Our Buy Smart Program is a formalized set of procurement and licensing procedures and activities. It is designed to ensure sustainability, ethical choices and Aboriginal participation are taken into account within our procurement and licensing activities. These procedures are informed by stakeholder input and best practices.

When bidding on VANOC business opportunities, prospective suppliers are asked to include information on their environmental programs and the degree to which they are: 

• Aboriginal-owned (or employ Aboriginal people) 
• Based in one of Vancouver's three inner-cities communities (or employ from the inner-city) 
• Provide opportunities for persons with a disability or other sustainability features

Along with price, quality and traditional purchasing considerations, this information is factored into VANOC’s decision making. Licensees of merchandise bearing the Olympic marks must also comply with VANOC's ethical Licensee Code of Conduct that sets out requirements for safe, healthy and environmentally responsible workplaces and factories. We also collaborate with the 2010 Commerce Centre to identify firms with sustainability and Aboriginal features and ensure that they hear about our bidding opportunities and are in a position to respond to Games-related Requests for Proposals directly or by sub-contracting or joint venturing with other firms.

Buy Smart Steering Committee
Our Buy Smart Steering Committee, a cross-functional team within VANOC, was formed to identify opportunities to achieve high-value sustainability and Aboriginal participation outcomes through purchasing and licensing decisions. We are developing a master list of purchases to identify potential strategic opportunities to advance our sustainability goals. We issued 64 Buy Smart contracts (or 99 per cent of total contracts tendered) to bidders who were asked to provide information on the sustainability and/or Aboriginal aspects of their products or services.

We communicated our purchasing guidelines, and integrated sustainability and Aboriginal participation specifications in selected supplier bids. We also established relevant evaluation criteria and contracting language. Where required, suppliers provide self-declarations in response to our Buy Smart questionnaire on their conformance with VANOC sustainability requirements and compliance with local laws.

Raising Awareness of Sustainable Purchasing
To help raise awareness of sustainable purchasing practices, we produced a case study on our approach and activities, and presented it at training sessions on sustainable purchasing hosted by the Sustainability Purchasing Network (SPN). We circulated details of our Buy Smart Program to our sponsors and partners. The Program was also profiled in SPN’s Guide to Business Case and Benefits of Sustainable Purchasing. We became a member of the SPN Steering Committee (see www.buysmartbc.com)