Environment Secretary David Miliband has announced a range of new government sustainability targets concerning the environment. The targets have been unveiled alongside the recommendations of the Sustainable Procurement Task Force (SPTF), a business-led group chaired by Sir Neville Simms. The most significant of these is that the Government office estate will go carbon neutral by 2012. For an organisation to be carbon neutral it must have zero net carbon dioxide emissions. This is achieved through a combination of reducing carbon emissions, using renewable energy and offsetting the remaining balance of emissions. It represents the point at which greenhouse gas emissions have been assessed, reduced where possible and the remaining non-reducible emissions offset through high quality renewable energy or energy-efficiency projects. The measures to make the Government estate carbon neutral should save approximately 800,000 tonnes of carbon - the equivalent of filling the Albert Hall with carbon dioxide more than 20 times a day or taking over three quarters of a million cars off the road. The other significant target unveiled by Mr Miliband was that Government hopes to reduce carbon emissions from its office based estate by 30% by 2020. This covers the office estate, all central Government departments and their agencies, wherever their offices are based in the UK.
