How Do You Develop a Green Paper Procurement Policy?

1. Establish Executive Commitment and Develop an Organizing Committee
* It is important that commitment to change procurement and purchasing practices be initiated from senior management.
* Those charged with the purchasing decisions are instrumental for evaluating and bringing about change
* Include members from every level of the organization in the committee. This will help ensure goals are perceived as reasonable and attainable as well as increase program buy-in.
* Companies and organizations often seek out the help of independent non-profit or non-governmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) or Metafore to help navigate the social, political and technical landscape and lend credibility to their environmental initiatives.

2. Define Benefits and Rationale

The second step involves clarifying and explaining why your company or organization wants to pursue green paper procurement. This is an opportunity to evaluate how environmental and social values fit within your company’s objectives and focus.

* Document why your company/organization is undertaking a green paper procurement policy
* Document what you want to achieve by implementing this policy
* Learn about the issues – what are the environmental performance criteria of papers?
* Outline the various environmental efforts you have considered and will be supporting with this procurement policy
o What environmental issues should be considered?
As outlined in the 5 Minute Guide to Green Paper, there are various environmental issues that can be considered in both the resource extraction for and the production of paper.

An environmentally friendly paper can include any of the following characteristics:
- FSC-certified (FSC recycled, FSC Mixed Sources, FSC 100%)
- Contains recycled or post consumer waste
- Endangered or ancient forest friendly
- Derived from responsibly managed forests
- Does not contain genetically modified tree species
- Manufactured with minimal or without chlorine bleaching (PCF, ECF, TCF)
- Manufactured with wind power or other alternative power sources

3. Perform a Self-Evaluation

Completing a self-evaluation is an exercise to analyze current purchasing and consumption behaviour and will help in later stages when developing the implementation plan.

a. Purchasing
i. Who purchases paper?
ii. What types of paper are being purchased?
iii. In what quantities?
iv. At what costs?
v. What purchasing policies exist?
1. Are there preferential contracts?
2. Do we receive volume discounts?
3. Is there centralized buying?
4. Who has the authority to change current policies?
vi. Who are our current suppliers?
1. Do they currently offer green paper alternatives?
2. Would they be open to providing such alternatives?
3. Ask them to provide the environmental specifications of the products they are currently offering.
4. Evaluate these specifications against green paper characteristics

b. Consumption:
i. Who are the major users?
ii. What quantity of paper is being used?
iii. What types of paper are being used?
iv. For what purposes?
v. What are the environmental specifications for these papers?
vi. Are there any efforts in place to reduce paper use?
If so, can they be improved? If not, what can be done to reduce paper use?
vii. Are there any efforts in place to reuse paper? If so, can they be improved? If not, what can be done
to reuse paper?
viii. Are there any efforts in place to recycle paper? If so, can they be improved? If not, what can be
done to recycle paper?

4. Develop Paper Specifications and Identify Suppliers

In this step you must clearly specify what characteristics you will be seeking in your paper, then identify suppliers who can meet these requirements.

* Discuss the key areas of environmental performance you are committed to seeking out. For example;
o Recycling and Pollution Reduction
o Responsible Forest Management and Conservation
o Reduction of Energy Use
* Specify and document what characteristics are required of the various types of paper your organization consumes (e.g. copy paper should contain a minimum 30% PCW content, be chlorine free, FSC certified etc)
o Consider the various uses and purposes of the paper your company/organization consumes. Different uses may be better suited to different papers (e.g. internal paper can have a higher grade of recycled content than published documents etc)
* Provide a glossary for environmental terms used in your specifications to clearly communicate your intentions (e.g. Post consumer waste is considered by this policy to be paper products used by the end consumer and then reclaimed through recycling programs).
* To ensure best practices are being employed, stipulate requirements for suppliers to possess third party FSC certification in all tenders (e.g. “Tenderer shall be third party certified to FSC standards and offer FSC certified papers. Samples of each item for which the tenderer intends to quote shall be submitted in a separate envelope/cover superscribing “Technical Tenders” “)
o How can my supplier become certified? Click here
o Who are FSC certified paper suppliers? Click here
o What FSC certified papers are available? Click here
* Comparison shop amongst existing and prospective suppliers to determine the degree to which they can offer products or employ practices consistent with the environmental specifications you have set out.

5. Set Goals

* Set goals using a two-pronged approach
o First set the final goals (with timelines) you wish the policy to achieve
E.G. 100% use of environmentally preferable papers by January 1, 2008
o Second, set incremental milestones (with timelines) that work towards the ultimate goals
E.G. Use of environmentally preferable paper for all public documents by June 1, 2006
* Ensure targets are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound)
* This approach allows all the stakeholders to understand it takes many small, measurable actions to achieve overall program success
* These goals should be based on:
o The breadth of the change (i.e. company-wide, department-wide, regional level, national level, etc)
o Amount and purpose of current paper consumption
o Existing contracts with suppliers
o The availability of satisfactory green paper alternatives. See what FSC papers are currently available here.
* In addition to purchasing environmentally friendly paper, set goals to reduce overall paper use and improve recycling.

6. Implementation and Evaluation

* Develop and document a detailed action plan based on the goals you have set out above
* Establish an internal feedback and monitoring system to ensure continual improvement and adherence to the policy
* Periodic review of the procurement program should be carried out to ensure that goals and objectives are being met.
o Assess what changes in consumption have been made:
1. What products are being purchased?
2. Do these products meet the specifications set forth in the policy?
3. What is the level of employee knowledge and/or commitment to the policy?
o Conduct regular supply vendor reviews requiring all forest product suppliers to submit annual performance reports detailing their progress in environmental management and forest certification programs.

7. Communicate the Policy

When communicating an initiative it is important to explain to all stakeholders how the set goals will be reached as well as why the program is being launched.

* To Suppliers:
o Inform current suppliers of your new policy, why you have adopted it, and work with them to implement it.
o Encourage them to obtain FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification and inform them as to how they can do it. See 'Chain of Custody' fact sheet for more information
* To Employees:
o Communicate to employees why your company/organization has adopted this procurement policy
o Educate them as to how they fit into the process (through paper consumption, purchasing etc)
* To Customers: Communicate to customers that you have adopted a green paper procurement policy in an effort to reduce the environmental impacts of your company/organization.
* Make your procurement policy publicly available to further communication with employees, customers and stakeholders and to ensure transparency.

8. Resources

For more information on FSC certified paper products visit
www.fsccanada.org/FindCertifiedPaper.htm

For more information on FSC certification visit
www.fsccanada.org/Certification.htm

For more information on the differences between FSC, CSA and SFI certification visit
www.certificationcanada.org/english
International Council of Forest & Paper Associations

The Environmental Paper Network
Markets Initiative: How to Go Ancient Forest Friendly
David Suzuki Foundation: What are Transgenic Trees?
Forest Ethics: Information on Endangered Forests
Metafore Paper Working Group
Greenbiz.com: Information on Eco-labels
Consumer’s Guide to Eco-labels

Government of Canada’s Eco-logo program