Environmental Management

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Description

Environmental management is a component of the Project Plan concerned with anticipating and preventing the degradation of environmental quality (including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna and humans), and incorporating such factors into the planning and decision making processes for design, construction and maintenance activities on real property projects in order to promote sustainable development.

Objectives

to ensure that the natural environment will be healthy for future generations by incorporating sustainable development and 'greening' practices into all real property projects

Real Property Context

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has an Office of Greening Government Operations (OGGO) which provides advice and functional guidance to departments on a wide range of environmental activities. Real Property Branch (RPB) has incorporated environmentally responsible practices into its project management operations in order to comply with OGGO's mandate and make a positive contribution to the principles of sustainable development.

Due to the nature and complexity of environmental management issues, project managers (PM) should ensure that OGGO specialists are included on project teams early in the planning stages of projects (based upon size and complexity of the project). These specialists can advise PM's on due diligence and ensure environmental / sustainable development legislative requirements are met.

Certified Wood

PWGSC/PSPC has committed to certify its new office buildings and major renovations for existing Crown owned office buildings using the Canada Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-Canada) rating system on. The department will also apply this requirement for long-term leases.

One of the LEED-Canada credits pertains to Certified Wood. The requirement of this credit is that at least 50% of all wood products permanently installed on a project be certified under the Forest Stewardship Council as being obtained from a sustainably managed forest. However, there are two other systems recognized by the industry in Canada, the Canadian Standards Association's "Sustainable Forest Management Standard" and the "Sustainable Forest Initiative". PWGSC/PSPC supports the concept of ensuring that wood products used on our projects are certified as sustainable, but the department believes that the LEED-Canada rating system is too restrictive and that the LEED certified wood credit not be explicitly required for our projects. It is the department's position that we require wood to be certified and any one of the three systems mentioned are acceptable for use on our projects.