Departmental Stewardship Planning

Insights from Stewardship Planning and Related Efforts In Canada and Abroad

International Institute for Sustainable Development

January 31, 2006

• Not-for-profit policy research institute• Vision Better living for all - sustainably

• Mission To champion innovation, enabling societies to live sustainably

• Programs - Measurement & Assessment- Sustainable Natural Resources Management

- Climate Change and Energy- International Trade and Investment

- Economic Policy- Knowledge Communications- Reporting Services

Departmental Stewardship Planning

• An action of Saskatchewan’s new Green Strategy. – to support the goal of Shared Responsibility,

Integration and Accountability

• Sask. Environment discussion paper from August 2005 describes initial thinking on departmental stewardship planning

Discussion Paper

• Two important modes by which governments have an influence on the environment and sustainable development – Internal operations (Part A of this presentation)

• Purchasing of Goods and Services, Managing Waste, Conserving Water, Managing Departmental Lands and Water, Reducing Energy Use, Greening the Vehicle Fleet, Empowering Staff, …

– External influence (Part B of this presentation)• Policies, programs and plans of departments which influence

the actions of citizens and the management of public and private lands

The Business Case New York City Transit

annual savings of $60,000 by installing photovoltaics on its Stillwell Avenue intermodal terminal

Bank of America’s green procurement program reduced number of vendors, reduced paper consumption

(savings estimated at $14 million in 1999)

Lee County’s Fleet Management Department in Florida, USA purchasing alternative vehicle fluids and cleaners - saved

$16,800 each year by eliminating hazardous waste disposal fees ($1400 saved per vehicle managed).

Pentagon enhanced indoor air quality expected to increase worker

productivity by 6 percent and save $72 million dollars per year

Part A: Stewardship Planning for

Internal Operations• Sustainable

development in government

operations

• Sustainability Reporting

• UK Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate

• Canada’s Sustainable Development in Government Operations

• Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Procurement Goals

• Global Reporting Initiative• PotashCorp SD Report• New South Wales Public Accounts

Committee

UK Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate

Framework• Overarching commitments• Travel• Water• Waste• Energy• Procurement• Estates management• Biodiversity• Social impacts.

• 30 cross-government targets • flexibility in terms of the

mechanisms to deliver targets

• Support to departments through guidance and up to date examples of best practice on the Framework website

• Coordinated out of UK Defra

UK Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate

• Preview targets on Table 2-1, page 19• UK is one of most advanced countries in terms

of public management systems for sustainable development (view website if possible)

• Appears however that the 30-targets for the stewardship of internal operations is stretching their capacity.– “many of the personnel who prepare the data for the SDiG report

are severely under-resourced. We have seen little evidence that the majority of Departments have invested in adequate support in terms of data collection and monitoring systems, capacity, or have established clear lines of senior level accountability for performance against the Framework.”

Canada’s Sustainable Development in Government Operations

Framework• Energy Efficiency• Human Resources

Management• Land Use Management; • Procurement• Vehicle Fleet Management• Waste Management;

Water Conservation• Wastewater Management• Environmental

Management Systems

• coordinate the federal effort to green government operations

• encourage the reporting of concrete results among the departments and agencies

• led by three departments including Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Canada’s Sustainable Development in Government Operations

• The 2005 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development – Office of the Auditor General– “there are no mandatory reporting frameworks for

Green Procurement in government-wide context.” – The consequences of this lack of integration with

existing systems:• “most of the eight departments and agencies [audited] are

not following a clear plan for greening their procurement” and “none of the sustainable development strategies of the eight organizations [audited] included an overall picture and plan for green procurement.”

Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Procurement Goals

Framework• Education, Training and

Awareness• Pollution Prevention and

Human Health Protection• Reduction of Fossil Fuel

Emissions• Resource Conservation• Community Economic

Development

• Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Act

– “requires each department to include information in its annual report about the progress made in incorporating sustainable development into its activities (Section 12(1)(c)).

• Procurement guidelines– Section 12(2) of the Act requires

“establishment of procurement guidelines which were adopted in December 2000.

– The procurement guidelines require each department to produce a report on implementation which is to be made public through the departmental annual report to the Manitoba Legislature.”

Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Procurement Goals

• Preview goals and activities in Table 2-3, page 27

• Green vehicle fleet is 6% of their total fleet this year (180/2700 vehicles). – number of green vehicles up by 40% this year– number of flex fuel vehicles up by 30%.

• Transportation and Gov. Services Department leading in green procurement activities

Corporate Reporting Initiatives

• Public and private corporate reporting initiatives can also provide useful insight

• Entry point is not on planning side, but in annual reporting.

• Based on “we manage what we measure”, and “we measure what we care about.”

Corporate Reporting Initiatives

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Short environmental statements

One-off environmental report

First policy statement

Annual report linked to Environmental Management System – more text than figures

Full triple-bottom line style report on annual basis

Available on disk or online

Environment report referenced in annual report

Sustainable development reporting.

