Federal Sustainable Development Strategy

Overview of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy

The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS), first developed in 2010 and revised every 3 years thereafter, renders environmental decision-making transparent and accountable to Canadians. It provides a whole of government picture of actions and initiatives to achieve federal sustainability through common goals, targets and implementation strategies.

The FSDS has four themes:

  1. Addressing climate change and clean air,
  2. Maintaining water quality and availability,
  3. Protecting nature, and
  4. Shrinking the environmental footprint – Beginning with government

For more information on the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and associated Progress Reports, please visit the sustainable development section of the Environment Canada website.

Support for Departments and Agencies

PWGSC's Office of Greening Government Operations (OGGO) supports departments and agencies on theme IV of the FSDS; Shrinking the environmental footprint - Beginning with government. This includes:

  • Consulting with departments and agencies when developing greening government operations (GGO targets, implementation strategies and performance measures);
  • Providing GGO - related guidance to departments and agencies to support target implementation and reporting; and
  • Monitoring and compiling results on progress for the GGO targets.

Ultimately, each department and agency is responsible for minimizing its own environmental footprint.

FSDS guidelines can be found on the Office of Greening Government Operations Publiservice site Publiservice Site - accessible to government employees only

Deparmental Sustainable Development Strategies

Departments' progress on meeting their FSDS targets can be found in departmental Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) and Departmental Progress Reports (DPRs) on the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) website. To read them, select RPPs or DPRs on the TBS site, the year, the department and then Greening Government Operations from the list of Supplementary Information (Tables).