Procurement Services recently engaged in a series of reflection sessions with its core team to develop a vision statement and goals for sustainable procurement. Their new vision statement declares that: “Procurement plays a central role as a strategic partner, is empowered and provided with the resources to promote and lead the way to establish sustainable practices and culture at McGill and in the wider community.”
Although McGill actively instructing its Procurement agents in sustainable practices, the Procurement Services Office has been faced a lack of experience and formal training in the area. Up to now, this has limited their role as change agents and the Office of Sustainability can only offer limited capacity to compensate.
Taking this into account, resources from the SPF are being used to pay the salary of a 'Sustainable Procurement Officer,' who will facilitate the transition of the Procurement Services unit to sustainable procurement practices and the achieve the new sustainability goals of the department. Ms. Stéphanie Leclerc (a PhD Student in the School of Urban Planning) has been hired to fill this role.
The Sustainable Procurement Officer would facilitate building a culture of sustainable Procurement through coordination of actions that would lead to achievement of the strategic goals of the office such as:
- Working with Procurement officers to implement sustainable procurement practices into all University procurement exercieses
- Form working groups among University stakeholders to identify needs
- Communicating and training in sustainable procurement practices for departmental purchasers
- Ensure that social, economic and environmental aspects are considered in procurement related decision-making
At the end of the position's timeframe, it is expected that the culture of sustainable procurement would have been ingrained within the mindsets of existing Procurement agents and departmental purchasers; the project will be institutionalized without requiring further support.