Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry:

current practices, drivers and opportunities
Rajeev Ruparathna 1, Kasun Hewage*
School of Engineering, University of British Columbia e Okanagan Campus, BC, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Procurement is a key process in construction project management. The current construction procure-
Received 4 February 2014 ment practices have been widely criticized for disregarding sustainability in the project life cycle. At
Received in revised form present, there is a gap of knowledge on status-quo of sustainable procurement in Canada. Therefore, the
25 June 2015
objective of this study is to review sustainable procurement practices in the Canadian construction in-
Accepted 2 July 2015
dustry. A multi method research design was used in this study by combining both qualitative and
Available online xxx
quantitative research methods. Three research tools were used in the study; namely questionnaire
surveys, review of documents, and semi-structured interviews. Data triangulation was used to combine
Keywords:
Canada
the results of all three research tools. The study showed that sustainable procurement initiatives have
Construction industry rarely been used in the Canadian construction industry. Limited sustainability initiatives are used in the
Construction procurement project procurement, while environmental sustainability criteria are given the prominence. Furthermore
Sustainable procurement a significant deficiency is observed in bid evaluation involving triple bottom line of sustainability. A
majority of construction industry respondents agreed that sustainable procurement is a long due ne-
cessity and highlighted government regulations as the main driver for sustainable procurement. This
study may be the first step to promote the use of sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction
sector.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction which is a 7.1% of the total workforce in the economy (Human

Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2013).
The construction industry is a vital sector in the Canadian The annual global construction expenditure is expected to in-
economy (Statistics Canada, 2009), which accounts for 6% of the crease by 67%, from $7.2 trillion in 2011 to $12 trillion by 2020
gross domestic product (GDP) (Industry Canada, 2012). Construc- (Betts et al., 2011). The same report states that total spending for
tion activities have a significant impact on all the three pillars of the decade will be $97.7 trillion. By 2020 the global construction
sustainability; i.e. social, environmental, and economic (Sev, 2009; industry will account for 13.2% of global GDP (Betts et al., 2011).
Jones et al., 2006; Spence and Mulligan, 1995; Tam et al., 2004). Canada, along with Australia, will lead construction growth among
According to the Industry Canada (2011), built environment con- developed countries mainly supported by their natural resources
sumes 50% of extracted natural resources and 33% of total energy (Betts et al., 2011). From 2000 to 2010 construction GDP in Canada
use in Canada. In addition, buildings produce 25% of the landfill increased by 42.7%, whereas GDP for all industries increased by
waste, 10% of airborne particles, and 35% of greenhouse gas emis- 20.2% (Statistics Canada, 2012). Bratt et al. (2013) stated that public
sions. Construction industry employed 1.2 million workers in 2010 procurement has a significant potential to drive sustainability
agenda of a country because of its volume. Similarly, construction
procurement too can be a main driver to promote the national
sustainability agenda.
Procurement is an integral process of any construction project
* Corresponding author. The University of British Columbia, School of Engineer-
which includes all activities related to providing goods, services
ing, Okanagan Campus, Office: EME 4227, 1137 Alumini Avenue, Kelowna, BC,
Canada V1V 1V7. Tel.: þ1 250 807 8176; fax: þ1 250 807 9850. and consultancy necessary to accomplish the project objectives
E-mail addresses: Rajeev.Ruparathna@ubc.ca (R. Ruparathna), kasun.hewage@ (Martins, 2009; Sears et al., 2008). Several authors had discussed
ubc.ca (K. Hewage). the potential of procurement to influence sustainability
1
Tel.: þ1 250 575 7711.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
0959-6526/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
2 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10