Linking of economic, social and environmental issues

Indicators

Full-cost accounting

From environment to sustainable development

Meeting global priorities and stakeholder information needs

Time, Effort

A Common Framework for Sustainability Reporting

• A multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

www.globalreporting.org

1997

GRI Sustainabilty Reporting Framework

Category Aspect Example Indicator

Economic Customers Net sales

Suppliers Cost of all goods and services provided,

Employees Total payroll and benefits

Providers of Capital Change in retained earnings

Public Sector Donations to community

Category Aspect Example Indicator

Environmental Materials • Total materials used other than water

Energy • Direct energy use

Water • Total water use

Biodiversity Location and size of land owned

Emissions, Effluents, and Waste

Greenhouse gas emissions

Suppliers Supplier performance

Products and Services % of weight sold that is reclaimed

Compliance Fines for non-compliance

Transport Impacts from logistics transportation

Overall Total environmental expenditures

Labor Practices and Decent Work

Human Rights

Society

Product Responsibility

Social Employment

Labour/Management Relations

Health and Safety

Training and Education

Diversity and Opportunity

Strategy and management

Non-discrimination

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

Child Labor

Forced and Compulsory Labor

Disciplinary Practices

Security Practices

Indigenous Rights

Community

Bribary and corruption

Political contributions

Competition and pricing

Customer health and safety

Products and services

Advertising

Respect for Privacy

Category Aspect

PotashCorp Corporate Sustainability Report

• In 2005 PotashCorp issued its third sustainability report

• Received the 2004 Award of Excellence for sustainability reporting in the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants annual Corporate Reporting Awards.

• Preview the report framework in Appendix A, page 59

Stewardship Planning for External Influence

• Internal operations is only part of a department’s overall impact on the environment and sustainable development

• A departments external influence through its policies, programs and plans is the other important part.

Part B: Stewardship Planning for External Influence

• Sustainable Development Strategies

• Strategic Government Assessment

• Sustainability assessment frameworks

• Environment Outlooks

• Canadian federal departmental SD strategies• Manitoba departmental reporting on

sustainable development principles and guidelines

• Oregon Benchmarks

• Canada strategic environmental assessment• Swiss sustainability assessment

• 7 Questions to Sustainability• Multi-perspective Analysis

• Forward looking policy analysis (scenario analysis)

Sustainable Development Strategies

• Places a systems lens (integrated economic, social and environmental) and inter-generational lens on government priorities and plans– Lens developed based on shared vision of

development and priorities– Most experience to date at national level (and

some local Agenda 21 experience)

Sustainable Development Strategies

• Critique: Most cases involved creation of a strategy that was separate from existing government planning and budgeting processes– Result has been minimal guiding influence on

public expenditures, policies and programs.

• Critique: policies, plans and programs not linked to the desired economic, social and environmental conditions (via headline indicators).

Strategic Government Assessment

• Strategic Environmental Assessment in the Canadian Federal Government – Includes identification of environmental

impacts of cabinet proposals related to positive or negative impacts related to:

• Air quality; Water quality/quantity; Land use; Climate change; Biodiversity; and Natural Resources

Strategic Government Assessment

• Swiss Sustainability Assessment – To evaluate effects of draft legislation,

concepts and projects in terms of the three dimensions of sustainable development and

– To indicate potential deficiencies early enough in the process to influence the direction taken.

• Preview framework in Table 3-2, page 47 of research report

Strategic Government Assessment

• Oregon Benchmarks an interesting example (not really strategic assessment)– 90 indicators under eight categories, namely:

Economy, Education Report, Civic Engagement, Social Support, Public Safety, Community Development, Environment, Home and Contents

– State agencies are required to link their key performance measures to the benchmarks

Forward-Looking Policy Analysis

• Environmental Outlooks (scenario analysis)

• Helps address the inter-generational principle of sustainable development

• Consists of forward-looking environmental trend analysis (and comparison to future policy or society targets)

Example Assessment Framework

http://www.iisd.org/publications/publication.asp?pno=456

Some Key Initial Insights from the Research

• Important components: Internal operations and external influence

• Stewardship planning makes business sense (U.S. examples)

• Focus for internal operations typically cluster around 5 to 9 key environmental categories (UK, Canada, MB, corporate reporting)

• Simplicity important in light of organizational capacity. Can build complexity over time as successes and experience accumulate (inferred from UK experience)

• Formal linkage with existing planning and budgeting systems critical for implementation (inferred from Canada and other country experiences)

• Movement from environment to triple-bottom-line planning and reporting (private sector trend)

Thank You!

• Contact: Darren Swanson– Tel: 958-7746– Email: dswanson@iisd.ca– Internet: www.iisd.org

• IISD team providing insight for Sask. stewardship planning efforts– Darren Swanson – Project Manager, Measurement & Assessment– Stephen Barg – Senior Corporate Advisor– Laszlo Pinter – Director, Measurement & Assessment– Henry Venema – Director, Sustainable Natural Resource Management– Research Support: Carissa Wieler (Measurement & Assessment),

Marlene Roy (information services), Rachel Parry (Knowledge Communications)