Ambleside Integrated Site - Phase 1

Meet the Impact Team

  • City of Edmonton - Owner

    The City of Edmonton, is known for its commitment to community well-being and sustainable development. Owning various projects, Edmonton focuses on maximizing social benefits through thoughtful urban planning, aiming to enhance quality of life for all residents.

  • Delnor Construction - General Contractor

    Delnor Construction, with over 40 years in the industry, is dedicated to excellence and integrity. Emphasizing lasting client relationships and collaborative partnerships, Delnor is known for its approachable and flexible business practices. The company's strength comes from its skilled team, which upholds a strong reputation through high-quality craftsmanship and strong trade relationships. Delnor stands committed to its clients, employees, and community, ensuring every project reflects their deep respect for both the construction and community spaces they engage with.

  • Nisto - Social Impact Reporting Platform

    Nisto is a social impact reporting platform that develops tools and applications that support credible impact reporting to the market. Nisto heavily focuses on both corporate and project based reporting.

  • Buy Social Canada - CBA Liaison

    Buy Social Canada is a social enterprise that believes that procurement is more than an economic transaction, it contributes to community social and economic goals. As the Community Benefits Liaison for the Ambleside Integrated Site, will work with the project team to support data reporting and verification. Buy Social Canada is available for support and coaching throughout the reporting process for both employment and procurement data.

Community Benefit Targets

In an effort to maximize the community benefits and align with the City of Edmonton’s Sustainable Procurement Policy, the AIS-1 project will strive to achieve targets in employment, social procurement, and indigenous procurement. Targets apply to the Poly Partners but are encouraged by all suppliers to this project.

Employment Targets

  • 15% of All Employees employed by the Poly Party Members and actively delivering on the AIS project identify as individuals from equity-deserving groups.

  • 25% of New Employees employed by the Poly Party Members and actively delivering on the AIS project identify as individuals from equity-deserving groups.

Social Procurement Target

  • $10M for goods and services will be purchased from social value suppliers*.

*Indigenous Procurement has been prioritized and identified with a separate target. Therefore, the Social Procurement Target does not include Indigenous-Owned Businesses.

Indigenous Procurement Target

  • 15 Indigenous Businesses engaged to provide project-specific goods and services.

The total contract value ($) of all indigenous procurement is not included in the above target but will be provided as additional reporting.

How It Works

Our reporting engine works hard, so you don’t have to.

Resources for Vendors

Project RFP’s

Language for vendors to include in your RFP’s or Correspondence with your Vendors and Suppliers to ensure they understand the requirements of the Ambleside Integrated Site - Phase 1 project reporting.

Social Impact Reporting

In an effort to maximize the community benefits and align with the City of Edmonton’s Sustainable Procurement Policy, the AIS project will pilot targets in employment, social procurement, and Indigenous procurement.

Due to the complexity of collecting diverse identities, reporting in an apples-to-apples basis across hundreds of vendors the project has engaged Buy Social Canada to oversee the reporting process, along with the tools of Nisto to standardize the employment reporting process. The process is outlined at www.nisto.io/ais-1. 

This is a mandatory requirement.  Please indicate in your bid submission you understand the requirements of this process and compliance with project reporting through Buy Social Canada and Nisto.

Job Ads

The language that may be used in job ads when hiring employees that is respectful of unique diverse identities.

[Company Name] values diversity and is committed to an inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from individuals who have historically been denied equal access to employment, education, and other opportunities and include, without limitation, the following:

·        Indigenous peoples;

·        racialized peoples;

·        newcomers, refugees and asylum seekers;

·        persons with disabilities/disabled persons;

·        women; and

·        gender, sexual and romantic minorities (2SLGBTQQIA+)

Contact us.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • While we acknowledge and appreciate that some vendors may already have processes in place for collecting diversity data, it is essential for all partners involved in the Ambleside Integrated Site - Phase 1 project to utilize the Nisto platform and its tools for this purpose. This requirement ensures that all data collection, management, and reporting on the diverse opportunities created by the project are harmonized across all vendors, facilitating an "apples to apples" comparison and analysis. Moreover, Nisto is recognized for its stringent protocols protecting employee identities, setting the industry standard in data privacy and security.

