Page 20 - U4SSC Case study: Circularity to promote local businesses and digitization, June 2020

A further result of the Framework's development has been capacity building throughout the Great
Toronto Area. After holding a city-focused workshop with the CDCE to develop the Framework, the
City of Toronto together with a partner organization (the Recycling Council of Ontario) held a second
circular economy procurement workshop with neighbouring municipalities and local city agencies. This
workshop brought together 45 representatives in order to share knowledge and build capacity for the
development of circular procurement practices in their organizations. Following the event, the city
of Toronto and Recycling Council of Ontario produced a guidance document called Moving Toward a
Circular Economy: Considerations for Developing a Circular Procurement Framework for Municipalities,
which consolidates the workshop learnings and recommends actions summarized as follows:

Key Learnings, which identify the Recommended Action Summary:
importance of:
Education, Awareness, and Ensure that municipal staff have a clear understanding of divisional
Collaboration needs, opportunities, and barriers. Circular procurement begins
with those who are responsible for planning, budget development,
procurement policies and practices, specifically those that draft
specifications that guide procurement.
Pre-Procurement Planning Get to know your purchasing department. Fostering a circular
economy involves a high level of pre-procurement planning.
Understanding Buying Power Understand how areas in which funds are spent. This is
fundamental to planning and streamlining product and service
focus areas, and identifying high-potential product groups.
Setting Objectives and Key Priority State your objectives and know how to measure your progress
Indicators towards them.
Identifying Internal and External Understanding key influencers will support the development
Stakeholders and implementation of procurement strategy, including internal
(i.e., champions who have sway within organization) and external
(e.g., vendors, manufacturers, neighbouring municipalities).
The City of Toronto has continued to share key learnings on a national platform: on 21 August 2018,
the National Zero Waste Council hosted a webinar called ‘Advancing the Circular Economy through
Procurement – Municipal Perspective.’ Over 85 participants listened and engaged in a question-and-
answer session following presentations by the City and by the Recycling Council of Ontario.

14 Case study: Circularity to promote local businesses and digitization, June 2020