Our Buy with Impact: Social Procurement in Canada 2022 Report shares a birds eye view of what's happening with social procurement progress across the country, along with data and stories from a survey of our Social Purchasing Partners and consulting clients.

Also included in the report is a Jurisdictional Scan of public sector purchasers who are implementing social and Indigenous procurement across Canada.

Read the Report.

We're excited to share a new resource: the Guide to Social Procurement in Tourism, Hospitality and Events, sponsored by Social Purchasing Partner Destination Vancouver.

Businesses, non-profits and individuals working in tourism, hospitality and events can use this guide to learn about social procurement and how to apply social procurement in a sector where leveraging social value from purchasing can have a powerful and positive ripple effect on communities.

Read the Guide.

We are grateful for the chances we've had to connect in person and virtually with community members and social procurement leaders from across Canada as events and conferences pick up again, including at our recent event Marketplace Impact: A National Conversation on Procurement.

Here are our key takeaways from conversations throughout the day.

Want to relive the highlights from the event, or share key moments with colleagues? Access the session recordings on YouTube.

Global News BC Community Reporter Michael Newman recently highlighted social enterprises on air in the Making a Difference series, sponsored in part by Buy Social Canada.

Watch the series to learn about how social enterprises work, and see feature stories on Certified Social Enterprises Jonnon, CleanStart Property Services, OneLight, and more.

We're hiring an Operations Manager to join our team 4 days/week (0.8 full time equivalent).

Our team is fast paced as interest in social procurement is skyrocketing. We are looking for someone with experience in operations management who is organized, detail oriented and collaborative, to manage our growing team’s operational requirements and support our business development and project delivery.

We welcome people to apply from across Canada who can work remote.

Read the job posting for more details.

The City of Edmonton continues to make progress on including sustainable benefit criteria in the procurement opportunities posted to market. The City implemented a Social Procurement Framework in December 2019 with support from Buy Social Canada. In 2022, 147 out of 189 (78%) competitive procurements included sustainable benefit criteria, up from 71 out of 100 (41%) in 2021 and 18 out of 190 (9.5%) in 2020.

Currently the City is working with Buy Social Canada on new tools, and changing its sustainable procurement approach to not only encourage the use of sustainable procurement criteria but also be specific on the desired reported outcomes of the performance to create targeted measurement opportunities.

Council recently received an update on Sustainable and Indigenous procurement in the Annual Delegation Report. An outline of the new tools and procedures can be found in the Sustainable Procurement Report.

The City of Courtenay has updated their Procurement Policy to build on their existing sustainable procurement practice with specific Indigenous procurement considerations.

The City collaborated closely with the K'ómoks First Nation to design policy that would create economic benefits for K'ómoks First Nation. The policy indicates that any City capital project valued in excess of $1 million may be utilized for the benefit of K'ómoks First Nation economic interests.

British Columbia Social Procurement Initiative (BCSPI) hosted the final event in the 2022-2023 “Purchasing Power” series titled “How can procurement help reduce hazardous chemicals?”

Our conversation focused on the key contributors to hazardous chemicals in our environments, how public purchasers can use procurement policy and guidelines to minimize chemicals at the source, and what we can learn from New York State's GreenNY program.

Read the recap for our key takeaways.

Kudos to Building Good for highlighting the community benefits that are possible in construction.

In a recent blog post for Building Good, "Building Community Benefits in Construction For Good," we explain community benefit agreements (CBA) and how they can help reach targets within the industry.

Read the blog post to learn more.

Public Services and Procurement Canada is hosting a Calgary Diverse Supplier Reverse Trade Show on June 27, 2023 from 1:00-5:00pm MST at Platform Calgary.

A Reverse Trade Show provides an opportunity for suppliers and potential suppliers to connect with government buyers and procurement specialists. Suppliers have the opportunity to learn about what the government and other organizations purchase, learn about the procurement process, and promote their products and services.

Register now.

Niamh, Sabrina and David from our team had a great time meeting local social enterprises and social purchasers at the recent Toronto Social Value Trade Show. Thank you to Centre for Social Impact for the space, and to all the community members and advocates who joined us - we look forward to seeing you advancing the movement to buy and sell with impact.

EMBERS Staffing has officially launched their new Edmonton location.

Founded in 2008 in Vancouver, BC, EMBERS Staffing is an award-winning temporary staffing agency. EMBERS Staffing’s mission is to create economic opportunities for people — one person, one job, one day at a time. They provide companies with a socially responsible staffing solution while providing workers with a ladder of opportunities to improve their skills and advance their careers.

The Edmonton opening represents EMBERS’ first step in a national expansion strategy. Their goal is to fill a gap in the social employment sector, to complement and partner with existing employment and training organizations by providing transitional jobs to people who are getting back into the workforce, acting as a bridge to full time employment.

If you would like to connect with EMBERS' Edmonton location, contact edmonton@embersstaffing.com or call 587-816-0781.

Their office is located at 101-10242 105 Street NW in Edmonton.

Our new blog post features Certified Social Enterprise Building Up, with a story that showcases how doing business with social enterprises creates community value.

"Many housing entities purchase construction services. And lots of organizations purchase vans. But if we stopped there, we would only see the economic transaction that occurred. What was really purchased was the social value Building Up created. The real value of the transaction was the social impact."

Get the full story.

Starts at 10am

Join Mission Possible for this family-friendly event as we bring our communities together, go out on a MP Clean Team route, take care of our planet, AND raise $75,000 to support 15 people through MP's Employment Readiness Program!

Register now.

6:00-11:00pm, 688 West Hastings Street, Vancouver BC

Celebrate the start of summer with Binners' Project by joining a night of live music, great food, cool games, and creative drinks. This event serves multiple purposes, as a fundraiser, a community building event, a way to grow awareness of Binners’ Project’s work, and of course - a party!

Get tickets.

Congratulations to Chef Don Guthro, the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner in Vancouver Magazine's Restaurant Awards. He was honoured this year because he supports the industry from within by providing financially accessible culinary training that his students can complete while working full-time in a restaurant.

Read the announcement article to learn how he shook up the industry and created a social enterprise to maximize his impact.

We're sharing this month's newsletter fresh off a team strategy retreat in Calgary / Mohkinstsis, where we discussed our vision for the coming year, how we'll measure and share our impact, and much more.

We look forward to connecting with more of you to advance this work in coming days and months.

DANI is a charity that operates six social enterprise businesses in Toronto: a kosher cafe, kosher catering, event space rentals, pop-up restaurant, gifts, and fine lines art.