This information sheet presents the sustainable purchasing criteria and recommendations applicable to office supplies, including:
- glues and adhesives
- notepads and notebooks
- envelopes
- portfolios
- writing materials
- filing material (filing cabinets, hanging file folders, document trays, archive boxes, etc.)
- small, non-electrical equipment (rulers, punches, staplers, etc.)
Related information sheet(s)
The following ECPAR sheet(s) may provide complementary information on activities in the office supplies sector:
- Paper products
- In 2008, the recovery rate of paper and cardboard was only 41% in Québec’s industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) sector
- According to Statistics Canada, in 2013, office supply and stationary store revenues topped $2.5B in Québec
- ;The Direction générale des acquisitions du Québec provides a comprehensive catalogue of eco-responsible office supplies
- Rethink the need
- Provide a framework for the context of use
- Consider the 3R-R approach
Rethink the need
- Office supplies have short service lives. It is therefore best to limit source consumption in order to curb the impacts throughout the products’ life cycles.
- Studies have shown that a vast selection of products incites final users to order more. In other words, when faced with many choices, users tend to consume more than they need.
- An effective strategy is to preselect certain items and develop an internal catalogue available on the intranet with periodic centralisation.
- To curb consumption, limit the product offer in the catalogue:
- Substitute certain items:
Provide the framework for the context of use
- Raise awareness of the best practices to reduce office supply consumption among users by:
Consider the 3 R-R approach
The 3 R-R | |
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Reduction |
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Reuse |
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Recycling and recovery |
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Cost overrun to purchase sustainable office supplies
Running costs savings
“ ”Depending on the product, the price a of green alternative compared to its conventional counterpart will range from being slightly more expensive, » said Jesse Gibbs of The Green Office. “For instance, a remanufactured toner cartridge is greener than a new one since materials are being reused, and it costs significantly less. One hundred percent post-consumer recycled copy paper, another popular green product, will typically cost 10 to 25 percent more than paper with no recycled content.” ” (Source : Hart, T. (2010). Nonprofit Guide to Going Green. Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey, 425 p.)
Sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overall product performance
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Certifications
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Recycled contentSelect products made from post-consumer recycled materials.
There are no universally accepted criteria for the minimum percentage of recycled content, and it is therefore best to require the highest possible rates.
For paper and cardboard products, the Direction générale des acquisitions du Québec (DGACQ) recommends recycled content percentages of between 10 and 100%.
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Certifications
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Local purchasesThe compliance of the following criteria with the regulations that apply to public bodies was not verified. Readers must carry out the necessary research.
In order to maximize the socioeconomic benefits of purchases and potentially reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by transport (for an equivalent mode), it is best to purchase local products.
There is no consensus on what constitutes local purchasing, but the following perspectives may be considered:
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Point of manufacture | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Purchasing from social economy enterprise
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Refer to the list of social economy enterprises in the Rationale and additional information section |
Sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier |
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Paper products
Priority criteria
Post-consumer recycled fibre content (minimum 30%) or
Virgin fibres certified by a recognized sustainable forest management standard
Pour les produits de bois
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See the ECPAR’s Paper products information sheet: FSC, SFI, PEFC certification |
Sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier |
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Few adverse effect
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Information on the type(s) of Material(s)
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Recyclability
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Sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier |
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Few adverse effects
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Information on the chemical compounds and substances |
sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier |
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Few adverse effects
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Nature of the glue or base (adhesives) |
Sustainable purchasing criteria | INFORMATION to be obtained from the supplier |
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Refill system
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Sustainable packaging (whenever applicable)
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Description | Raw materials | Manufacturing | Distribution | Use | End of life |
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The acquisition of raw materials (resource extraction, fibres and other consumables) for product manufacturing generates approximately 75% of biodiversity and ecosystem impacts | Plant operations (energy, discharge, GHG emissions) generate almost 15% of impacts | GHG emissions (transport) and packaging generate impacts | Negligible impacts in this phase | The end-of-life management of products and their packaging generates approximately 15% of impacts (collection, recycling, landfilling) |
Raw materials | transformation | distribution | use | end of life | |
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Description | Extraction | Manufacturing plant | Transport | Recovery transport, recycling and landfilling | |
Contribution to issues | Very significant (75 %) | Significant (15 %) | Minor(1 %) | Minor (1 %) | Significant (15 %) |
Explanation |
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Cradle to Cradle (C2C)
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Möbius strip
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SFI certified chain of custory (x% certified forest content,x%certified sourcing,x% post consumer recycled) |
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FSC Mix (Mix and/or recycled fiber) |
FSC 100% recycled | |
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PEFC recycled |