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Procurement Best Practices for Winter Maintenance
This section includes a collection of resources aimed at supporting businesses in understanding the financial and safety impacts of poor road salt management and provides guidance on procuring for winter maintenance contracts that apply best practices for salt delivery.
Webinars
Winter Salt: Balancing Safety, Environment and Cost
In partnership with TRCA’s Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP), Partners in Project Green hosted Winter Salt: Balancing Safety, Environment and Cost on June 17. The speakers discussed the impacts of parking lot salt on property and the environment, and how to mitigate risk through winter maintenance best practices and sustainable procurement of winter maintenance services.
This webinar is especially relevant to ICI sector private landowners across the GTA who manage properties with large expanses of impermeable surface in which ice melt and stormwater runoff carry road salt and other pollutants to adjacent waterways.
Presentations
Sustainable Procurement of Snow and Ice Management Services
Tim Van Seters, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
June 17, 2021
This PowerPoint presentation accompanies the STEP Webinar – Winter Salt: Balancing Safety, Environment, and Cost. Developed by Tim Van Seters at STEP, this presentation explores why procurement is an important focus area for sustainable salt management and provides guidance on employing best practices for parking lot snow and ice management for a range of urban property types and their various features. Readers will learn about how sustainable salt procurement can help property managers avoid unwanted impacts of poor salt management and how to manage costs and expectations.
The Triple Bottom-Line of Winter Salt
Bill Thompson, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
June 17, 2021
This PowerPoint presentation accompanies the STEP Webinar – Winter Salt: Balancing Safety, Environment, and Cost. Developed by Bill Thompson from LSRCA, this presentation provides an overview of the environmental, financial, and safety impacts of poor road salt management and clarifies best practices.
Certifications & Training
Smart About Salt Council (SASC)
SASC is a non-profit organization that offers training to improve winter salting practices on facilities and recognizes leaders through certification. SASC training programs are available to operators/winter maintenance contractors as well as facility owners and operators. Businesses are encouraged to ensure their winter maintenance contractors and facilities maintenance staff are Smart About Salt-Certified.
Developed by the Smart About Salt Council in June, 2021, this presentation provides an overview of the program, procurement guidance, support for best management practices using the Smart About Salt training program.
To learn more about Smart About Salt, click here.
Salt Application Verified Equipment (SAVE) Program
When procuring a winter maintenance contractor, businesses are encouraged to select a SAVE program-certified contractor to ensure the contractor’s equipment is calibrated for efficient salt application.
The SAVE program was developed to make the process of applying salt less subjective and encourage contractors providing snow and ice management services for parking lots and sidewalks to apply salt more efficiently. Through the program, salt spreading equipment is calibrated according to a standard test procedure, and contractors undertake in-field training to ensure familiarity with how to operate their equipment in a manner that achieves pre-determined target salt application rates. Equipment operators obtain annually renewable license and plate stickers to confirm that their equipment has been verified. The list of contractors with calibrated equipment is made available on-line for facility managers, property owners and property management companies to use in the procurement of snow and ice maintenance contracts for their properties.
Guides
Salt Application Best Practices for Winter Maintenance Contract
This guide provides an overview of procurement best practices for winter maintenance contracts, ranging from effective pricing and reducing liability risk, to ensuring efficient and accurate salt delivery.
Parking Lot Design Guidelines
The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority and their partner agencies developed ‘Parking Lot Design Guidelines to Promote Salt Reduction’ for use by designers, regulatory agencies, owners, contractors, and more.
Procurement Guidance for Parking Lot Snow and Ice Management
The Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program developed this procurement guidance document which describes some of the clauses and conditions that can be included in contracts to promote responsible use of road salts. In addition, a summary of measures, along with estimates of the impact of salt use and potential influence these may have on contract costs are provided.
Region of Waterloo: Winter Maintenance for Commercial Properties
The Region of Waterloo offers guidance on actions commercial properties can take to reduce salt use such as closing unneeded areas during the winter and promoting winter safety among staff and visitors. Communication tools like posters and signage and winter maintenance worksheets are available for download.
Interested in learning more? Visit the Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program Road Salt Management webpage.