Ministers progress carbon neutrality plan

13 May 2009 13:58

Ministers from the Department of Health and Cabinet Office are implementing and progressing plans to reduce carbon emissions, outlined in the Greening Government ICT Strategy

Health minister Ben Bradshaw said the Department of Health plans to reduce emissions by 40 percent, then achieve carbon neutrality by 2012, as part of its sustainable development action plan.

Answering a parliamentary written question from Liberal Democrat MP John Thurso on Monday, Bradshaw added that the department has already implemented nine of the 18 'quick win' recommendations included in the Greening Government ICT Strategy, with the others in progress.

Work and pensions minister Jonathan Shaw responded to a similar question from Thurso that his department has already taken steps to cut emissions under its existing outsourcing contracts with BT and EDS and will go further when it relets these.

"A key element of this future contracting strategy is to contractually commit the IT providers to reduce the carbon footprint of the services they deliver to the department," he said.

The Cabinet Office, which is the lead participant in the Flex ICT shared service, said it has saved 84,000 kilowatt hours of electricity — equivalent to 36 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions — during the first year of Flex's operation.

Responding to a written question from Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott, Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson said that in 2007-08, the department used electricity equivalent to 401 tonnes of CO2 emissions. This included 181 tonnes from desktops, 135 tonnes for the datacentre and 84 tonnes for printing.

Watson added that the Cabinet Office has already reduced the number of printers and replaced them with multi-function devices, in addition to increasing server capacity to more than 50 percent and introducing virtualisation. Monitors now switch off after five minutes of inactivity.

Departments will report through the CIO Council in June on their progress and plans to address the Greening Government ICT Strategy.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,39651450,00.htm