performance of a construction project (Adetunji et al., 2003; The subject sustainable procurement in the construction in-
Ha€kkinen and Belloni, 2011; Preuss, 2009). Construction procure- dustry has been an unpopular topic in the literature. A key word
ment is a multi-dimensional process combining a vivid range of search for “sustainable procurement” in Compendex engineering
aspects such as contract strategy, conditions of contract, perfor- village returned 18 journal articles from 1864 to 2015 that were
mance, culture, sustainability, economics, political environment, related to architecture, engineering and construction industry
learning, leadership, satisfaction, self-esteem, and motivation (AEC). The lack of published literature can be because the concept of
(Rowlinson and McDermott, 1999). According to Robinson (2004), sustainable procurement has been an emergent concept during the
Sebastian (2011) and McMichael et al. (2003), a combination of recent past.
multiple disciplines is required to achieve sustainable develop- Several authors studied the criteria used for sustainable pro-
ment. Therefore, procurement would be a potential multi- curement and green procurement in the construction industry.
dimensional mechanism to improve the sustainability perfor- Sourani (2008) identified 43 sustainable procurement initiatives in
mance of a construction project. a countrywide survey in the United Kingdom. Akadiri (2012)
Promoting the sustainable development through procurement, identified 24 assessment criteria to be used by architects and
should overcome number of flaws identified in the traditional building designers in the selection of sustainable building mate-
procurement processes. Several scholars have pointed out that rials. Their study ranked aesthetics, maintainability and energy
selection of the lowest bid, not the best value alternative, is a major saving and thermal insulation as the top 3 criteria. Xia et al. (2014)
weakness of traditional procurement methods (Hampton, 1994; studied how project owners in the United States define the sus-
Walker and Hampson, 2008; Hall, 2010). In addition, use of tradi- tainability requirements for construction projects by reviewing 49
tional construction procurement methods causes environmental requests for proposals (RFP) documents. This study revealed that
degradation, eventually resulting in impaired quality of life for owners predominantly communicate sustainability requirements
supporting communities. The above issues eventually can result in by using leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED).
indirect costs for the project owners for rectification of the damage Majority of prior scholarly publications related to sustainable
(Walker and Hampson, 2008). construction procurement have been centered on environmental
Kibert (2012) and Kashyap et al. (2003) defined sustainable criteria. Proving this observation, studies by Sarkis et al. (2012) and
construction as creating and operating a healthy built environment Gopalakrishnan et al. (2012) showed that social criteria are the least
which is based on resource efficiency and ecological design. Sus- attended sustainability criteria in procurement. Furthermore, Essa
tainable procurement is a promising initiative to promote sus- and Fortune (2008) conducted an industry wide survey on factors
tainable construction. Several incentives have been established in considered for pre-construction evaluation practices for sustain-
Canada at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels to promote able housing projects in the UK. They identified environmental
sustainable construction practices (Miller et al., 2008). In order to factors are the main factors considered while there is a lack of
implement sustainable procurement it is important to assess the knowledge on how to consider social sustainability factors.
current status of the use of triple bottom line of sustainability (i.e. Recently there have been a several promising developments
social environmental and economic factors) in procurement pro- with regards to sustainable procurement. Varna €s et al. (2009)
cess. A comprehensive literature review has revealed that no recent conducted studies on green procurement and developed a con-
industry-wide information is currently available for incorporating ceptual framework for improving environmental performance of
sustainability criteria into construction procurement in Canada. the construction industry. Sarkis et al. (2012) developed a decision
The objective of this paper is to identify status quo of sustainable model and a framework for contractor selection using triple bottom
procurement in the Canadian construction industry. In addition, lines of sustainability. Chen et al. (2008) developed a knowledge-
this study assessed industry perceptions on implementing sus- framed analytic network process to select the most suitable ten-
tainable procurement practices in Canada. This investigation leads der for sustainable construction. Tarantini et al. (2011) developed a
to an understanding on what and how sustainable procurement life cycle approach for green procurement of building elements.
attributes can be adapted into the construction industry practice. Electronic procurement is a growing trend at present. Walker and
Furthermore, this study analyzed the ability of current procure- Brammer (2012) studied electronic procurement (e procurement)
ment practices to achieve sustainability in construction. and its relationship with sustainable procurement. They concluded
that even though e procurement helps with supplier's environ-
2. Literature review mental, labor, health and safety aspects, it reduces the buying op-
portunities for small and medium firms. Fitch et al. (2015)
World summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg compared project delivery methods multiple-criteria decision and
was a major milestone for sustainable procurement. One of the final financial risk analyses to select the most economically sustainable
recommendations of the summit was to take sustainable devel- delivery method for public utilities.
opment considerations into public procurement decision making Carter and Fortune (2007) stated that there is a lack of struc-
process (United Nations, 2002). Sustainable Procurement Task tured frameworks to assist the project teams in delivering sus-
Force (2006) of the United Kingdom defined sustainable procure- tainable construction projects. Faith-Ell et al. (2006) concluded that
ment as: practical implementation of environmental criteria is a daunting
“A process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods, task mainly due to lack of information and inability to supervise
services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money after the contract award. Mosgaard et al. (2013) emphasized the
on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the need for more simple universal tools such as Eco labels in pro-
organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst mini- moting sustainable procurement. Moreover, Hwang and Ng (2013)
mizing damage to the environment.” emphasized the importance of strengthening the knowledge areas
Perera et al. (2007) stated sustainable procurement should related to green project management.
consider the environmental, social, and economic consequences of Implementing sustainable procurement in the construction in-
design; manufacture and production methods; non-renewable dustry is hindered by a number of factors, such as lack of funding,
material use; logistics; recycling options; use; operation; mainte- lack of awareness, and lack of research and development (Sourani
nance; reuse; suppliers' capabilities; and service delivery and and Sohail, 2011; Walker and Hampson, 2008). Ruparathna and
disposal. Hewage (2015) studied challenges and benefits of implementing

