Government headquarters have exceeded the carbon targets set by Prime Minister David Cameron in May last year, by reducing its carbon emissions by 13.8% in the year, it has been announced.

The target covers 300,000 civil servants across 3,000 buildings, and the cut demonstrated has saved an estimated £13m in energy bills and more than 100,000 tonnes of CO₂.

“A 13.8% cut in emissions in just one year is a great result and the civil service should be very proud of this achievement,” said Cameron. “But to be the greenest government ever we need to do more to stamp out energy waste in Whitehall, and make it easier for people and business to use energy more efficiently.” He added he would be committing Government to reduce emissions by a further 25% by 2015.

To this, energy secretary Chris Huhne added the achievement showed the Government leads by example in its promise to cut carbon. “This is only the start and we’ve not got to get on and slash Whitehall’s emissions by a quarter by the end of this Parliament.”

How did they do it?

According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the result has been achieved through “improved management and control of our building systems and through investment in new or improved plant and equipment, as well as some behaviour change measures.”

Examples of measures taken include:-

• Dedicated server room chiller enabling employees to switch off cooling to entire the entire HQ building when not required;
• installation of LEDs
• estate rationalisation – efforts to concentrate accommodation in more energy efficiency buildings and reduce the m2 of office space per staff member;
• software upgrades to building management systems.

www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_059/pn11_059.aspx

http://data.gov.uk/departmental-performance-co2-emissions-reduction-date