Buyers for Climate Action – Terms of Reference

Background

Procurement is a powerful tool to help in the fight against climate change. Procurement affects environmental impacts such as scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are produced in the supply chain of goods and services. Government leadership in green procurement is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the environment and on supply chains due to the scale of government procurement.

Buyers for Climate Action (BCA) is a coalition of large leading green buyers of goods and services with a high environmental impact. BCA will meet regularly to compare strategies to reduce GHG emissions and identify opportunities to accelerate clean technology procurement.

The Greening Government Fund will support the BCA secretariat and project deliverables such as:

• gathering market information
• building capacity of buyers
• forecasting aggregated demand
• developing sample procurement requirements and/or specifications

Objectives

BCA will bring together large leading green buyers of goods and services with a high environmental impact to discuss procurement strategies to achieve GHG reduction and climate-resilience targets. High impact categories could include (but are not limited to) real property, information and communications technology, and fleet. The objective of the coalition is to share knowledge and collaborate on best practices to:

• accelerate green procurement and improve efficacy of efforts to meet or exceed targets
• increase capacity of buyers to work with suppliers to provide greener goods and services

BCA will support other buyers by sharing research, template specifications and best practices.

Resources

The BCA will be chaired by the Government of Canada. The Government of Canada will also fund the secretariat.  Membership within the BCA steering committee or a working group is free.

Membership

Membership in the BCA steering committee is open to leading green buyers who purchase a significant volume of goods and services annually. Membership in working groups can extend beyond steering committee members to leaders in the community.

Membership in either the steering committee or a working group is non-binding and voluntary. Use of any products developed by the BCA is entirely at the discretion of each member.

Membership Criteria

Steering Committee

The steering committee is a body that determines the order of business for the BCA initiative and is responsible for decisions on BCA projects.

All members of the steering committee must:

• be a public organization
• have committed to net-zero carbon operations by 2050 at the latest
• have senior leadership commitment to greening procurement
• have committed to lowering carbon emissions in procurement by:
  • having a green procurement policy or strategy
  • integrating low-carbon commitments into procurement
  • taking actions to reduce carbon through procurement in high-impact categories such as real property, fleet, and information and communications technology
• commit to leading or contributing to at least one BCA project or initiative
• purchase a significant volume of goods and services every year

Applications for membership in the steering committee will be accepted and reviewed by the steering committee.

Members may leave the steering committee at any time if they no longer meet the membership criteria.

Working Groups

Working groups lead efforts to study, collaborate and create model procurement specifications for specific categories of green procurement to achieve common goals.

All members of working groups must either:

• be a member of the steering committee
• be a medium or large green buyer, or a strategic green buyer and/or
• contribute substantially to expertise or knowledge in the subject matter of the working group

The working group chair or the steering committee will decide on membership in working groups. Applications for membership in working groups may be accepted throughout the year. Membership in a working group may also be granted for the duration of a project.

Members may leave the working group at any time if they no longer meet the membership criteria.