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10 3

sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry. The research was conducted between 2012 December and 2013
This study identified that lack of funding, awareness, understand- June. The project owner, representative, or an authorized external
ing, information, commitment, and demand as well as insufficient party assumes the responsibility of managing the procurement
policies, regulations, incentives, and lack of leadership are main process (Cox et al., 2006). Therefore, in order to obtain information
challenges for implementing sustainable procurement. Shiers et al. on the project procurement process; project owners, construction
(2006) stated that there is a lack of client demand and reluctance in managers and consulting engineers in Canada were considered as
contractors to implement sustainable practices in construction the sampling frame for questionnaires and semi-structured
projects. Meehan and Bryde (2011) stated that even though orga- interviews.
nizations have established sustainable procurement policies, the Data triangulation is the use of two or more methods to inves-
same is less likely to be found in strategy and practice. tigate same study objective (Fellows and Liu, 2003). Use of multiple
There are several promising trends towards incorporating social methods reduces bias, improves the validity of results, and enables
and environmental criteria into project management and pro- to observe hidden trends which might have been neglected with
curement decisions, which is a positive sign (Tysseland, 2008; Price the use of a single method (Cox and Hassard, 2010; Given, 2008). In
Water Coopers, 2009; Liu and Wilkinson, 2011; Shen and Tam, addition, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods
2002; Hassini et al., 2012). Swan and Khalfan (2007) identified increases reliability of the study (Hewage, 2007). Therefore, data
that environmental and social sustainability criteria were gaining triangulation was used to validate the results of the above three
importance and getting embodied in key objectives in the pro- research methods.
curement process. Ongoing climate action agendas are promoting
creative procurement methods that incorporate carbon emission as 3.1. Questionnaire survey
a criterion for tender evaluation. Anthonissen et al. (2015) dis-
cussed about a pilot study to use carbon dioxide emissions as an Questionnaire as a research method is a relatively inexpensive
evaluation criterion for a public roadway project in Flanders, way to reach a wider range of respondents (Trochim and Donnelly,
Belgium. Rietbergen and Blok (2013) assessed the impact of an 2008; Holyk, 2008). The questionnaire2 was developed based on
ongoing energy and GHG emission certification scheme used for the literature review and informal expert interviews. The ques-
public procurement in Netherlands. The authors concluded that tionnaire in this study included questions related to the current
this scheme could significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in status of sustainable procurement in the construction industry
Netherlands. (Appendix A).
Literature identified several innovative project delivery The central limit theorem in statistics indicates that sample size
methods and life cycle performance management contracts that should be at least 30 the sampling distribution is approximately
support sustainable project delivery. Procurement, engineering, normal (Levine et al., 2011). Therefore the target response rate for
procurement and construction (PEpC) is a project delivery method the questionnaire was 30þ responses. “Vovici EFM Continuum”
that enables developing an advanced procurement strategy by us- online survey tool was used to publish the questionnaire on the
ing supplier expertise throughout the project life cycle by reaching World Wide Web. The link to the survey was emailed to con-
agreements on strategic items (Construction Industry Institute, struction managers and project owners of identified organizations.
2015). Competitive dialogue procedure (CDP) is a procurement Contact information (i.e. Email and telephone number) of potential
process that is relevant to large-scale infrastructure projects. Uttam organizations were obtained from provincial construction engi-
and Le Lann Roos (2015) stated that key elements of CDP such as neering associations and provincial consulting engineering asso-
dialogue sessions and interim submission can be used to promote ciations in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario,
sustainable procurement. Energy performance contracts (EPC) en- and Que bec. In addition, a link to the questionnaire was sent to
ables to use the expertise of energy utility companies to identify municipalities around Canada. Forty construction industry organi-
energy efficiency retrofits, implementation and monitoring the zations and 6 municipalities from each province were randomly
performance. This approach would guarantee improved energy selected. In total 276 emails were sent to identified organizations.
performance throughout the building life cycle(Construction After 4 weeks, a reminder was sent to the same organizations. A
Industry Institute, 2015). total of 20 organizations responded after 9 weeks. The response
rate was 7%.
Since responses to an online survey were less than 30, addi-
3. Methodology tional 25 organizations that were already emailed were reminded
to participate in the survey using the telephone. Existing contact
In order to gain in-depth understanding the current status of information was used as the sampling frame and a random sample
sustainable procurement in Canada, a mix method study was of 25 potential organizations was selected. After 10 weeks from the
conducted. Questionnaire surveys, semi structured interviews, and initial invitation a total of 30 organizations participated in the
review of documents are commonly used data collection methods survey with an overall response rate of 10.8%.
in construction management related research. Michelsen and De
Boer (2009) used questionnaire surveys and interviews to review 3.2. Review of documents
green procurement practices in Norway. Varn€ as et al. (2009) used
questionnaire surveys and interviews to review the use of envi- Review of documents enables in-depth understanding of a
ronmental consideration in Swedish construction industry. subject. Documents associated with a project procurement process
Furthermore Shen et al. (2010) reviewed construction project includes bid notices, request for proposal (RFP), tender documents,
feasibility study reports to assess the use of sustainability criteria in request for qualifications (RFQ), and contract documents (Heldman
feasibility studies. Therefore, following three research tools were and Mangano, 2011; Ra and Nocíra, 2012). Above procurement
used in this research: documents were analyzed to gain understanding and create
empirical knowledge on sustainable procurement in Canada.
i. Questionnaire surveys
ii. Review of documents
2
iii. Semi-structured interviews Specific questions in the questionnaire are discussed in the Results section.

