Memorandum submitted by the Office of
Government Commerce,Cabinet Office, Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Energy and
Climate Change (DECC)
INTRODUCTION
This is the Government response to the Environmental
Audit Committee's Inquiry, Greening Government. This response
provides a summary of highlights and addresses the 10 specific
subjects on which the Committee sought comments on 31 March 2009.
SUMMARY
— Government has made considerable progress
towards meeting its targets for Sustainable Operations on the
Government Estate (SOGE), as is shown by the December 2008 Sustainable
Development in Government (SDiG) data published by the Sustainable
Development Commission (SDC).
— Where the government is not on track
to hit SOGE targets on the basis of a straight line trajectory
of performance, as with the target for Carbon from Offices, the
government's Delivery Plan, published last August and updated
in December sets out departmental plans to ensure that the Government
will meet the 2010-11 targets.
— In some SOGE areas, such as waste, the
Government is already exceeding performance, which is where the
government would like to be on all target areas.
— The Centre of Expertise in Sustainable
Procurement has now completed an exercise to gather evidence on
why mandates have not been fully implemented; and will address
the issues and barriers we have identified in its forward work
programme.
— The Government is also developing a forward
vision for sustainable procurement and target measures. This will
enable performance on sustainable procurement to be measured and
monitored on the same basis as performance on sustainable operations.
— In addition to specific departmental
plans and commitments that have been made the Government has set
in place a number of centrally lead initiatives such as the Cabinet
Office's Greening Government IT strategy delivery and the work
of the Centre of Expertise in Sustainable Procurement to build
on this progress and ensure that further improvements are identified
and made.
— Government recognises that to maintain
a position of leadership on sustainable development beyond 2010-11,
considerably more must be done. To remain a leader in sustainable
procurement and sustainable operations the government will need
to revise its targets and commitments for its own operations and
procurement to ensure that these continue to reflect wide policy
ambitions for the protection of the environment and will need
to continue to deliver in full against those new targets.
THE CENTRE
OF EXPERTISE
IN SUSTAINABLE
PROCUREMENT
In its response to the Sustainable Development
Commission's (SDC) report on Sustainable Development in Government
(SDiG) for 2008, the government promised to establish the post
of Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and a Centre of Expertise
in Sustainable Procurement (CESP), both in OGC, and to publish
a Delivery Plan by Summer 2008 to say how the Government would
meet its commitments on sustainable operations and sustainable
procurement.
1. The Minister responsible for the Centre
of Expertise in Sustainable Procurement duly published the first
comprehensive Delivery Plan for its work on sustainable procurement
and sustainable operations in August 2008. An updated review of
performance was published in December 2008. A Chief Sustainability
Officer has been appointed in OGC, William Jordan; and the CESP
has been established, under the leadership of Fiona Ross.
Sustainable operations
2. The Government's Delivery Plan set out,
for the first time, in terms of trajectories and milestones, the
plans of all government departments for meeting their targets
for sustainable operations on the government estate for reductions
in carbon from offices, in carbon from road travel, in water consumption
and in waste arising and consumption.
3. The plan was welcomed by the SDC when
published, as "the most thorough and robust package produced
by Government to date for addressing the impact of its own operations
and for inspiring change in the public and private sectors".
4. If government departments succeed in
meeting their milestones and if their actions have the impact
that they are anticipating, then all the government's SOGE targets
will be met, including for reductions in carbon from offices,
where current performance is marked "amber" by the SDC's
report for sustainable operations in government for 2008.
5. The CSO and CESP have established more
robust performance data against SOGE targets. Many amendments
were proposed in the Government's response to the SDC last year
to the baselines and counting methodologies used in the SDC's
2008 SDIG report. While these amendments, now largely accepted
by government departments and the SDC, left aggregate government
performance largely unchanged, they give a much truer picture
of performance department by department.
6. The CSO and CESP have also promoted a
system of quarterly reporting of performance across Whitehall.
To manage performance effectively requires regular and recent
data. Three departments—HMT, ONS and DWP—are now piloting
quarterly reporting of sustainability data to OGC. Other departments
will move to quarterly reporting on a phased basis by the end
of 2009.
7. CESP is supporting the ongoing dissemination
of best practice in both sustainable operations and sustainable
procurement for environmental practitioners across Whitehall through
work with expert groups such as the Carbon Trust, the Energy Savings
Trust and WRAP. It has consulted departments to identify the best
practice and guidance that will make the most immediate difference
and has now established a programme of activity for 2009-10 to
support delivery. This includes: consolidating current guidance
into a core set for government practitioners; developing new guidance
on embedding sustainability in contract management; supporting
departmental capability on staff behaviour change techniques;
and promoting best practice case studies.
