Welcome to CASPAR:
A Canada-wide inter-university working group on Sustainable Procurement
Many institutions are seeking to align their spending with their sustainability objectives by incorporating social and environmental considerations into their acquisitions of goods, services, and construction works. Institutional procurement represents upwards of five billion dollars of spending each year and signifies a tremendous opportunity to influence the higher education sector’s social, environmental, and climate footprint.
In 2023, university procurement leaders from across Canada formalized their collaboration and established a Canada-wide inter-university working group on Sustainable Procurement, CASPAR. CASPAR operates as a collaborative forum with materials, training, and other knowledge-sharing opportunities open to all procurement practitioners at CAUBO member institutions.
CASPAR currently has three key objectives:
- Capacity building, with the aim of bringing all Canadian universities on board with sustainable procurement
- Common efforts, to develop a common language about sustainable procurement, and, where possible, common tools (e.g., standard contract clauses, benchmarking tools, and shared key performance indicators)
- Market monitoring, to keep abreast of industry issues, standards, or regulatory developments, and promote best practices
“The CASPAR working group is a tremendous example of how universities can work together to find everyday solutions to today’s, environmental,
climate and social challenges. Through CASPAR, Canadian universities share strategies, common practices, and results to make more valuable contributions
to institutional sustainability goals.”, notes the group’s executive sponsor, Mr. Martin Pochurko, Simon Fraser’s VP Finance and Administration.
CASPAR is currently co-chaired by Stéphanie Leclerc, McGill’s Program Manager for Sustainable Procurement and Sandra Nelson, Director of Carleton University’s Procurement Services, while the group’s TEAMS platform is hosted at Queens University.
“We have many suppliers in common”, explains Stéphanie (McGill) “We face some of the same risks, in terms of threats to biodiversity or forced labour in our respective supply chains, for example, so it makes sense to share best practices to mitigate these risks.”
“We are proud to be part of this initiative, which was instigated in collaboration with other procurement professionals at Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, Queen’s University, OCAD University, the University of Toronto, and many others from across the country,” says Sandra (Carleton).
Delegates from CAUBO member institutions oversee the group’s activities and governance (“Governance Committee”), and smaller, focused ad hoc working groups address projects and activities as they arise (“Working Groups”).
The Governance Committee is representative of the size and geographic locations of member institutions and is open to one delegate per institution. Other subject matter experts and institutional members may volunteer to participate in Working Groups and activities, as required (e.g., other procurement professionals and other departmental representatives from within member institutions).
If you would like to join CASPAR’s volunteer network, please email sandra.nelson@carleton.ca.