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
4 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10

Table 1
Procurement documents reviewed in this study categorized according to the issued location.

Province Bid notices RFQ documents RFP documents Tender documents Contract documents

British Columbia 18 15 11 6 10
Alberta 9 5 6 4 6
Manitoba 4 1 2 3 3
Ontario 12 5 6 4 6
Quebec 3 1 1 1 1
Saskatchewan 6 1 1 2 1
Newfoundland and Labrador 2 2 0 0 0
Nova Scotia 1 0 0 0 1
New Brunswick 3 0 1 1 0
Yukon 0 0 0 0 0

Total 58 30 28 21 28

Following construction procurement documents were reviewed to questions. The questions were designed to obtain information on
identify sustainable procurement initiatives. procurement procedures, sustainability initiatives used in pro-
curement and drivers for sustainable procurement. An interview
i. Bid notices approximately lasted about 30 min.
ii. Request for qualification (RFQ)
iii. Request for proposal (RFP) 4. Results and analysis
iv. Tender documents
v. Contract documents Results and observations made during this study were used to
deduce the current status sustainable procurement in Canada.
In order to obtain bid notices, “MERX”, “BC bid”, and “Alberta Empirical evidence from above research methods are as follows:
purchasing connection” e-procurement websites were searched for
construction products and services. “MERX” lists bidding oppor- 4.1. Questionnaire survey
tunities in the Canadian public sector and the private sector.
Furthermore “BC bid” lists British Columbia's bid information and The following section describes the findings of the question-
“Alberta purchasing connection” lists Alberta's bid opportunity naire survey.
information. RFP and RFQ documents too were downloaded from
the above websites. 10 random municipal bodies were selected
4.1.1. Questionnaire respondents
from each province and RFP documents were obtained from mu-
In the research questionnaire, question 1e4 were designed to
nicipality websites. A full list of municipalities in Canada was used
gain information of the respondent organizations. An overview of
to random select municipal bodies. In addition, requests were made
the respondents is as follows:
to consulting engineering companies in Canada. Contact details of
engineering companies were obtained from the method described
i. Fifty seven percent of the respondents represented private
in Section 3.1. Documents reviewed in this study are summarized in
sector and 43% of respondents represented public sector.
Table 1.
ii. Fifty three percent of the respondents represented civil and
construction engineering related organizations and 47% of
3.3. Semi-structured interviews respondents represented non civil engineering organizations
such as education institutes, municipalities, health care in-
Semi-structured interviews allow exploring a topic broadly stitutes. Out of the total respondent organizations 50% have
(Trochim and Donnelly, 2008). If a researcher remains faithful to been in operation for last 50 years. Only 13% of the respon-
the principles of qualitative research, sample size in the majority of dent organizations were incorporated during the last 5 years.
qualitative studies should generally follow the concept of satura- iii. Sixty percent of the respondent organizations were “con-
tion (Mason, 2010). The sampling frame for semi-structured in- struction managers” and 40% of the respondents were
terviews was obtained from a list of construction organizations “construction clients”. Ninety two percent of construction
operating in the British Columbia. Requests were made from 20 clients had procured projects worth $ 5 million during the
randomly selected construction related organizations. Nine po- last 5 years, while 72% of construction managers handled
tential respondents agreed to participate in the research. The re- projects worth $ 5 million or more during last 5 years.
spondents were provided with the interview script before the
interviews (Appendix B). All the interviews were conducted at the
respondent's offices. Respondents were provided with the inter- 4.1.2. Current procurement practices in respondent organizations
view script which contained both objective and open ended Questions 6e13 were designed to understand the current pro-
curement practices of each respondent organization. According to
Table 2 the respondents, some key findings are as follows:
Questionnaire responses on use of environmental and social criteria for
procurement. i. Seventy three percent organizations' mission/vision state-
Criteria No Yes, some times Yes, every time ment and company values statements recognize the envi-
ronmental, social, and economic sustainability as a
N ¼ 30
consideration.
Environmental criteria 4 16 10 ii. Sixty six percent of the respondents stated that respective
Social criteria 8 15 7
organizations use a documented procurement manual. Out

