A responsible product must, at the very least, have a reduced environmental impact and be produced in compliance with labour rights. Ideally, the product should be the lowest cost option considering all of the expenses associated with its use (installation, energy consumption, maintenance, disposal, packaging management, etc.). More specifically, a responsible product must perform better than the other options in its category in one or several of these aspects:
- Energy consumption
- Toxic components
- Optimized packaging
- Recycled content or recyclable components
- Better returns for smaller producers
- Respect for labour rights and communities
- Animal welfare
- Total cost of ownership
Guides, data sheets and other tools are available to support organizations seeking to implement the approach.
Within the ECPAR
Équiterre’s fair trade project aims to raise awareness of socially responsible choices among citizens, businesses and governments, and the organization has therefore developed and structured its actions by extensively researching and analyzing fair trade issues in the south among cooperatives and in the north among consumers.
L’éthique derrière l’étiquette (in french only) is an ecoresponsible certifications guide published by Équiterre that provides an overview of the fair trade product designations. Besides coffee, which is among the most commonly certified items, products such as tea, sugar, cacao and chocolate, soccer balls, bananas and other fruits, quinoa, cotton, spices, shea butter and cosmetics, cut flowers, wine, handicrafts and olive oil are now endorsed in Canada.
In order to increase the resilience of its supply chain stakeholders, Keurig Green Mountain set out two objectives for 2020:
- Mobilize one million individuals in the corporation’s agricultural and manufacturing supply chains so as to significantly enhance their quality of life
- Source all primary agricultural and manufactured products according to the corporation’s Responsible Sourcing Supplier Guidelines
Public Works and Government Services Canada developed a Green Procurement Tool Kit to provide federal departments and agencies with access to the resources required to fulfill their obligations under the Policy on Green Procurement. It includes information on the development of specifications, the consideration of life cycle aspects and ecological product certifications.
