Item - 2025.GG24.17

General Government Committee:  

1. Received the report (September 5, 2025) from the Chief Procurement Officer for information.

This report provides an update on Purchasing and Materials Management Division's (Purchasing and Materials Management) ongoing work towards aligning the City's procurement policies with the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy. This is in response to City Council’s direction in 2024.GG12.18 for the Chief Procurement Officer to provide an update on this work in the first quarter of 2025. To advance key environmentally responsible procurement projects, this report was postponed to the third quarter of 2025.

Purchasing and Materials Management is engaged in multiple activities aimed to establish a foundation for environmentally responsible procurement activities and policy development. This report outlines current work and next steps towards expanding climate-friendly and resource-efficient procurement practices.

Current environmentally responsible procurement work can be broadly grouped into three categories:

1. Governance and accountability, which is focused on:

a. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities for City Divisions in environmentally responsible procurement.

b. Establishing an internal Environmentally Responsible Procurement Governance Table that is focused on identifying best practices and developing environmentally responsible procurement policies, resources, and strategies using an interdivisional approach.

c. Updating the Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy.

d. Determining a Scope 3, Category 1 (supply chain) greenhouse gas emissions baseline for the City of Toronto.

2. Supplier management, which includes:

a. Exploring options to encourage suppliers to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and set science-based reduction targets.

b. Conducting a review of the Supplier Code of Conduct to include environmental sustainability requirements.

3. Procurement process updates, which will include:

a. Developing tools and resources to support the implementation of environmentally sustainable specifications and centralizing existing specifications, tools and resources.

b. Applying circular principles to the disposal of surplus items.

c. Developing an Innovative Procurement Program stream that would clarify pathways for procuring clean and green technology and help businesses in this category navigate City programs based on their level of innovation.

Planned actions in the next 6 to 12 months for Purchasing and Materials Management's work on environmentally responsible procurement will include:

1. Continued engagement with Divisions to collect updated information on the current state of environmental specifications, evaluation criteria and completed procurements with environmental sustainability considerations.

2. Developing a platform to hold environmentally sustainable specifications and evaluation criteria that would serve as a reference to Divisions when developing solicitations.

3. Implementing enhancements in the procurement planning process to assess planned solicitations.

4. Conducting preliminary supplier engagement on third-party certifications for environmentally sustainable goods or services.

5. Conducting divisional and market engagement to understand potential challenges with supplier greenhouse gas emissions disclosure requirements and identify solutions.

6. Exploring how environmentally responsible procurement can increase the City's spend with Indigenous, Black, and Diverse Suppliers and Social Enterprises in support of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Procurement Policy and the Social Procurement Policy.