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10 5

of the above documented procurement manuals, 95% of the the total respondents, 87% agreed that environmental and social
procurement manuals contain guidelines to incorporate criteria should be included in the construction procurement pro-
environmental and social factors into the project procure- cess. In addition, 87% of the respondents agreed that sustainable
ment process. procurement, would gain long term benefits such as reduced
iii. Ninety seven percent of respondents stated that the head of operating costs, reduced greenhouse gas emissions etc.
the procurement division of the respective organizations is
from middle management, upper management, or board 4.2. Review of documents
level.
A total of 275 clauses related to sustainable procurement were
noted in procurement documents. The mean of the number of
4.1.3. Sustainability initiatives used by respondent organizations in sustainability clauses included in the procurement document was
construction procurement 1.67. Sustainability initiatives observed in construction procure-
The main considerations of sustainable procurement include ment documents were categorized according to the reviewed
social and environmental criteria while achieving the best value documents (Table 5).
and considering the life cycle cost of the project (Sustainable
Procurement Task Force, 2006). Therefore, questions 14e18 of the 4.3. Semi structured interviews
questionnaire were designed to obtain respondents' feedback on
current sustainability initiatives in construction procurement. In- Interview respondents included a director of engineering ser-
dustry feedback on the use of environmental and social criteria for vice from a municipality; a director of facilities management from
construction procurement is given in Table 2. public sector institution; two procurement managers in a local
Descriptive questions were used as follow up to the above municipality; procurement officer in public sector organization;
questions to understand specific sustainability initiatives that are project coordinator in a public sector organization; senior manager
used in construction procurement. Respondents were asked to in a large scale construction company; senior manager in medium
discuss the environmental considerations in the procurement scale civil engineering company; and a senior project manager of a
process. Respondents' feedbacks were categorized according to the construction management company.
specified environmental sustainability initiatives. The frequency of All the respondents agreed for the added benefits in sustainable
each initiative was stated by a respondent was assessed to identify procurement and considered it as a necessity. At present, limited
commonly used sustainability initiatives. Frequency of environ- sustainable procurement initiatives are used by the construction
mental sustainability factors identified by the questionnaire re- organizations. LEED certification is one of the main sustainability
spondents is in Table 3. initiatives practiced by all the contacted organizations. In addition,
Summary of socioeconomic sustainability factors stated by the energy use standards; specifications of less toxic material;
questionnaire respondents is given in Table 4. complying with local legislation; recycling of material; safety pro-
Questions 19e21 of the questionnaire were used to understand cedures for the workers, and timely delivery of municipal assets for
the bid evaluation process. Based on the questionnaire survey, basis social benefit are the other voluntary sustainability initiatives. In
for evaluating construction project bids is one of the major con- addition, there is a growing trend towards the use of e-procure-
cerns of sustainable procurement. Research findings related to bid ment in respondent organizations.
evaluation are as follows: Respondents had mixed ideas about drivers for sustainable
procurement. Construction managers identified owner's commit-
i. Ten percent were using value based procurement while 90% ment as the main driver for sustainable procurement. Public sector
of the respondents reported that they are using low bid organizations consider government policy as the driver for sus-
procurement. tainable procurement. They further stated that financial and non-
ii. Eighty three percent of the respondents stated that initial financial incentives would support establishing sustainable pro-
cost is used as the procedure in bid selection and 17% stated curement. Moreover, public sector respondents further stated that
that life cycle cost was used as the basis for financial using sustainable procurement would enable them to set an
evaluation. example as a responsible organization within the society and to
iii. Thirty percent of the respondents stated that respective or- achieve best value for tax money of the local residents. Private
ganizations use social and environmental factors as evalua- sector respondents identified client requirements, establishing a
tion criteria in bid documents. good social image, and competitive edge in the market as main
iv. Seventeen percent of the total respondents stated that a drivers for sustainable procurement.
standard method is used for evaluating social and environ-
mental factors. 4.4. Triangulation

Data triangulation was used to validate the results of multiple

4.1.4. Drivers for sustainable procurement research methods. Empirical evidence extracted from three
Based on the total responses, 70% stated government regulation research methods complemented the findings of each other. Ac-
as the most important driver for implementing sustainable pro- cording to the questionnaire survey, 90% of the respondents stated
curement. Twenty percent stated that competitive edge in the that they were using social criteria or environmental criteria or life
market as a driver for sustainable procurement. Seven percent cycle cost in construction project procurement. 17% of organiza-
stated that client requirement as the driver for sustainable pro- tions were considering social and environmental criteria every
curement. 3% stated cost of ownership as the cost important driver time. Only 1 out of 30 organizations was using social and envi-
for sustainable procurement. ronmental criteria; life cycle costing and value based selection in
the procurement process. Mean number of sustainable procure-
4.1.5. Industry perception on sustainable procurement ment initiatives observed trough the questionnaire was 1.87. The
Questions 22nd and 23rd were used to understand industry's median was 2 and standard deviation was 1.4. The maximum sus-
perceptions on the use of sustainable procurement practices. Out of tainable procurement clauses defined by one respondent was 5.

