Sustainability Working Group

Dear CES Members,

I am pleased to share with you the CES Sustainability Working Group Stocktaking Report (2021).

Out of CES’ strong belief in the importance of Environmental Sustainability, in 2018 CES created the Sustainability Working Group (SWG), which is responsible for improving the environmental sustainability of CES’ activities and for suggesting ways to support sustainability-ready evaluation practices.

While delivering on its mandate, the SWG undertook a stocktaking exercise to identify the current practices around evaluating the impacts of programs on natural systems in Canada. The exercise considered the extent to which sustainability has been addressed in federal evaluations as well as by other levels of government and organisations in Canada.

The findings from the stocktaking exercise are eye-opening, as they show that environmental sustainability is considered to a very limited extent in Canadian evaluation studies. This clearly flags an opportunity for CES to advocate for the recognition of environmental sustainability in evaluation in Canada over the coming years. On behalf of CES National Board, I would like to thank the CES Sustainability Working Group members: Andrealisa Belzer CE (Chair), Matt Jacques CE (SWG National Board Liaison), Andy Rowe, Benoit Gauthier FCES (2018-19) and Debbie DeLancey CE (2019-20) for the time and effort they put to make this report possible.

I would also like to acknowledge the generosity of Le Groupe-conseil baastel ltée, Goss Gilroy Inc., Prairie Research Associates Inc., and Universalia, who participated pro bono toward the development of this report.

Background