Sustainability report
The Government has reduced its carbon emissions by 13.9 per cent, exceeding the 10 per cent target set by the Prime Minister in May 2010. DVLA achieved a 10.3 per cent reduction playing a big part in this by contributing to around 70 per cent of DfT’s savings.
In 2011-12, our Business Plan set out a number of stretching objectives around sustainability.
During the year we:
- were placed in the top three of the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment performance league
- retained ISO14001 certification for the 11th year
- were awarded a Gold level certificate from South West Wales Integrated Transport Consortium for DVLA’s Travel Plan
- exceeded six out of seven Greening Government Commitments (see Sustainable performance).
Socially driven
We set out in our Business Plan 2011-12 how we would continue our commitment to the well-being of staff and our commitment to work placements from the local area (see our people). During the year, the Agency has facilitated workshops on environmental management, including inviting local schools into DVLA to see how we work. We actively encourage key suppliers/providers to engage with the local community who play a fundamental role in assisting with links into the community.
In 2011-12, the Agency’s waste management company held recycling campaigns to raise money for local charities.
Economically sound
Value for money is still a key driver to ensure our customers are getting the most out of public services. The Agency has worked closely with other government departments to share accommodation. This has reduced duplication of processes and the time taken for customers to interact with government departments see wider government objectives.
DVLA considers its sustainability agenda to be an integral part of ensuring value for money. Linking environmental practice with economic practice often provides the best benefit, for example our initiative to make duplex printing (printing on both sides of paper) as the default setting on all of our printers has saved £68,000 a year and 31,000 reams of paper.
Environmentally responsible
DVLA’s Environmental Management System is well established, ensuring that we are in control of our legislative compliance and continual improvements.
In response to the Greening Government Commitments, the Agency has developed plans in four key areas. The plans define how we will meet the reductions required by 2014-15 (from the 2009-10 baseline). Monitoring against these plans has already shown that we are doing well in most areas.
The four key areas are to:
- cut carbon from the estate and business related travel
- reduce the amount of waste generated
- reduce water consumption
- embed sustainable procurement
Carbon from the estate
In 2011-12 the Agency achieved a 5.3 per cent reduction in carbon from its estate. We are, however, behind on our target to reduce carbon by 10 per cent from the 2009-10 baseline. We have produced firm plans for achieving the longer term target of a 25 per cent reduction in tCO2e (tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent) from our estate by 2014-15.
These plans include:
- Optimising the way we utilise our self-generated electricity in our Swansea site. This revision of the way the excess heat is used from these generators will provide a reduction in the amount of tCO²e and the total cost of energy we consume.
- We will reduce the total number of actual servers by using software which will allow one physical server to host many virtual servers.
- Replacing our mains transformers with modern more energy efficient units.
- If the result of transforming DVLA services consultation exercise (see our strategy) is to proceed with the proposal, the rationalisation of the local office network will also provide a reduction in energy consumption.
Carbon from business related travel
In 2011-12, our Business Plan objectives were to:
- reduce emissions from road travel by five per cent
- reduce the number of hire cars we use and change our pool cars to low emission hybrid vehicles
- focus on improvements to the amount of air and rail travel undertaken
We have achieved all targets resulting in a 43 per cent reduction (from the 2009-10 baseline), exceeding already the 2011-15 target of a 25 per cent reduction. Further work will be carried out over the next year to centralise travel management allowing greater control and scrutiny of travel.
Waste minimisation
In 2011-12, our Business Plan objective was to:
- reduce five per cent a year annually to achieve a 25 per cent reduction of waste
We have reduced our waste again this year and are now producing 13.7 per cent less waste than in 2009-10. In 2011-12 our Business Plan objective was to:
- reduce paper consumption by 10 per cent relative to 2009-10 levels
We achieved 47.4 per cent against the 10 per cent target.
Recycling
In 2011-12, we introduced a food composting scheme for our main site resulting in 6.72 tonnes of food waste. We are continuing to achieve an 80 per cent rate of recycling.
Water
The Government commitment was to reduce water consumption to meet the best practice guidelines. Our average for the whole estate is now at 4m3 per Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This is in line with the best practice guidelines. By the end of 2014-15, we aim to improve on this and achieve a consumption level of 3.32m3 per FTE.
Sustainable procurement
From a commercial perspective, DVLA has made considerable progress in delivering against and maintaining a programme of work that supports sustainability. This has seen the introduction of engagement with the market. All specifications are reviewed for their compliance with the sustainability agenda, prior to issue of tenders. This element of the procurement cycle is supplemented by the endorsement of the specification by our sustainability manager. The DVLA standard terms and conditions are issued as part of the tender documentation. The standards contain specific provision for suppliers to abide by the Government Sustainability Agenda. In addition, the evaluation process is explicit that the assessment of bids must include whole life costing, for example from implementation to disposal of a product.
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