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
6 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10

Table 3
Environmental sustainability initiatives observed in questionnaire.

Environmental sustainability initiatives Number of respondents, N ¼ 30

Comply with LEED 13

Comply with federal environmental guidelines 3
Establish initiatives for water efficiency 2
Establish initiatives for reduce power consumption 2
Waste recycling/management at the site 3
Design considering project life cycle, effects on air, water and energy use 1
Experience in sustainable building construction 1
Establish an environmental management plan 3
Follow the guidelines of sustainable procurement manual 1
Follow green procurement guidelines 1

Table 4
Socioeconomic sustainability initiatives observed in the questionnaire.

Socioeconomic sustainability initiatives Number of respondents, N ¼ 30

Consider public input for archeological works 1

Consider prescribed hiring requirements. 1
Consider local labor market forces to reduce separating families for living away for work 1
Ministry of labor guidelines 5
Health and safety 7
Past performance of the contractor related to social factors 1
Reduce impact on surrounding environment 2
Social welfare 1
Qualifications of the contractor staff 1
Provide training opportunities for employees 2
Use guidelines of sustainable procurement manual 1
Fair wages for employees 1

Table 5
Sustainability initiatives used in procurement documents.

Initiative Bid notices, N ¼ 58 RFP, N ¼ 30 RFQ, N ¼ 28 Tender documents, N ¼ 21 Contract documents, N ¼ 28

Incorporate LEED 1 5 3 2 4
Ensure work place safety 1 28 0 21 28
Comply workers compensation act 0 28 0 21 28
Environmental stewardship 0 4 3 3 11
Create employment opportunities 0 1 0 0 0
Reduce toxic substances 0 1 0 1 2
Transparency 0 28 26 15 0
Experience in sustainable construction 0 1 2 0 0
Waste management and recycling 0 1 0 1 1
Worker training 0 0 0 0 1
Fair wages to the workers 0 0 0 1 1
Energy use standards 0 1 0 0 0

Average number of sustainability clauses per document 0.03 3.27 1.21 3.10 2.71

According to observations from review of documents, 12 sus- methods (i.e. Questionnaire survey, document analysis, and in-
tainable procurement initiatives were identified in procurement terviews) clearly indicates that limited numbers of sustainability
documents. The median number of sustainable procurement initiatives are currently being used in the construction procure-
clauses was 2, while the mean was only 1.67 and standard deviation ment in Canada.
was 1.5. One RFP document and one tender package contained 5
sustainable procurement initiatives which was the maximum 5. Discussion
observed.
Interview responses confirmed that a limited number of sus- The aim of this research was to review the status quo of sus-
tainable procurement initiatives are used in the construction in- tainable procurement practices in the Canadian construction in-
dustry. Obtaining the LEED certification was the main requirement dustry. A literature review has introduced the issue of lack of
defined by interview respondents. In addition, 6 more sustainable interest towards sustainable procurement in Canada and benefits of
procurement initiatives were stated by respondents (refer Section implementing the same. A mixed method research design
4.3). involving, questionnaire surveys, review of documents, and semi
Respondents of the questionnaire survey stated 22 sustainable structured interviews was used to achieve the study objectives. In
procurement initiatives (refer Tables 3 and 4). Through review of this section, the findings from the survey are further discussed.
documents, 12 sustainability initiatives were observed (refer The results of questionnaire survey indicated that sustainable
Table 5). Interview respondents stated 6 sustainable procurement procurement initiatives are used by both public and private sectors
initiatives. Therefore, considering the outcome of the three in procuring construction. Questionnaire respondents stated a total

