MOST SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION – GOVERNMENT
National Assembly for Wales WINNER
Welsh Government to account. Almost uniquely, the Assembly has a statutory duty under the Government of Wales Act to have due regard to sustainability when undertaking its day to day work. This statutory obligation is reflected in one of five Strategic Objectives of the National Assembly for Wales – ‘To Work Sustainably’.
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Our estate includes the landmark Senedd and Pierhead buildings in Cardiff Bay. The Pierhead is a Grade 1 Listed Building and the Senedd is built it BREAAM excellence standards. Our stakeholders include around 60 elected politicians, including the Environment Minister.
Our Annual Report quantifies the level of investment in Sustainable activity. In 2009/10 it amounted to £4.9m – about 15 % of net operating costs – mainly related to building management.
POWER DOWN & CARBON NEUTRAL Working with the Carbon Trust and environmental consultants the Assembly Commission has set the challenging target of becoming carbon neutral by 2015. As an alternative to using arbitrary percentage reductions we set a fixed target for our carbon footprint of around 1500 tonnes CO2
by 2015 based on
achieving a standard energy performance rating. This requires an annual reduction of 8% in energy consumption. We commissioned the Carbon Trust and ARUP to produce a costed programme of environmental improvements to deliver those energy targets by 2015.
The strategy was submitted by the Assembly Commission and is now the single focus for all our environmental activities.
In 2015 we plan to offset the residual
emissions. We are also exploring the scope for generating electricity including
he National Assembly for Wales is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people, makes laws for Wales and holds the
an income sharing scheme using the Feed In tariff.
The program has allowed us to make quick wins where changes can be made easily and at low cost and has resulted in a better alignment between the Facilities Management budget and carbon reduction initiatives.
At the core of the programme are some basic improvements such as refinement of the Building Management System, improved cavity insulation and the repair of “leaking” building fabric identified through a heat sensitive camera survey. The most significant change, however, is the replacement of air conditioning with natural ventilation. This requires a significant investment in replacement windows with louvres designed to better regulate building temperature. We are also using Energy Targeting and Monitoring software to further improve our understanding of how energy is consumed within the estate.
COMMUNICATING CULTURE CHANGE We need to change hearts and minds. Stakeholder involvement is central to achieving our targets so communicating the environmental strategy to staff and elected Members is the key to success. We do this in a number of ways. Since 2006 we have had a ‘Green
Team’ consisting of enthusiastic staff from each part of the Assembly who drive the environmental program from the bottom up. The Green Team has never been an “official body” (although membership includes a Director) and is free to raise any environmental issue. The Green Team has been the catalyst for many improvements including removing personal waste bins, replacing paper towels with energy efficient hand dryers and introducing a tax free bike scheme. The Green Team has changed the way we work by campaigning for improved recycling facilities, using less paper and more sustainable travel.
The ‘Clear Skies’ group is a Director- led team that develops strategic initiatives
such as the Carbon Reduction Plan and, more importantly, secures the funding needed to invest in sustainable projects. The Sustainability Co-ordinator champions the green agenda and manages the Environmental Management System. His responsibilities involve publishing weekly environmental information on our all-staff intranet including an environmental “tip of the week”. He arranges out of hours spot checks of PC shutdowns – rewarding staff who shut down with everything from Easter eggs to low energy light bulbs. He also drives the communication strategy through events such as an annual Eco day, publications, intranet articles (most recently on the energy consumption and costs of running all our PC’s) and delivers sustainability awareness training for all new employees.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT The Assembly operates an
Environmental Management System (EMS) known as Green Dragon, a Wales based, BS8555 compliant system overseen by Groundwork Wales. Green Dragon operates a stepped system of achievement and the Assembly has achieved level 5 – the highest level.
Green Dragon has helped us to focus our environmental action plan as well as ensuring we meet all our statutory responsibilities. It is the catalyst for further improvements to the building fabric and has clearly illustrated the importance of management data to setting and achieving targets. Last year, we have reported the following environmental performance: • 247 tonnes (8.6%) reduction in CO2
emissions
• 8% reduction in energy emissions (equivalent to £50,000 saving)
• 18% reduction in business travel emissions (equivalent to £150,000 saving)
• 66% of waste diverted from landfill
• 95% of paper purchased from recycled or FSC sources
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SUSTAINABLE FM AWARDS 2010
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