemented eSignature are completed electronically
  • eSignature is implemented in at least one unique business line or process in each region
 Result: Completed
  • Digital approval processes (approval under Sections 32 and 34 of the Financial Administration Act) remain in place in all sectors and regions using Acrobat Reader DC/Foxit and myKey.
  • Over the course of fiscal year 2022-23, 98% of payments (S.34) and 97% of commitments (S.32) were approved electronically.
  • More than 99% of all the substantive managers have used the eSignature at least once (including NCR and the regions).
  • All sectors have met the 80% target previously set and 14 of them (out of 16) had more than 90% of their payments approved electronically.
  • Considering the benefits and operational efficiencies resulting from the use of eSignatures and its successful adoption within the department over the last few years, we anticipate that it will remain the approval method of choice in the years to come.
 Actions by individual departments that incent, support, or procure state-of-the-art innovative clean technologies help to lower the environmental footprint of government operations. Justice Canada’s eSignature pilot project, which was part of the 2017-2020 Justice Sustainable Development Strategy, has demonstrated the contribution this technology has made to sustainable operations – including paper reduction, energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprint.By replacing physical signatures with secure electronic signatures, eSignature reduces the need to print and store documents requiring official signatures. In the short term, eSignature decreases paper usage and the energy needed to run printers. Over the longer term, widespread use of eSignature could decrease storage requirements for paper documents, reducing the Department’s overall carbon footprint.UN SDG 12 – Target 12.5, 12.7
Add to Mobile Electronic Courtroom (MEC) capacity. Starting Point:
  • Justice has three MECs, the first of which was deployed in a courtroom in late 2016.
Performance Indicator:
  • Number of days the three MECs are used each year.
Target:
  • 200 days per year (combined use of all three MECs).
 Result: Ongoing
  • Remote hearings continued in 2022 and there was no demand for the MEC. A MEC remained available in the Victoria courthouse for the Cowichan trial.
  • After September 2020 however, the trial proceeded on MS Teams and the MEC was temporarily dismantled in April 2022.
Next Steps:
  • The MEC in the Victoria courthouse was reassembled in June 2023 and the Cowichan litigation team is currently using the MEC in the trial’s final arguments phase to be held until January 2024.
  • Two litigation teams have reserved a MEC for upcoming trials, one starting on January 1, 2024 for 365 days and another commencing in 2026 for 300 days.
 A Mobile Electronic Courtroom is a moveable suite of electronic devices (monitors, switch boxes, cabling) that equips a courtroom to run an electronic trial. This eliminates the need for producing documentary evidence on paper. The goal of this initiative is to achieve savings in costs and time as well as reducing impact on the environment by using electronic means to display documentary evidence. For example, for the 300-day Cowichan trial in BC Supreme Court that will run for at least three years, equipping the court room eliminated the need to print 14,000 evidentiary documents - over 200,000 pieces of paper.UN SDG 12 – Target 12.5

Report on Integrating Sustainable Development

During the 2022–23 reporting cycle, the Department of Justice Canada had no proposals that required a strategic environmental assessment and no public statements were produced.