Whitehall Exceeds Carbon Target

7 July 2011: The Prime Minister announced yesterday that carbon emissions from central Government HQs and offices – the majority vast of which are based in London – have been slashed by nearly 14% in just one year, and told Whitehall it would have to go further by cutting emissions by 25% by 2015. Lots of Departmental performance information released, but of more interest is the end of year report – Carbon Reduction on the Government Office Estate – which makes interesting reading in relation to the projects implemented  in offices to help reduce energy/carbon. These include  energy saving competitions, implementing a 19°C set point, various energy conservation projects, introducing Automatic Meter Reading, and an also a successful CHP project at the DWP.  DECC’s behaviour change experiments are a good read: ‘scrunch‘ – which gives people who are working late incentives to congregate in one area, thereby allowing whole floors to be shut down; and ‘OK Commuter’, which helps people track their journeys to work. (‘no surprises’ that DECC’s full of Radiohead fans!)