Sustainable procurement
8. On sustainable procurement, the government,
the CSO and the CESP have also provided leadership for the Whitehall
community:
a. The publication of "Buy Green and Make
a Difference" in Summer 2008 set out government policy on
how to take account of environmental sustainability at all stages
in the procurement lifecycle within the framework of value for
money and the EU Procurement Regulations. It includes practical
examples of "how to do it";
b. Working with Defra, the lead policy department,
the CSO and CESP have further developed and promoted the "Buy
Sustainable—Quick Wins" standards. These standards
support procurers to reduce the environmental impact of government
operations and procurement by raising the level of environmental
specifications for commonly procured goods and services, thereby
contributing to wider policy objectives on climate change and
resource efficiency. OGC works with Defra to ensure that required
changes to these standards are agreed through appropriate cross
Whitehall governance structures.
c. The development of pan-government procurement
strategies for procurement in the categories of fleet and energy
has enabled OGC to pilot a model of sustainable procurement. Both
strategies include:
i.work programmes to reduce demand—in energy,
through the use of energy efficiency technologies, such as Voltage
Optimisation (energy), and in fleet through supporting performance
management of environmental targets, through the provision of
fleet databases for use by departments;
ii.product specifications that reflect environmental
sustainability—for renewable energy and for low carbon vehicles;
and
iii.supplier engagement: in both categories, OGC
has piloted the Carbon Disclosure Programme to encourage carbon
foot-printing of suppliers to government. The CDP process was
also successfully piloted by Defra and FCO. Take up for the OGC
voluntary pilots was been high, at 75%. CESP is working with other
government departments to build on this with a more extensive
programme of engagement with suppliers on carbon emissions in
2009.
9. OGC has also recently published best
practice guidance on other aspects of sustainable procurement,
including social issues, equalities and skills.
Next steps
10. Priorities for the current year include:
a. setting more ambitious targets for government
in future years: the CESP has launched a review of current targets,
due to report in late 2009;
b. stepping up work to improve the energy efficiency
of government buildings. The recent publication of Display Energy
Certificate ratings demonstrates the scope for further progress.
A range of measures will be necessary, ranging from best practice
guidance for "quick wins" through to work with landlords
on green leases, and work to retrofit government buildings with
energy saving equipment;
c. developing a full pan-government vision for
sustainable procurement that will establish the government as
a leading practitioner in the field and measures against which
progress can be reported. This work will take full account of
the recent reports from the SDC and NAO and will be supported
by the development of a range of case studies of leading practice
in sustainable procurement; and
d. the initiation of a project to provide refreshed
Value for Money guidance which will help departments to evaluate
and measure value for money from procurement. Specifically it
will provide practitioners with a standard methodology to capture
value for money from both their efficiency and their sustainable
procurement both the efficiency and the sustainability gains from
their procurement activities.
GOVERNMENT COMMITMENTS
AND TARGETS
11. The latest data on performance on the
SOGE targets and mandates reported by the SDC demonstrates that
Government as a whole has made significant steps towards improving
the sustainability of its estate.
12. In terms of current performance, carbon
dioxide emissions from vehicles have been reduced by 10%, waste
arisings have undergone a 29% reduction, and water consumption
across government has been reduced by 18%. On Carbon emissions
from offices, the SDC reports that the government is not on track
to meets its targets for 2010-11 on the basis of a straight line
trajectory. The trajectories published in Government's updated
delivery plan in December 2008, show how the government will address
that issue; and forecast that government as a whole will meet
the 2010-11 targets on carbon dioxide emissions from offices and
road transport, waste and recycling, and is forecast to meet the
2020 target on water consumption.
13. The SDC reports lower rates of progress
in relation to the government's commitments on sustainable procurement,
also the subject of an upcoming report from the National Audit
Office and in relation to mandated mechanisms. These mandates
include:
a. departments to adopt the Carbon Trust's Carbon
Management Programme or achieve the Carbon Trust Standard;
b. departments to apply BRE's Environmental Assessment
Method (BREEAM) excellent standard or equivalent, to all new builds
where this is consistent with value for money; and
c. departments to work towards an accredited
certified environmental management system (EMS).
14. On sustainable procurement, the government,
in response to the report of the SDC and in preparation for the
report of the NAO, is now developing a forward vision for sustainable
procurement and target measures. This will enable performance
on sustainable procurement to be measured and monitored on the
same basis as performance on sustainable operations.
