Sustainable Purchasing

Our sustainable purchasing approach impacts a broad range of business partners, including those on and off Sea Island. We outline this approach through our Sustainable Supply Management Plan, which focuses on initiatives that gain a better understanding of the market, providing a fair and transparent competitive procurement process, managing contracts after being awarded and optimizing internal materials handling processes to support YVR’s operations.

Our Sustainable Purchasing Policy aims to embed sustainability in purchasing decisions and ensure meaningful consideration of environmental, social and economic criteria. We include sustainability as a weighted component of criteria through a Sustainability Leadership Questionnaire that asks respondents about management systems and reporting, environmental considerations, workplace and supply chain practices including diversity, compensation and leadership. The questionnaire helps identify companies that are fair trade partners, local suppliers and that are Indigenous, woman or minority owned. In addition, through the Musqueam Indian Band – YVR Airport Sustainability & Friendship Agreement, we work with Musqueam to identify supplier opportunities. 

Our commitment is to achieve total compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct, available at yvr.ca/suppliers. Every new supplier is asked to sign off on the Code, and if they are not in compliance, they must submit a plan outlining how they will rectify the situation. We are committed to fair and competitive procurement of goods and services and note that exceptions may only be made for a limited number of specific reasons, including proprietary nature, a single qualified supplier, an urgent safety issue, and compliance. Permission to single source a purchase must be obtained prior to a purchase with authorization from the accountable departmental Vice President.