Rob, to answer your question. When greening procurement, Defence looks at incorporating greening practices to, among other things,reduce materials (type and quantity) used, reduce the amount of solid waste produced and to reduce the consumption of energy and natural resources. To get a competitive advantage from a contract/cost perspective, you are correct, the material or service would need to be procured cheaper. Of course, there are other considerations. For example, if Defence purchases a set of new hydrogen-fueled vehicles versus vehicles that use traditional petroleum based fuel, the cost savings to the Forces and to Canadians is substantial given the amount of fuel used annually (less toxicity to the environment, reduced fuel consumption etc).

W.r.t. to cheaper contracts, greener procurements can lead to contracts that are cheaper if the material procured is cheaper (i.e. recycled paper cellulose for insulating infrastructure is half the price of traditional pink insulation). The other part of my sentence was “savings to government”, which is where a large focus is…Greening throughout the material life-cycle can and should result is less expenditures during the operation of materials (fuel, consumption rates etc), as well as during the disposal of equipment (environmentally friendly material is easier to dispose of, especially if it is reusable).

JC

Sorry, but I didn’t understand how buying “environmentally friendly” material makes for cheaper contracts with industry. Does the Canadian DND know something that everybody else doesn’t?

Looking forward to your response.