15. On mandated mechanisms, OGC has undertaken
a study into performance against these mandates and identified
a number of common barriers that have acted to constrain departmental
progress. OGC is now working with departments to resolve these
issues, including:
a. establishing a cross-departmental collaborative
group on carbon management to share good practice, develop action
plans for priority energy efficiency actions, and work towards
achieving the Carbon Trust Standard;
b. producing new guidance for departments on
how they should meet their commitments on BREEAM. This will include
advice on those circumstances (permitted under the terms of the
mandate) where project constraints, eg for the location of a new
building, preclude BREEAM excellent certification, which takes
into account, for example, transport links to the site of a new
building; and
c. clarifying, with Defra, the requirements on
departments in relation to environmental management systems. The
mandate requires departments to "work towards an accredited
EMS" and currently permits departments to determine for themselves
whether to apply an EMS to their entire estate or selected buildings.
Departments need to understand better both what the mandate means
in practice and also how to make progress towards the expectation
of the SDC for this mandate to apply to the entirety of departmental
estates and staff.
INTERDEPARTMENTAL
CARBON TRADING
16. All departments are expected to deliver
the improvements required by the targets—this is an important
part of demonstrating leadership. There are currently no plans
for inter-departmental carbon trading, except insofar as this
may arise in relation to emissions from the public sector estate
that are covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment. If, however,
it was decided that some further form of trading was required
in future, the Climate Change Act includes provisions that allow
new trading schemes to be established through an affirmative statutory
instrument, and the potential use of this mechanism, and the associated
impacts, would be examined further.
17. The Government's consistent policy on
offsetting is that it has a legitimate place in the hierarchy
of actions to tackle climate change. But measuring emissions and
avoiding and reducing them must be undertaken before offsetting
is considered.
18. More widely, the Government is currently
establishing a successor arrangement to the current Government
Carbon Offsetting Fund (GCOF). The intention is to establish a
framework contract with a number of suppliers under which government
departments will buy carbon credits to meet voluntary commitments
on carbon offsetting such as the ongoing commitment to offset
emissions from Ministerial and official air travel. It is the
intention that all future government offsetting will be delivered
through the renewed GCOF contract. This should ensure cost effective
delivery of the separate commitments that exist and offer benefits
in terms of the administrative burden faced by Departments. The
contract will involve the purchase of regulated credits (Certified
Emissions Reductions under the UN Clean Development Mechanism)
that emanate from projects meeting wider sustainable development
objectives. GCOF does not create new commitments to offset carbon
emissions; rather, it facilitates their delivery.
SOGE TARGETS
19. The Government should at all times lead
by example in relation to sustainable operations and sustainable
procurement. This is what the SOGE framework seeks to deliver.
The 2006 SOGE targets sought to bring sustainability on the Government
estate into line with our wider sustainability goals, including
the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, commitments in the Energy
White Paper (2003), and our then domestic target to reduce
emissions by at least 60% by 2050.
20. Since the launch of the SOGE targets
in 2006, the Government has announced a range of new policy commitments,
including for example the Climate Change Act including the carbon
budget framework, the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the Energy
Services Directive and Display Energy Certificates, the Water
Strategy and the Waste Strategy. This is why Government is reviewing
the SOGE framework during 2009 as it needs to reflect a changed,
more mature, policy landscape.
21. DECC is currently undertaking a consultation
on a draft definition of carbon neutrality and good practice recommendations
for users of the term. The consultation closes on 21 May 2009.
The consultation will allow Government to conclude whether the
target is an effective way of demonstrating climate change leadership.
The outcome of the exercise will feed into the review of the SOGE
targets.
22. A sustainably managed estate is one
that has: modern, resource efficient, low energy usage buildings;
well conserved and managed land; efficient use of space and ways
of working; and the principles of sustainable development embedded
into working practices. Sustainable operations are wholly consistent
with good value for money and efficiency, and are a key part of
building a modern and resource efficient public sector. The current
SOGE targets have put government on a path towards delivering
sustainability in the way that it uses and manages its estate
and operations.
23. The progress departments have made towards
achieving the existing SOGE targets has reduced their negative
environmental impacts. Benchmarking work undertaken by consultants
as part of the review of the sustainable operations and procurement
target framework (see below), was unable to find any comparable
set of sustainable operations targets applied to government bodies
in the other countries examined (EU member states, Canada and
Australia). The implication is that UK government has adopted
a position of leadership in terms of measurement and transparency
around the environmental impacts of its operations.
24. Government recognises that sustainability
is about much more than estate management. For this reason all
central government departments and their executive agencies are
required to produce Sustainable Development Action Plans that
set out the actions that they are taking to build a sustainable
development approach to policies they produce or deliver, staff
or people they work with, as well as the goods and services which
they procure and the operations which they manage. These plans
are independently assessed by the SDC.