    For more information on Nisto's approach to Ethical Identity and Data Analytics, please visit www.nisto.io. This unified approach not only streamlines our processes but also reinforces our commitment to upholding the highest standards of data integrity and confidentiality.

  • In AMDA, employees independently complete an anonymous diversity survey, which generates a unique alphanumeric code that links to their diverse identity answer set. This code, instead of any personal identification data, is shared with the employer.

    The employer combines this code with anonymized payroll data within the AMDA system. If a match is found, the system links the diversity survey response with the corresponding payroll data to generate a comprehensive diversity report. This report gives a clear, anonymous picture of the diversity or indigeneity of industry while maintaining the privacy of individual employees.

    AMDA not only respects and protects the privacy of employees, but it also gives them control over their data. At any point, an employee can choose to withdraw their data by sending their unique code to the system, ensuring their survey responses are no longer linked with the payroll data. This mechanism strikes a balance between offering detailed insights to employers and safeguarding employees' rights and identities.

    For some context on why Anonymized Matched Diversity Analysis is recommended, we need to look at the two traditional methods of employment identity data capture that don't meet the requirements of the project: Voluntary Self-Identification (VSI) and Anonymous Diversity Surveys (ADS). Each bears its set of advantages and shortcomings, raising critical concerns about efficacy, privacy, and potential biases.

    Voluntary Self-Identification provides a detailed glimpse into the workforce's diverse makeup, even possessing the potential to identify Indigenous Community affiliations. However, while its depth is commendable, it falls short in practice. When employees share their direct identity their backgrounds or affiliations, there's an intrinsic vulnerability to the process.

    For members of the Indigenous community, sharing such specific and deeply personal affiliations directly can be discomforting, leading to hesitancy in divulging this information. As a result, organizations might not capture an accurate representation of their Indigenous workforce. Beyond the psychological aspects, there's the looming threat of legal implications for companies that handle such sensitive information directly. This project demands analysis and aggregation further rubbing sensitive information against the goal of compliance.

    Conversely, Anonymous Diversity Surveys (ADS), while safeguarding employee privacy, inherently lack the granularity essential to pinpoint benefits reaching Indigenous people or underrepresented groups through employment. The broad strokes these surveys offer might hint at diversity presence but fail to provide detailed insights into how employment benefits are channeled into specific communities, thereby missing a crucial dimension in understanding the comprehensive benefit to these communities. You cannot use ADS for this project.

    In both scenarios, employees cannot retract their participation in the diversity survey. This breaches FPIC principles. Furthermore, even if they could retract their participation, it would necessitate a potentially uncomfortable conversation with their employer. AMDA solves this.

  • Your choice depends on your objectives. Nisto provides and encourages the Nisto Project Compliance Report for a $249 monthly fee, offering an in-depth analysis of your organization's data in the context of the project's overall achievements. Alternatively, the 'Upload Only' option allows you to meet project requirements without any cost, but it does not include monthly reports on your progress towards the project goals.

  • Equity-Deserving Groups

    •Indigenous peoples;

    •racialized peoples;

    •newcomers, refugees and asylum seekers;

    •persons with disabilities/disabled persons;

    •women; and

    •gender, sexual and romantic minorities (2SLGBTQQIA+)

    Indigenous Business

    A business which is majority owned, managed, and controlled by individuals who identify as First Nations, Inuit, or Métis.

    Social Value Supplier

    Businesses that create social value through ownership structure and/or operations, including:

    • Social Enterprises: A business that seeks to achieve a defined social, environmental, or cultural purpose; it generates a significant portion of its income from selling goods or services, and the majority of net-profits are re-invested in the purpose.

    • Indigenous Businesses: A business which is majority owned, managed and controlled by individuals who identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis.

    • Diverse-Owned Businesses: A business which is majority owned, managed and controlled by individuals who identify as an equity-deserving group.

    • Social Purpose Organizations: Third-party certified Cooperatives, B-Corps, and Living Wage for Families Campaign Employers.

    New Employees

    • Be hired in preparation for, at the time of, or following employer project scope mobilization.

    • Have full-time or part-time project-specific work scopes.

    • Work at least 40 hours on the project in the last 30 days.

    All Employees

    All employees include new employees and current employees with at least 40 hours worked on the project in the last 30 days:

    • Current employees with either full-time or part-time project-specific work scopes.

    • New employees with either full-time or part-time project-specific work scopes.