Environmental Performance

05 July 2010

How we care for the environment at work

Whilst ensuring environmental sustainability is a key aspect of our programme activities, we are also aware of the need to address the environmental performance of our own operational activities. The government has set environmental targets for its own estate, known as Sustainable Development in Government (SDIG) targets. These include targets for tackling carbon emissions, recycling waste, and reducing water and energy consumption in all UK government buildings.

DFID is committed to the targets, and our Office Services department works to make sure we meet them. An environmental management team (EMT) is responsible for best practice and making our staff aware of our pledge to protect the environment. We have produced a Carbon Reduction Delivery Plan, and we have established a Sustainable Operations Board to oversee progress, and a Green Team of volunteers to come up with ideas and promote best practice and awareness around our staff.

In recent years we have made good progress in reducing our carbon emissions and in increasing our energy efficiency. Our carbon emissions have reduced by nearly 20% over the last four years. Some of our recent energy saving initiatives include:

Installed voltage power optimisers in our UK offices, which reduce the regular power supply to around 220 volts. In our London HQ our electricity consumption reduced by 15% with an annual carbon saving of 79.3 tonnes,a saving over £50,000 pa on energy costs (See OGC case study for further details);
Installed waterless urinals and dual flush cisterns – water consumption reduced by 60% in a single year;
Installed intelligent lighting systems - lights will switch off themselves when a room is empty and this makes around a 5% saving on energy consumption;
New waste recycling systems, including binless offices to encourage staff to sort recyclable rubbish. We currently recycle nearly 80% of our waste.

Other energy saving initiatives being considered include: a biomass boiler which will be fuelled by recycled wood chip or wood pellet; reducing the number of our IT servers; and a micro-generation system. Also, the roof of our office in East Kilbride is currently being replaced with a green roof, and we believe it will be the largest refurbished green roof in the UK.