Government runs some of the world’s largest computer systems and they are now an essential element in the delivery of public services. Hundreds of thousands of public servants can use their desktop computers to work far more efficiently than we could have dreamed possible as recently as 20 years ago.

However, ICT is a major user of energy and natural resources at 2-3% of global carbon emissions. As spending and accountability has been devolved through the public sector, the number of devices and volumes of data used by the public sector has exploded. Efficiency and sustainability have been the victims of duplication and silo working. Industry and suppliers have also grown in the same way and have treated each ICT requirement individually rather than considering the efficiencies and reduced environmental impact that could be achieved by taking a more strategic approach. Not only is this having a significant environmental impact, it is also costly and wasteful.

The Government launched its strategy for Green ICT in June 2008. The CIO Council appointed a Green Champion for Government ICT and also supported the creation of the Green ICT Delivery Unit (GDU). One year on, Government has published a report detailing progress by Central Government, Local Government, the Wider Public Sector and Devolved Administrations. Each central department has produced a Green ICT action plan detailing the progress already made to increase the sustainability of ICT operations and the plans in place to take this further. In addition to individual departmental delivery, a number of initiatives designed to share best practice across the public sector have been delivered. Government contract terms and conditions now include sustainability requirements (Office of Government Commerce model contract). A supplier scoring model has been developed and is now being made available to the public sector to assess supply chain sustainability during procurements. The UK Government is also working internationally on areas such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive sub-group and USA Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) product specifications. A small number of case studies included in the One Year On Report demonstrate delivery of a reduction in carbon emissions of over 12,000 tonnes and cash savings of over £6.8m.

During the next 5-10 years, Government has set two challenging targets:

• In line with the existing Sustainability On the Government Estate (SOGE) targets and SOGE definition for Carbon Neutrality, the energy consumption of Government ICT on the office estate will be Carbon Neutral by 2012
• Government ICT will be carbon neutral across its lifecycle by 2020

In order to demonstrate success, the public sector will have to ensure that Green ICT principles are incorporated into all elements of the ICT strategy for Government, including supply chain and procurement strategies. The GDU will consider the strategy to have been successful when the assessment of whether a solution is ‘Green’ is as important to the financial approvals process as whether it demonstrates value for money.

The Greening Government ICT Strategy will be refreshed in the fourth quarter of 2009, to take into account environmental and technology advances. This will detail key activities for the Green ICT Delivery Unit through to 2020 including the development of common measures of delivery, work to be undertaken internationally to agree common product standards and requirements and the development of mandatory minimum Green standards for ICT products and services. Sustainable ICT will have a significant impact on delivery of the savings outlined in OEP. Green ICT products use less energy (and therefore cost less to run); intelligent use of green ICT can enable flexible working practices (thus supporting HR and Estates colleagues to reduce their running costs) and common international standards for products can reduce manufacturing costs and environmental impact.

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