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Each year the Nova Scotia government spends approximately $750 million on goods, services and construction. The sustainable procurement policy announced last August will significantly change how those dollars are spent. According to Lynda Rankin, manager of sustainable procurement integration with the provincial government: "The government will look beyond the lowest price to consider the economic, environmental and social impact of its purchases." Economic factors include life cycle costs: what equipments costs to maintain, the energy it consumes, cost of parts and repairs, shipping, packaging, disposal and training required; as well as fiscal responsibility and support of the local economy. Environmental factors include reduction of greenhouse gases, waste, and the use of toxic materials. Social impacts include employee health and safety, inclusiveness, fair wages, and health promotion. "We buy everything you can imagine," Rankin says. "So implementing the policy is going to take quite a while. At the moment we are looking at a few categories and getting our processes down." Over time the policy will expand across every category of goods and services that the government purchases. "We’ve looked at forest stewardship certification for some paper products. These certifications indicate that a product has reduced toxicity or reduced effect on the environment. We are looking at our janitorial services and supplies. With the janitorial services there is a fair bit about employees being properly trained and having proper equipment, so they can work safely to make sure they don’t hurt themselves in carrying out the contract." Environmentally certified products have reduced toxicity to create a better indoor environment for the people who are working in the buildings. "We’ve looked at computers and office supplies. In some cases we’re getting a more sustainable product at the same price we were paying before." There are purchasing agreements already in place with other jurisdictions for high value purchases, but whenever possible they will see what local vendors have to offer. Writing the tenders to reflect the sustainability policy and allow decision makers to compare bids as fairly as possible is the department’s aim. Various certifications may be required, depending on what is being purchased. Samples of these include Green Seal, which looks at the life cycle of the product, Eco Logo a North American standard for sustainable products, E-PEAT which evaluates electronics, as well as some safety certifications. A sustainable procurement policy by 2009 was one of the goals of the Environmental Goals and Sustainability Act in 2007. That Act was designed to give Nova Scotia one of the cleanest environments and one of the most sustainable economies in the world by 2020. "Sustainability and sustainable purchasing goes beyond government. As a society we are still kind of fixated on the price of things. We need to look a little harder at our purchasing decisions in our own private lives," Rankin says. "We have to look beyond the price and see what the real cost is."