Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines

The Resort Municipality of Whistler has committed to becoming a more sustainable resort community, and recognizes that its purchasing decisions provide significant opportunity to move in this direction. In order to aid in this process, the RMOW has embedded sustainable purchasing into its Municipal Purchasing Policy and developed these web-based Guidelines to help purchasers make better purchasing decisions.

Thanks to TNS Canada for developing the product assessments, and to the following organizations for their financial contributions to the work: Manitoba Transportation and Government Services, Industry Canada (MB and SK), and the Saskatchewan Environmental Industry and Managers Association.

Sustainable purchasing is about including social, environmental, financial and performance factors in a systematic way. It involves thinking about the reasons for using the product (the service) and assessing how these services could be best met. If a product is needed, sustainable purchasing involves considering how products are made, what they are made of, where they come from and how they will be used and disposed of. It requires strategic decisions to move from products that are currently unsustainable, to products and services that are more sustainable in the long-run.

How do I use this Guide? (Click on images to open files)

	Get familiar with approach to sustainable purchasing
Review purchasing assessments for key product classes
	Glossary, tools and worksheets for assessing new, unique or infrequently purchased items.