“We might not change the world, but we can change the pool we’re swimming in.” That’s how Rory Carr, president of RC Products, sees his involvement with Buy Smart, VANOC’s sustainable purchasing program.

RC Products is an official VANOC licensee and a Canadian-owned manufacturer and distributor of ski and snowboard accessories, pet products and promotional items that are sold around the world.

In order to win the Canadian rights to develop and sell specified products bearing Vancouver 2010 emblems and the Olympic and Paralympic brands, RC Products had to comply with VANOC’s Licensee Code of Conduct, one component of VANOC’s Buy Smart program.

“It was an onerous process both time wise and money wise,” said Carr, “But they didn’t have difficulty selling us on it. It was something we wanted to do for some time, but as a small business we didn’t think we had the resources.”

While other Organizing Committees have integrated “green” policies into their procurement framework, VANOC is the first to incorporate environmental, social, ethical and Aboriginal criteria into its procurement process.

The Licensee Code of Conduct obligates VANOC licensees to produce their products in a manner that respects the environment and the health, safety and dignity of the workers who make the products. This means committing to continuous improvement and verifying compliance through factory audits.

VANOC appointed an independent auditor to evaluate seven factories RC uses in Vietnam, China and the US, as well as its own factory in Vancouver. Two other factories declined the audit and were excluded from RC’s Vancouver 2010-related business. RC is currently looking for alternative factories. “The challenge is finding factories and factory owners that have a similar set of values to us,” explained Carr, who also expressed his satisfaction with the progress being made with the factories that are engaged.

“VANOC has given us the tools and resources to implement a number of social compliance and environmental initiatives which would otherwise be difficult for a small company like ours,” said Carr. “We have set 2010 as the date to have 100 per cent of the goods we sell produced in socially compliant factories. This is not a small project, and, without the push and help from VANOC, it would have taken us until 2010 to even get started.”