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Minister calls for greener Government IT

20 September 2007
CAB/077/07

Public sector computer systems need to become greener and more efficient, Cabinet Office Minister Gillian Merron said today.

Speaking at the fourth European Ministerial e-Government Conference in Lisbon, the Minister called on the UK Chief Information Officer's Council to reduce the carbon footprint of government computers and improve the sustainability of public sector IT.

Gillian Merron said:

“Figures from industry suggest that worldwide, information technology is responsible for about 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions each year – that's between 2 and 4% of global energy.4

“The government is by far the biggest user of IT in the UK, spending around £12 billion a year. We have a responsibility to set a positive example on the environment, so I am asking our IT leaders to work with industry to find new ways to improve the sustainability of government computer systems. This doesn’t just mean reducing the amount of electricity they use, but also looking at how they can be designed and built in ways that consume fewer materials and which make recycling easier.“

John Suffolk, the Government's Chief Information Officer, said:

“There is real potential to deliver more sustainable IT that also costs less and provides better results for users. New technologies can help reduce energy consumption and allow more flexible working. There is already some excellent practice in place and we look forward to working with the IT industry to build on this and to deliver continued improvements in the future.”

Duncan Mitchell, Chair of the Information Age Partnership, said:

“The Information Age Partnership welcomes this challenge and looks forward to working alongside the government to achieve its aims. The IT industry is focused on making existing systems more sustainable and is ideally placed to advise how service transformation can be used to reduce the environmental impact of activities in the public and private sector alike.”

The Chief Information Officer's Council will now work with the Information Age Partnership to take a systematic look at how Government can work with the industry to put public sector IT onto a more sustainable footing. They will publish their initial report in 2008.

Notes to editors

  1. The 4th European Ministerial e-Government Conference, “Reaping the Benefits of eGovernment”, takes place in Lisbon from 19'21 September. The conference has four main themes relating to ICT and public services: better public services for growth and jobs; participation and transparency; social impact and cohesion; and effective and efficient administration.
  2. The Chief Information Officer's Council – http://www.cio.gov.uk/ [External website] – acts as a focus for partnership between IT professionals across government. It has a membership drawn from the wider public sector – central government, local government and agencies in fields such as health and policing. It is charged with creating and delivering a government-wide CIO agenda to support the transformation of government and to build capacity and capability in IT-enabled business change.
  3. The Information Age Partnership – www.iapuk.org/ [External website] – was established by the Department of Trade and Industry in 1998. It engages around 40 Chief Executive Officers from across the UK's ITEC industries, as well as key representative organisations, such as the CBI, and major trade bodies, such as Intellect and the Digital Content Forum (DCF).
  4. Sources: 2% Gartner, 4% IPC.
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