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10 7

of 22 initiatives (i.e. Social and environmental sustainability) in ii. Comply with local and federal legislation, such as workers
procuring for construction works. Twelve sustainable procurement compensation act and occupational health and safety regula-
initiatives were identified during the review of documents. Seven tions should make incisions in the above initiatives.
sustainability initiatives were identified in semi structured in-
terviews. These initiatives overlap with each other. Sourani (2008) The questionnaire survey revealed that obtaining LEED certifica-
conducted an industry wide survey to identify sustainable pro- tion as the commonly stated environmental sustainability initiative
curement initiatives for public sector construction in United and ensuring the health and safety of the workers was the frequently
Kingdom. The study identified 43 initiatives, which consisted of 12 stated social sustainability initiative. The interview responses
environmental sustainability initiatives, 12 economic sustainability confirmed the previous statement as all the respondents stated that
initiatives, and 19 social sustainability initiatives. Therefore limited they require incorporating LEED guidelines in procuring for con-
number of sustainable procurement initiatives is currently used in struction. This suggests that the above mentioned regulatory re-
Canadian construction industry. Moreover the discussion on quirements are a positive reinforcement to sustainable procurement.
triangulation (Section 4.4) confirmed that sustainable procurement Procurement of construction is different from procurement of
is not a concept that is fully established in the Canadian construc- goods. Since construction work has not yet begun at the time of
tion industry. Majority of sustainability clauses is concerned only procurement, many parameters are unknown, making sustainable
on environmental sustainability. Incorporating further sustain- procurement implementation more complicated (Varna €s, 2008).
ability criteria for the procurement process could be an opportunity Furthermore at the time of procurement, there are limited oppor-
to improve the sustainability performance of construction projects. tunities to judge whether or not the tenderers will fulfill the sus-
A major weakness was observed in bid evaluation. In fact only tainability requirements. A systemized approach, extending
30% of the respondents stated that respective organizations use throughout the project life cycle is required to ensure sustainability
social and environmental factors as evaluation criteria. Moreover, initiatives are incorporated. However no such procedures were
only 17% stated that respective organization consider life cycle cost observed for procurement in this study.
in financial evaluations. This deficiency can be largely due to lack of Varna€s et al. (2009) stated that the fear of higher project costs
information, methods and tools available in construction industry limits the application of environmental preferences. A similar
to procure sustainably. Lastewka (2005) stated that Canada observation was made in this survey with regards to sustainability
currently does not have policies, tools, or comprehensive databases preferences. The interviews revealed that procuring organizations
or mechanisms to incorporate or measure the relationships be- that have short term interest in the constructed asset are more
tween social, economic, and environmental factors in procurement. feared of higher project costs compared to procuring organizations
Therefore from 2005 to 2013 a slow progress with regard to sus- that has a long term interest in the constructed asset.
tainable procurement can be observed in Canada. Sample sizes used in this study can be a potential limitation.
Expert judgment and experiences from previous projects were However, use of adequate sample combined with high quality data
important for sustainable construction. However, only 2 out of 165 collection will improve validity, reliability and generalizability of
reviewed documents requested contractors to provide their pre- results (Bartlett et al., 2001). Bock and Sergeant (2002) stated that
vious experience in sustainable construction. Moreover, only one small representative samples can be used to draw valid findings in
questionnaire respondent stated that previous experience in sus- several instances such as supporting the status quo. Initial discus-
tainable construction is a requisite during the procurement process. sions with the construction industry expert and document analysis
Despite its benefits, qualification based selection could curtail a fair provided evidence of the prior evidence of sustainable procure-
competition for a project. The reason is that small and medium ment in the Canadian construction industry. Survey finding sup-
companies are lagging in management and financial resources, ported the prior evidence received.
compared to already established firms in the market.
According to the questionnaire, 97% of the respondents stated 5.1. Establishing validity and reliability
that procurement function is led by middle to upper management
officer. Since sustainable procurement needs the backing of man- Validity and reliability are important criteria in any research
agement, this can be considered a positive sign. In addition 66% of study. The reliability of a qualitative study is established based on
the organizations were using documented procurement manual. the repeatability of the same measure (Trochim and Donnelly,
This is a positive factor for sustainable procurement, since sus- 2008). The validity of a survey is the ability of the measures used
tainability targets of the organization can be established and in a survey to lead to valid conclusions (Trochim and Donnelly,
communicated via the procurement manual (United Nations, 2011; 2008). The following sections describe the methods used to
ICLEI, 2007). establish validity and reliability of this study.
The majority of the survey respondents acknowledged that In order to establish the validity of the findings, the following
government regulation is the main driver for sustainable procure- methods were followed:
ment. Respondents ranked competitive edge in the market as the
second driver, and client requirement as the third driver. The fourth 1. External validity: According to Trochim and Donnelly (2008),
driver is the cost of ownership. Therefore in order to establish external validity is the extent to which the findings of the study
sustainable procurement in Canadian construction section gov- can be generalized. Following measures were used to establish
ernment intervention is an important aspect. Sustainable pro- external validity.
curement in Canada varies from voluntary initiatives to limited i. The sampling frame for the questionnaire survey consisted of
number of regulatory requirements. There are very few explicit respondents across Canada. A random sample of re-
statutory requirements that cover sustainable procurement. Some spondents was used for the study.
examples include: ii. The procurement documents reviewed in this study con-
tained procurement documents from around Canada and
i. According to the federal sustainable development strategy from various projects.
(FSDS), in order to shrink the environmental footprint minimum iii. For semi-structured interviews, a random sample of re-
LEED silver or Green Globes Design e 3 Globes, or equivalent, spondents was obtained from the sampling frame of con-
should be obtained (Environment Canada, 2010). struction professionals operating in Canada.

