New centre of expertise for cutting carbon emissions across Whitehall
Government response to Sustainable Development Commission's Sustainable
Development in Government annual report 2006/07
18 March 2008
CAB/029/08
A new Centre of Expertise is to be set up to help Whitehall departments
achieve their targets for reducing carbon emissions and waste across the
government estate.
Details of the Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement (CESP) were
unveiled as the Government published its response to the Sustainable
Development Commission's latest report on how the Government is meeting
its own sustainable objectives for tackling climate change.
Today's annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report by
the independent watchdog and adviser on sustainability shows a small
improvement in the Government's overall performance against its key
‘eco’ commitments – including a four per cent fall in carbon emissions
across the estate by the end of 2006/7. However, the Commission called on
departments to urgently build on initiatives already taken to ensure
targets can be met and to demonstrate that the Government is leading by
example on sustainability.
The CESP will be set up within the Office of Government Commerce (OGC)
alongside the Government's Chief Sustainability Officer – a new post to
be appointed to take forward a culture of change across all departments in
sustainable operations and procurement.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, who took personal charge of work
in this area last March, has made sustainability of the government estate
one of his four priorities for the civil service. Sir Gus said:
“The Civil Service must be fully committed to sustainable working,
reflecting the increasing priority placed on environmental responsibility
by the public we serve. We must find new and innovative ways of raising
the bar for sustainable working, planning and procurement.
“There is still a long way to go but the establishment of the Centre of
Expertise for Sustainable Procurement marks the culmination of
significant progress over the last twelve months. This central
co-ordination and guidance will help all government departments work to
deliver sustainable working practices for the future.”
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:
“In the year that has elapsed since the period covered by this report,
departments have been working to cut emissions, waste and water use and
to increase recycling levels.
“The measures we're announcing today will help us to do better in the
year ahead.”
Nigel Smith, Chief Executive of OGC, also spoke about the way forward to
ensure sustainable practice and procurement. He said:
“Government is taking the issue of sustainability very seriously, but we
recognise that we need to do a lot more in order to meet the targets we
have set ourselves. We can only do this if we build on the best practice
that exists across Government, and if we have good and robust
information, so that we know what's happening, what impact our
actions are having and where the gaps are. I'm therefore delighted
that the new Centre for Expertise is to be established in OGC, and that
all Departments are committed to supporting its work.
“OGC has a strong track record in achieving quantifiable results across
Government, based on robust data, clear standard-setting, and close and
collaborative working with Departments to achieve delivery. We believe we
are now well-placed to lead real change.”
The Government accepts in principle all the recommendations made by the
SDC, and among the steps that will now be taken are the following:
-
From April 2008 all departmental heads will have a specific objective to
meet Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets,
against which their performance will be assessed
-
A major Green Government IT programme will be launched in the summer
-
From 2010 all central Government departments will be included in a
pioneering emissions trading scheme, the Carbon Reduction Commitment
(CRC), which will compel them to improve their energy efficiency. This
mandatory emissions trading scheme will cover around 5000 public and
private organisations, including government departments, retailers, banks
and local authorities, which combined account for 10 per cent of the UK
economy's emissions
-
Action to achieve the work space efficiency standard of 12 square metres
per FTE will be published in April 2008
-
From this summer all new vehicles used by ministers and permanent
secretaries (except a small number exempt for operational reasons) will
have carbon emissions below 130g/km
-
The use of bottled water for meetings and other official business is to
be phased out across the whole government estate by the summer
In its response to the report, the Government accepts the need for more
better and more accurate data against which the progress of departments can
be measured. A major validation exercise to upgrade the quality of data
provided to the SDC and the baselines used to assess performance has been
undertaken in the past two months.
Notes to Editors
-
The 2007 Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report, published
today, assesses the performance of central Government operations for
2006/07 against the targets of the Framework for Sustainable Operations
on the Government Estate (SOGE). It can be found at www.sd-commission.org.uk [External website]
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The Government's formal response to the 2007 SDiG report can be found
at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/sustainable_development.aspx
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