Clean technologies will play a critical role in helping Canada meet its environmental and economic goals in the coming years. As the single largest buyer of goods and services in the country, the federal government is an important economic actor with the ability to send strong market signals. Federal cleantech procurement can help companies find their first customer, validate solutions, ease diffusion into the market, and lead to the growth of the sector.

On the heels of a new report titled Buying Better: Leveraging federal procurement to drive demand for Canadian cleantech, the Smart Prosperity Institute held a panel on January 26 featuring OCTIA’s Maike Althaus, SPI’s Harshini Ramesh, Foresight’s Jacob Malthouse, and Karen Hamberg, Chair of the Clean Technology Economic Strategy Table.

See SPI’s full report here. Didn’t catch the panel? Watch the recording here.

Also available: The recording from a session on procurement from the recent MaRS Climate Impact event is now available. OCTIA’s Peter McArthur moderates. Watch it here. CBSR also recently released Moving to Mandatory: A Research Paper on Sustainable Public Procurement in Canada. Read it here.

Related: Public Services and Procurement Canada has launched the Supplier Diversity Action Plan, which outlines concrete steps to increase the participation of businesses from underrepresented groups in federal procurement.