Green IT in UK government

Green IT in UK government: implications for existing supplier contracts

Tom Watson, the UK's Minister for Transformational Government, has launched the white paper Greening Government ICT: Efficient, Sustainable, Responsible, describing it as “the first step in a long-term vision to create a carbon-neutral government estate by 2012 and best practice for sustainability across the whole ICT lifecycle by 2020.”

The white paper sets out a series of actions that the UK government will take to ensure that its use of ICT helps to deliver a carbon-neutral government estate by 2012. Carbon offsetting is seen as a last resort.

Watson is convinced that, in the short term, a series of simple actions will achieve an immediate impact. These include switching off computers overnight and printing double-sided by default. The white paper highlights the fact that switching off a single computer overnight saves 235kg of CO2 . Grossing this up to the whole of the government (500,000 computers) represents a carbon saving equivalent to taking 40,000 cars off the road.