Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices, drivers and opportunities

•Sustainable procurement is not fully utilized in Canadian construction industry.•Environmental criteria are given the prominence in procurement.•Sustainability criteria are rarely used in bid evaluation, due to lack of resources.•The Canadian construction industry is in favor of sustainable procurement.

Procurement is a key process in construction project management. The current construction procurement practices have been widely criticized for disregarding sustainability in the project life cycle. At present, there is a gap of knowledge on status-quo of sustainable procurement in Canada. Therefore, the objective of this study is to review sustainable procurement practices in the Canadian construction industry. A multi method research design was used in this study by combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Three research tools were used in the study; namely questionnaire surveys, review of documents, and semi-structured interviews. Data triangulation was used to combine the results of all three research tools. The study showed that sustainable procurement initiatives have rarely been used in the Canadian construction industry. Limited sustainability initiatives are used in the project procurement, while environmental sustainability criteria are given the prominence. Furthermore a significant deficiency is observed in bid evaluation involving triple bottom line of sustainability. A majority of construction industry respondents agreed that sustainable procurement is a long due necessity and highlighted government regulations as the main driver for sustainable procurement. This study may be the first step to promote the use of sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction sector.