Request for Information – Life Cycle Assessments of Light-Duty Vehicles

The Government of Canada has committed to transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient operations while also reducing environmental impacts beyond carbon. The Greening Government Strategy Cabinet Directive articulates an ambitious set of goals and commitments to ensure that Canada is a global leader in government operations that are low-carbon, resilient and green.

This Strategy includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions from federal government facilities and fleets by 40% below 2005 levels by 2025 and at least 90% below 2005 levels by 2050. The Strategy commits to ensuring 75% of new light-duty unmodified fleet vehicle purchases are zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) or hybrids and ensuring that the government’s light-duty fleet comprises 100% ZEVs by 2030. ZEVs include battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The Greening Government Strategy Cabinet Directive also includes a commitment to have net-zero emissions from the procurement of goods and services by 2050. This commitment takes into account what are commonly known as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, including product supply chains. Together, these three sources of emissions can be considered product “life-cycle” emissions, encompassing those emissions from all processes beginning at raw material acquisition until end-of-life. Life-cycle assessments, environmental product declarations, and carbon footprints are commonly used methods to estimate the potential environmental emissions and impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, of products across their life cycles.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is launching a Request for Information (RFI) in order to seek information and feedback from the global industry with regard to the availability of life-cycle greenhouse gas emission information on light-duty vehicles.

The purpose of this RFI is to achieve the following:

1. Assess the availability of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions estimates, and whether the data required to produce these estimates have been collected by vehicle manufacturers;
2. Assess the degree of difficulty that vehicle manufacturers would experience in providing information on the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from light-duty vehicles, and the means of estimating these emissions; and
3. Use the data collected to inform potential future modifications of the Government of Canada’s procurement process for the light-duty vehicle category, in support of the Greening Government Strategy net-zero emissions procurement commitment.