Latest news

• 25 October 2011 – Defra published baseline figures on its caterers performance against the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services. Figures cover the period from May to September 2011.
• 5 October 2011 - The Surplus Public Sector Land: Accelerated Disposal Strategy to Deliver Land for Housing has been published.

Energy use in Defra

In support of the Prime Minister’s commitment for this to be the greenest government ever, Defra has implemented a range of measures to improve the efficiency of its estate. This includes making available real-time energy consumption for our main London headquarter building, Nobel House.

The online tool displays real-time energy information in units of energy, cost and carbon and is available in different formats, for example, for the past week, month and year.

• See our online energy use

What have we been doing?

We’ve made significant progress in reducing our carbon emissions. In March 2010 we achieved a 29% carbon reduction from our office estate (from a 1999/2000 baseline), exceeding the 2010 target by 17%.  During the ‘10% CO2 reduction target’ year (May 2010- May2011), we have improved on this by delivering a further 11.6% reduction.

This in year target has been achieved through a number of measures, which include:

• Adjustments to our heating and ventilation systems to improve their efficiency and better manage occupant comfort;
• Reducing the temperature we heat our buildings to 19°C during the winter months. This has contributed to the 23% reduction in gas use we have achieved over the previous year;
• We’ve increased  the cooling temperature in many of our server rooms to 23/24°C;
• We’ve continued to replace inefficient lighting systems;
• We’ve made adjustments to our heating and ventilation systems to improve their efficiency and better manage occupant comfort;
• We have continued to improve the insulation and draft-proofing of our buildings;
• We’ve been engaging with staff to get their ideas and tips for reducing energy consumption and encouraging them to do the simple things that they can do to help reduce the amount of energy they use.

Our historic performance has been achieved through an ongoing programme of works, which included the following initiatives:

• Installation of Voltage Optimisation equipment at 33 of our buildings, saving 4000 tCO₂ a year;
• Replacement of inefficient lighting saving 30% on lighting costs, and so far 780 tCO₂ a year;
• Installation of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants at our London HQ, and our laboratories in Weybridge and Sand Hutton (FERA). Electricity produced by a CHP plant produces a quarter less carbon emissions than energy generated from the grid. 13.5% of the Department’s electricity is generated through these CHPs;
• Installation of 10 biomass boilers at rural sites across the Defra portfolio. These burn woodchip instead of gas or oil, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels;
• All major refurbishment projects and construction projects carried out by the department over the past five years have been designed to be as sustainable as possible (all achieving a minimum standard of BREEAM Excellent). All of these projects have showcased Defra as a leader in sustainability and have won awards for their green credentials. They include: Nobel House (2006), Alnwick (2008), Kings Pool, York (2008) and the Weybourne building at Weybridge (2009);
• We’ve installed technologies to improve the efficiency of our boilers and this has delivered an average 10% reduction in gas consumption.

Defra’s achievements were recognized in 2008 when it was one of only 12 pathfinder organizations to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard. This followed on from the award of the Energy Efficiency Accreditation scheme certification in 2007.

What else are we doing?

• We will continue to improve the way we run our buildings, identifying opportunities to update plant and machinery and better control our building services;
• Improve occupant comfort by improving heat loss/gain in our buildings through insulation and draught proofing initiatives;
• Focus on improving the energy and water efficiency of the Defra Laboratory Estate;
• Improve the space utilisation of our buildings to ensure Defra’s buildings provide a sustainable and flexible working environment;
• Continuation of staff awareness campaigns to encourage staff to reduce the energy they use in their workspace and office.

Sustainable development in government

The Government is committed to leading by example in the way that it manages its estate and operations.

Government has a significant contribution to make to sustainable development, not just through its policies and services, but also through all the support activities that go on every day.

Decisions about energy, water and waste management, and the goods and services departments buy, all say a great deal about the Government’s commitment to sustainable development.

• More about sustainable Government estates
• Surplus Public Sector Land: Accelerated Disposal Strategy to Deliver Land for Housing