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
8 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10

2. Face validity: Face validity is looking at the study instruments to construction projects, by considering more sustainability criteria
determine whether “on its face” it seems like a good translation during project procurement.
of the study construct (Trochim and Donnelly, 2008). In order to Lack of consideration of sustainability criteria in the bid evalu-
confirm the face validity of the intended research tools, dis- ation is a main drawback observed through this study. Other
cussions were conducted by a sociology professor (who is an drawbacks include the unavailability of standard methods for
expert in research methods) and two construction management procurement and lack of knowledge of local conditions. Therefore,
doctoral students who agreed with the design. more resources such as guides, blueprints, and tools should be
3. Content validity: Content validity is checking the operationali- developed to support implementation of sustainable procurement.
zation against the relevant content domain for the construct The study also noted that voluntary sustainability initiatives
(Trochim and Donnelly, 2008). The researchers formed the were given a little significance in the practice. There are very few
survey questions based on the definition of sustainable pro- explicit statutory requirements that cover sustainable procure-
curement by the Sustainable Procurement Task Force (2006). ment. The majority of the survey respondents acknowledged that
Therefore the measures in the questionnaire surveyed the government regulations are the main driver for sustainable pro-
construction industry on the main aspects of sustainable pro- curement. Therefore, regulatory organizations and construction
curement. In order to confirm the content validity of the industry associations should take initiatives to promote minimum
research, tools were checked by two doctoral students with the sustainability requirements during procuring for construction.
questionnaire and definition of sustainable procurement. Moreover, public procurement guidelines could include more
4. Predictive validity: The predictive validity of a survey is a degree stringent sustainability requirements to promote sustainable
of agreement between evaluated survey tool and results ob- procurement.
tained from another direct measurement (Trochim and Findings of this study have number of implications for project
Donnelly, 2008). Predictive validity is established when there stakeholders. First, project owners should incorporate more sus-
is an agreement between the initial interview feedback and tainability requirements when procuring for construction. Second,
results of the questionnaire survey and review of procurement contractors should considering acquiring more experience related
documents. to sustainable construction to successfully deliver the aforemen-
5. Convergent validity: Convergent validity is the degree to which tioned sustainability requirements. Finally, construction industry
the operationalization of the study is similar to other oper- institutions should promote benefits of sustainable procurement to
ationalization that, theoretically, it should be similar to (Trochim create an interest within the construction industry.
and Donnelly, 2008). Likewise, the observations of the three Since procurement starts at the pre-construction stage, many
research tools used to measure sustainable procurement results parameters are unknown at the time of procurement. This unique
should be similar. situation creates ambiguity in predicting the effect of sustainable
procurement initiatives on a project performance. Further
In order to establish the reliability of the study, the following research is recommended to assess the effect of sustainable pro-
methods were followed: curement on life cycle project performance of a project. Moreover,
sustainability requirements are associated with an extra cost.
1. Inter-Rater reliability: Inter-Rater reliability is used to assess Further research is required to identify the equilibrium between
whether different raters provide a consistent measure of a sustainability requirements and the cost from the perspectives of
phenomena. A master's student was asked to identify sustain- various stakeholders (project owners, contractors, future users
ability from 5 randomly selected procurement documents that etc.).
were previously assessed for sustainability initiatives. The ob- In recommendation, the implementation of sustainable pro-
servations showed that the sustainability initiatives were curement requires actions and participation from all project
identified the same by both observers. stakeholders. In this study construction managers and project
2. Testeretest reliability: Testeretest reliability is established if the owners agreed that sustainable procurement is an important
same results are achieved when the same test is performed for initiative. This industry acceptance can be considered a positive
the same sample. For review of documents, the same procedure sign for sustainable procurement in Canadian construction in-
was repeated to ensure the same results were observed each dustry. Since procurement applies to multiple stages of a project,
time. sustainable procurement is a well suited mechanism to integrate
sustainability initiatives into construction projects.
6. Conclusions and recommendations

This paper discusses the present status of sustainable procure-

Acknowledgments
ment practices in the Canadian construction industry. A compre-
hensive study, with qualitative and quantitative research methods,
The authors thank Aplin and Martin Consultants Limited and the
was used to identify current practices, and industry perception on
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for
sustainable procurement. From this study it was concluded that
the financial support. A special thank goes to Mr. James Kay,
sustainable procurement initiatives are not fully utilized in the
Regional Manager, Focus Corporation, BC (formerly Principal En-
Canadian construction industry. Key findings of the study, future
gineer of the Aplin and Martin Consultants Limited). In addition the
research areas, practical implications and recommendations are
authors would like to thank respondents of questionnaire survey
summarized as follows:
and semi structured interviews for their feedback.
In Canada a limited number of sustainability initiatives are
currently being considered in construction procurement. Limited
percentage of organizations is using sustainable procurement every
time they procure construction. Out of the sustainability criteria Appendix A. Supplementary material
that are considered, environmental criteria are given the promi-
nence while social and economic criteria are given less emphasis. Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://
There is a great opportunity to improve sustainability of dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007.

Please cite this article in press as: Ruparathna, R., Hewage, K., Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices,
drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007
 R. Ruparathna, K. Hewage / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e10 9

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drivers and opportunities, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007