Sustainable development

We recognise our duty to reduce the impact of our business on the environment by cutting carbon dioxide emissions, by using resources efficiently and effectively and by eliminating waste.

Latest in this section

  • Food procurement reporting
    Two reports on the department's food and catering suppliers' compliance with the government's buying standards for food and catering services.
    21 March 2012
    Carbon managment plan 2011-15: a summary
    The plan sets out our ambitions on reducing carbon dioxide emissions over the next four years
    Published 12 July 2011

'Greening government'

On 14 May 2010, the Prime Minister committed government to reducing its carbon emissions by 10 per cent in 12 months. Government has achieved this target, saving a total of 13.8 per cent in 12 months. This was an ambitious and challenging commitment on energy efficiency, spanning 3,000 central government office buildings and 300,000 civil servants. Never before has government achieved this level of reductions in such a short space of time.

The Home Office has saved £1 million this year by reducing carbon dicoxide emissions by more than 17 per cent across its largest energy-consuming buildings.

Real-time reporting of energy use has been implemented across central government headquarter buildings to ensure greater public transparency in Whitehall’s energy efficiency. These systems have been in place since summer 2010 with the data published regularly on departments' websites. You can check the Home Office's energy use.

Our carbon management plan is available to read.

You can find out more about 'Green government' on the Cabinet Office website.
Further details of the government-wide reduction in carbon emissions are available on the data.gov.uk website.

Policy

Our sustainability development policy sets out the aims to reduce the impacts of our work on the enviorment and to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.

Targets

This government aims to be the greenest government ever - in delivering sustainable development by promoting economic development, environmental protection and an improving quality of life for everyone in the UK. The commitments for greening government operations and procurement were published on 28 February 2011 and set out a range of new measures including:

  • reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • reducing waste
  • reducing water use
  • being transparent about the impact of government's supply chain
  • making procurement of goods and services more sustainable, while continuing to deliver value for money

Each year, we report our progress in the department's annual report.

Food procurement reporting

In compliance with the sustainability standards that were developed to enable government to set a good example on sustainable procurement, the Home Office presents reports from it's food and catering suppliers. They provide data on meeting standards on the sourcing of food, and specific information about the standards achieved at the department's London headquarters.

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