What should you be doing?

Each public sector organisation will have different initiatives for reducing the impact of its buildings and operations.

The public sector as a whole is committed to reducing the financial deficit and delivering value for money. Sustainable development can play an important part in that through efficiency savings and delivering multiple benefits. Some examples of this are:

• Sustainable procurement: the Government Buying Standards provide guidance for government and public sector buyers to purchase sustainably; Defra is developing buying standards for food procurement, taking account of the Department of Health’s experience of piloting the Healthier Food Mark;
• Energy efficiency: the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is a mandatory energy efficiency scheme aimed at improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions in large public and private sector organisations; the Energy Saving Trust provides guidance to the public sector on reducing energy consumption;
• Resource efficiency: possible initiatives include encouraging employees to switch off unused lights and appliances, and to “think before you print”;
• Sustainable travel: teleconferencing can reduce business travel; incentive schemes can encourage employees to use alternative forms of transport;
• Sustainable policy and decision making: Defra provides guidance to policy makers on sustainable development impact assessments.

See Where to go to for advice for more sources of advice, support and guidance.