NEWS RELEASE
Date: 7 March 2007
Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR
Out of hours telephone 020 7270 8960
Government response to Sustainable Development Commission's sustainable development in government annual report 2006
Government must not just set targets to become more sustainable - it must deliver them, Environment Secretary David Miliband said today (Wed).
Responding to the Sustainable Development Commission's annual report on how the Government was meeting its sustainable operations objectives, Mr Miliband acknowledged progress was slower than he would like and is not adequate to meet the increasing pace of change that was needed.
The Government announced last year a set of far-reaching and stretching outcome focused targets, including the commitment to make the central government office estate carbon neutral by 2012 and to reduce office carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2020. Other targets include reducing waste and water consumption and increasing recycling.
Mr Miliband said the Government was putting some of the building blocks in place but that there was more that needed to be done.
"Government is committed to playing its role in tackling climate change and reducing emissions - alongside the actions already being taken by business and individuals.
"Earlier this week, John Healey and I announced how we are going to use procurement to deliver those targets and to help move the UK towards a low carbon economy.
"I have asked Gus O'Donnell to take personal charge and we have asked the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit to recommend by the end of April the structures we need to put in place to ensure these targets are delivered."
Mr Miliband added that he had also initiated work to look at opportunities for further progress in the public sector in four key areas.
Defra is also working with the Carbon Trust through its Carbon Management Programme to reduce emissions across its Departmental estate.
And the Department has also asked independent environmental organisation BioRegional to work with them on raising their level of ambition above that of meeting the Government targets. BioRegional is working with Defra to see what it means to be a "One Planet Living ® Department and what additional action Defra would need to meet this. One Planet Living ® is a joint initiative of BioRegional and WWF based upon 10 guiding principles of sustainability.
Notes to editors
1 Departmental performance is reported against Government estate targets in annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDIG) reports. From 2005, SDIG reports have been published by the Sustainable Development Commission (the independent adviser on Sustainable Development) The 2006 SDiG report, published today, assesses the performance of central Government operations for 2005/6 which link to the new Government estate targets published in June 2006. It can be accessed from 0800hrs (Wed) at www.sd-commission.org.uk/sdig2006
2 The Government response to the Sustainable Procurement
Task Force report was published on March 5 when it presented a package
of actions through its Sustainable Procurement Action Plan. It is available
at www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/publications/pdf/SustainableProcurementActionPlan.pdf 
(on Sustainable Development website)
3 Construction of the new Defra Alnwick office began last month. It will include four viable renewable energy technologies employed in the building design: wind turbines, PV Solar Thermal, Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Electric and Biomass Heating. Its completion is targeted for early January 2008.
4 Work on the Carbon Management Programme (CMP) with the Carbon Trust is now beginning to be implemented. Defra was the first Government Department to sign up to the CMP in October 2005 (the new Government targets in June 2006 mandated Departments to join the CMP). The initial phase of the programme was a short Carbon Trust consultancy analysing what Defra could do to reduce its carbon emissions and become more energy efficient. Following the Estates team relocation to York implementation is now underway. Funds of £600,000 for 2007/8 and 2008/9 have been ringfenced for CMP projects by the Department.
5 BioRegional is an independent environmental organisation. Their role as a catalyst has led to the implementation of ground-breaking work in eco-housing, sustainable forestry, sustainable farming and recycling. Along with the WWF-UK, they developed the One Planet Living concept. One Plant Living ® is a joint initiative of BioRegional and WWF based up 10 guiding principles of sustainability. The vision of One Plant Living ® is a world in which people everywhere can lead happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the earth's resources. To find out more visit: www.oneplanetliving.org
Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat documents.
End
Public enquiries: 08459 335577
News releases available on our website:
www.defra.gov.uk
Defra's aim is sustainable development
Page published: 7 March 2007