REVIEW OF
THE SOGE FRAMEWORK
25. Government as a whole is now forecast
to meet the 2010-11 SOGE targets, though individual departments
still need to take further steps to make the required reductions,
as demonstrated by the delivery trajectories published in the
Delivery Plan update in December 2008. This is a substantial step
forward for government but there is still more to do to ensure
that the overall target framework for sustainable operations and
procurement represents leading practice in the longer term.
26. Over the past few months, OGC (working
with policy leads in Defra, DECC and DfT) has initiated a strategic
review of the target framework. The review is developing proposals
for a more coherent refreshed framework for 2010-11 and beyond.
The new framework will be better aligned with existing and new
policy commitments (eg Climate Change Act, Carbon Reduction Commitment
and Waste Strategy). On the procurement side, it will build on
the commitments in the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan to
establish clear measures for assessing departmental performance
on sustainable procurement. The review's proposals for change
will be based on research into good practice in the private sector
and elsewhere in the public sector and supported by evidence of
costs and benefits.
27. Issues under consideration by the review
include:
a. How can the targets be better aligned with
Government's wider sustainable development policies (for example,
new developments such as carbon budgets)?
b. Is the current scope correct? Should the targets
be extended to cover NDPBs, the overseas estate, operations (as
well as administration) and/or the impacts of major outsourced
activities? What would the consequences of such an expansion be
in terms of ensuring compliance, establishing baselines and collecting
data?
c. What sort of sustainable procurement measures
would best incentivise reductions in the negative sustainability
impacts of procurement? Should the government concentrate on process-based
measures to embed strong sustainable procurement practice and
capability, or develop measures focused on the sustainability
outcomes of procurement activity?
d. How can the target set incentivise both departments
with a strong record on sustainability and departments which have
further to go?
e. How can government ensure that the target
set continue to represent best practice and reflect national policies?
28. The review's proposals will be put to
departments for further consideration over the summer by Defra,
as owner of the target framework. Following analysis of departmental
comments, a proposal for refreshing the target framework will
be put to Ministers in autumn 2009. This will give departments
several months to put the necessary data-collection systems in
place to capture data against the new targets from April 2010.
THE GREENING
GOVERNMENT ICT STRATEGY
29. Information Technology is used to drive
many transformational government initiatives; from renewing car
tax online to helping over 6,000 people into jobs each day. Hundreds
and thousands of public servants also rely on IT to do their jobs
efficiently and effectively.
30. Worldwide, ICT is responsible for the
same quantity of carbon emissions as the aviation industry (around
2% of total global emissions according to recent Gartner research).
Government spends over £13 billion per year on ICT; it needs
to invest this in a sustainable way. Government has a responsibility
to lead by example, showing what can be achieved and committing
to making a difference. It is for this reason that on 17 July
2008 the UK Government launched a strategy specifically targeting
the environmental impact of our ICT; both reducing carbon emissions
and using ICT to support greater efficiency and more sustainable
development. It is the only government in the world to have mandated
targets for CIOs for Green ICT.
31. The Greening Government ICT strategy
is an important part of the wider pan-government ICT strategy.
A key objective of this strategy is to deliver sustainability
within government's ICT, ensuring that key policy objectives are
embedded into contracting practices and terms. The Greening Government
ICT strategy not only considers the carbon cost of ICT itself,
it also addresses the use of ICT to reduce the overall carbon
emissions in delivering government services.
32. The Cabinet Office has been working
with departments through the Chief Information Officers (CIO)
Council and with industry on implementing the strategy since its
launch. Departments have completed ICT roadmap action plans and
a summary of these action plans will be published later this year.
33. The Chief Information Officers (CIO)
Council have mandated a minimum of 10 of its Greening Government
ICT steps and every CIO on the Council has now provided a Departmental
Roadmap action plan of how and when they will deliver the 10.
34. In addition, officials have been working
with colleagues overseas to share best practice and UK Government
and Industry have been leading the way in supporting the creation
and distribution of the recently announced European Commission
Codes of Conduct on Broadband and Data Centres. UK Government
is also working with the US Government in reviewing changes and
improvements to its Green ICT procurement standard EPEAT. In the
meantime Defra has developed best practice ICT specifications
as mandatory minimum standards for all central government departments
under Quick Wins.
Progress and future development
35. As part of the Greening ICT Strategy,
government has completed a pilot of departmental self-assessment
scorecards against a set of collaboratively developed measures
for both government ICT staff and outsourced Industry suppliers.
This scorecard highlights ICT carbon emissions, equipment per
person, energy usage, and average lifecycle of equipment and replacement
of ICT.
