Every purchase has an economic, cultural, environmental, and social impact, whether intended or not. Social procurement captures those impacts and seeks to make intentional positive contributions to both the local economy and the overall vibrancy of the community.

At Buy Social Canada, we believe organizations should measure what matters. As leaders in Canada’s social procurement movement, we are committed to walking the talk by tracking and publicly reporting our own purchasing each year.

By sharing our results, we aim to help set a practical benchmark for what organizations can achieve and support the growth of a stronger social procurement marketplace across Canada.

Walk the talk on social procurement

Buy Social Canada implements social procurement by purchasing our goods and services from social enterprises whenever possible.

As outlined in our Social Procurement Policy, when a social enterprise is not available to provide the good or service, we use a concentric circle approach to identify other suppliers that generate social value, including small local businesses, Indigenous businesses, diverse-owned businesses, co-operatives, and non-profits. This includes considering employment practices and supply chains alongside price and quality.

Social procurement is not only about policy commitments, it requires consistent measurement and accountability. For many organizations, tracking social procurement spend is the most difficult step, requiring supplier identification, data collection, and internal coordination.

Our experience shows that while measurement can be challenging, it is entirely achievable even for small organizations with practical systems and consistent effort. Once tracking is established, understanding and possibly increasing impact become easier.

Our 2025 social procurement spend

Measurement and reporting is critical for a robust social procurement practice. Tracking social procurement spend helps organizations measure progress, identify opportunities, and strengthen their impact over time.

At Buy Social Canada, we measure and track our spending with social enterprises and other social value suppliers each year as part of our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement.

Our social procurement spend by the numbers

In 2025, $88,572.38 of Buy Social Canada’s addressable spend went to social enterprises and other social value suppliers, representing 38.2% of our addressable spend.

Of this total:

• 21.4% of our addressable spend ($49,643.89) went directly to social enterprises
• 16.8% went to other social value suppliers, including small local businesses, Indigenous businesses, diverse-owned businesses, co-operatives and non-profits.

These results demonstrate that significant social procurement percentages are achievable without large procurement budgets or dedicated procurement teams. Even modest organizations can direct a meaningful share of their purchasing toward social impact with intentional planning and tracking.

Too often, organizations assume social procurement requires large institutional budgets or complex systems. Our results show that smaller organizations can play a leadership role and help normalize higher social procurement targets across the sector.

By publishing our results annually, Buy Social Canada aims to expand what organizations consider possible. Transparent measurement helps build credibility, supports continuous improvement, and strengthens the business case for buying with impact.

Social enterprises we purchased from

Some of the Certified Social Enterprises we purchased from in 2025 include:

• GreenShield for employee health benefits
• Realize Solutions for office and administrative support
• Purppl for consulting and ecosystem support
• Budgie Box for fulfillment services and gifts
• Hotel Willo (formerly YWCA Hotel Vancouver) for event space and team travel accommodations

Purchasing from social enterprises supports inclusive employment, reinvestment into communities, environmental sustainability, and stronger local economies.

Buy Social Canada is proud to support social enterprises not only through our procurement, but through our work as Canada’s national supplier council and third-party certifier of social enterprises.

Measurement is the foundation of social procurement. Organizations that begin tracking their purchasing quickly discover new opportunities to shift spending toward impact.

We encourage organizations of all sizes to start measuring their own social procurement spend, because what gets measured gets managed, and shared measurement helps grow the social procurement marketplace across Canada.