36. Departments have also now completed
a self assessment baseline exercise reviewing their carbon output
and ICT use and how to reduce it with reference to the top 18
steps defined in the Greening ICT Strategy. From these assessments
action plans have been developed, establishing measures for improvement
and delivery dates for each department to achieve the 18 steps.
37. Following completion of action plans
these will be aggregated for cross-government analysis and review.
This will identify what immediate action can be prioritised and
identify opportunities for wider cross departmental actions specific
to a particular technology or initiatives.
38. Defra will continue to work closely
with the GDU and OGC to facilitate the harmonisation of ICT standards
with European initiatives such as Green Public Procurement (GPP)
and EU Ecolable, and with other international standards such as
EPEAT.
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
ON REDUCING
CARBON EMISSIONS
FROM OFFICES
39. The latest SDiG report demonstrates
that government has reduced the carbon emissions from its offices
by 6.3% since 1999-2000. The update to the Government's Delivery
Plan published in December 2008, included trajectories from each
department setting out how they intend to meet the carbon dioxide
from offices target.
40. Five departments are currently showing
a shortfall although government as a whole is forecast to achieve
the target, subject to the successful implementation of the planned
activities identified. It is important to remember that the targets
do not present the same level of challenge for each government
department. For example, targets for DWP have become more challenging
as a result of the economic downturn: the department will have
a larger number of transactions with clients than originally planned
and this will have consequences for its estate and for the sustainability
of the estate.
41. The majority of the planned activities
focus on reducing demand for energy on the estate through behaviour
change, the use of technologies to reduce demand (such as voltage
optimisation), and estate rationalisation. In the short term,
OGC is working with departments to support them in identifying
priorities for additional actions, resolving any common issues
and ensuring best practice is shared.
42. Budget 2009 announced that £65
million of zero-interest energy efficiency loans will be made
available for public sector organisations in 2009-10. The loans
will allow organisations to overcome capital constraints and invest
in simple but effective energy efficiency technologies such as
such as boiler replacements and controls, cooling and heating
controls, lighting upgrades, insulation, office equipment improvements,
and network PC management.
43. For the medium term, OGC is working
with key departments to scope the potential for piloting a collective
programme to retrofit energy efficiency measures in buildings
which we expect to occupy for the next ten years. This work aims
to identify clusters of potential sites; evaluate the solutions
which could deliver best carbon reductions and improved energy
efficiency, and assess the costs and financing models. Solutions
could include: improving the thermal performance of the building
envelope; reducing energy use for lighting, heating, cooling,
ventilation and equipment; fuel switching and on-site energy generation,
and passive measures such as natural lighting, shading and natural
ventilation.
44. In the longer term, and in line with
the refresh of SOGE targets, we are also working with the Technology
Strategy Board to identify a number of innovative technology projects
which we could pilot in a few key government buildings to determine
the level of savings that are achievable though these methods.
Bringing forward new technologies will give a lead to the wider
private and public sector, and will help to increase the range
of cost effective options available to achieve the 80% reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions that will be required across the UK
as a whole by 2050.
45. The Carbon Reduction Commitment, which
comes into effect in 2010-11, will provide financial incentives
to departments to reduce their emissions. All departments, regardless
of their size, will be required to participate in the new scheme.
OGC is working with DECC (as the policy lead) and the Environment
Agency (as the regulatory authority in England and Wales) to provide
practical support to ensure best practice implementation by departments,
and to minimise as far as possible the data collection and reporting
burdens departments may face.
DEPARTMENTAL PERFORMANCE
46. Departments vary greatly in the size
of the challenge that faces them in delivering their SOGE targets.
Variables include: the size of the estate and operational requirements
(eg extending opening hours in DWP; building more prisons in the
case of the Ministry of Justice). Therefore it is natural that
there is variation in performance against SOGE.
47. All departments, however, are equally
committed to meeting their targets and the CSO and OGC will work
with all departments to raise capability in sustainable procurement
and sustainable operations across Whitehall.
48. The 2008 SDiG report has highlighted
the wide differences in departmental performance against the Carbon
from Travel target. To address this the CESP commissioned a joint
review with the SDC to review sustainable travel in Government
and identify:
(a) current sustainable working practices and
key implementation challenges facing Central Government;
(b) examples of good practice both in the private
and public sectors;
(c) policy levers to engender change, and the
relationship between the different drivers; and
(d) opportunities and barriers for making travel
more sustainable including early actions.
49. The findings of this review, which will
be shared with environmental practitioners across Whitehall, and
will be important inputs both for the review of SOGE targets and
tor the next iteration of the government's Delivery Plan for SOGE
targets.
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