Corporate report

Annex A: Sustainability Report for the year ended 31 March 2022

Published 9 June 2022

Approach to Sustainability and Climate Change Adaptation; working towards Net Zero by 2050

GLD’s strategy for sustainability is to improve our performance against the Greening Government Commitments (GGC) 2021-25, and more broadly to play our part in the wider civil service initiatives that contribute to meeting the UK’s carbon neutral targets by 2050.

In April 2021, we launched a Sustainability Action Plan that committed us to a number of actions at both organisational and staff level. In addition to exceeding our Greening Government Commitments, our key achievements in 2021-22 have been to:

• Launch a ‘Greener GLD’ staff pledge which is designed to inspire staff to make individual changes to promote sustainability;
• The ‘Greener GLD’ network has worked with the GLD training team to establish a climate change and environmental law strand to GLD’s training offer and are promoting other means to share knowledge like the Centres of Excellence;
• The senior leadership team continues to provide visible support for our network and Elizabeth Hambley, the GLD Board member who acts as Green Champion, continues to champion the ‘Greener GLD’ network and its aims at Board level; and
• A sustainability audit to help inform the environmental impacts of return to the office was conducted in February 2022.

GLD is currently mid-way through its 5 year Strategy 2019-2024, and the next step for sustainability is for GLD to develop and adopt a comprehensive and evidence-based long-term sustainability strategy, to be included in the next iteration of GLD’s Strategy in 2024. In 2022-23 the ‘Greener GLD’ network will work with senior leadership and the GLD Operations Team to highlight key actions needed over the course of the next financial year to enable a sustainability strategy to be adopted in line with these timetables.

Performance reported is in line with the minimum reporting requirements for Greening Government Commitments (data for previous 3 years plus the 2017-18 baseline). Where a GGC measure is not applicable to GLD, this has been stated.

GLD is a minor tenant in all buildings occupied and therefore is not the key decision maker with regard to most areas covered by the Greening Government Commitments. However, as in previous years, in excess of minimum reporting requirements, we have attempted to report data for GLD’s share of occupied buildings where that data is available.

Most data included is only available at a building level as there is not separate meterage in place for sub-tenants, so the GLD share has been apportioned based on our occupation percentage. The only data included which is based on GLD actuals rather than an apportionment, is in respect of Scope 3 Emissions (expenditure on business travel) and paper consumption where records from our internal print room have been used.

The data reported covers occupancy at the GLD central London Head Office 102 Petty France and the GLD site at Southern House in Croydon. Data hasn’t been included for the GLD conference centre at Queen Anne’s Gate, the GLD office space in Bristol, or our occupancy at Wellington Place in Leeds. GLD is a minor tenant in these buildings and therefore the major occupier/leaseholder should report data for these sites.

Overall Greening Government Commitment Performance

GLD sustainability figures are significantly below the 2017-18 baseline in respect of all GGC measures. During the COVID-19 pandemic our sites operated at a reduced capacity. Whilst some changes have been made to business processes and ways of working since the start of the pandemic, an increase in some measures is expected in future years relative to 2021-22 as staff attend the office more frequently.

The following reporting areas set out in the minimum reporting requirements are not applicable to the department: * Nature Recovery and Biodiversity action planning - no significant natural capital or landholdings are held. * Sustainable Construction - no construction or refurbishment projects have been undertaken during the reporting period. * Scope 1 Emissions (Direct) – GLD occupies shared buildings so energy usage is indirect under Scope 2. * Travel Car Fleet – GLD does not own, hire or lease car fleets.

Waste          and	minimisation management	Baseline 2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Non-financial indicators (tonnes)	Total recycled	105	88	163	35	6
Non-financial indicators (tonnes)	Total incinerated with energy recovery	25	25	36	6	1
Non-financial indicators (tonnes)	Total incinerated without energy recovery	-	-	-	-	2
Non-financial indicators (tonnes)	Total waste	130	113	200	41	9
Financial Indicators (£)	Total disposal cost*	28,606	24,877	28,742	6,560	4,399

*Disposal costs were only incurred directly for Southern House and have been estimated for 102 Petty France based on the total waste figures.

Performance commentary:

The GGC waste target is to reduce the overall amount of waste generated by 15% from the 2017-18 baseline. Overall waste has been lower for 2021-22 primarily due to the reduced occupancy at our sites. Most waste is either recycled or sent for energy recovery.

Single Use Plastics: GLD does not run any catering establishments or consumer venues selling products which may include single use plastics; however, staff are able to use catering facilities provided in shared buildings. Recycling facilities are provided in GLD buildings.

Reducing Environmental Impacts from ICT and Digital: GLD ICT is in the process of letting a 2 year contract for the safe and recycling of its ICT devices, which will be disposed of in accordance with ISO14001 and WEEE directive 2006. The newly appointed supplier will take ICT obsolete and broken devices, which will largely comprise but not be restricted to Laptops, mobile phones, monitors, and various network equipment. Where possible once each device has been secured data wiped, they may be remarketed and sold for further use. Any devices that are unfit for re-sale, will be shredded and all reclaimable metals and plastics recycled. Any unusable waste will be sent to landfill. GLD ICT is also working with the main suppliers of our laptop devices, to understand how much of these devices consist of recycled materials as well as how much of their devices can be recycled. This will become a key area for consideration for future equipment purchases, particularly for device refresh programmes.

Greenhouse Emissions	Gas	Baseline 2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Non-Financial	Gross Emissions Scope 2 - Energy indirect	1,562	1,555	1,781	636	427
Indicators	Gross Emissions Scope 3 - Official Business Travel	104	149	167	30	3
(tCO2e)	Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions	1,666	1,704	1,948	666	430
Related Energy	Electricity	2,572,766	2,615,646	4,086,100	2,206,899	1,211,498
Consumption	Gas	-	-	629,159	418,448	416,681
(KWh)	Oil	826,235	688,232	219,684	-	-
Financial	Total Expenditure on Energy	306,133	568,725	672,193	333,033	442,355
Indicators (£)	Expenditure on official business travel	494,053	605,029	539,944	125,501	60,711

Performance commentary:

The GGC is to:

Reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from a 2017-18 baseline and also reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from estate and operations from a 2017-18 baseline, working towards net zero by 2050.

Overall emissions (tCO2e) have fallen 74% below baseline. Expenditure on business flights has reduced by 76% since 2017-18.

Finite	resource consumption	Baseline 2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Non Financial	Water consumption (m3)	7,683	6,895	6,057	2,124	618
Indicators	Paper Consumption (A4 Reams)	27,881	31,365	12,255	1,949	2,785
Financial indicators (£)	Water Supply and Disposal Cost*	17,511	15,759	10,916	5,642	3,944

Performance commentary:

The GGC targets are to:

• Reduce water consumption by at least 8% from the 2017-18 baseline
• There is a sub-target to reduce government’s paper use by at least 50% from a 2017-18 baseline.

Paper consumption is 90% below the baseline in part due to staff working from home and making greater use of digital formats.

Water consumption has further reduced this year and is 90% below the baseline for 2017-18.

Sustainable procurement

The GGC also promotes the procurement of sustainable and efficient products whilst, reducing the impact of the supply chain on the environment. This includes embedding efficient procurement practices and improving and publishing data on supply chain impact.

The overall procurement strategy principally includes the use of Crown Commercial Service framework contracts and the department is subject to the Sustainability Policy that it operates.

GLD promotes sustainability in procurement by:

• working closely with its suppliers to improve sustainable processes and the use of products;
• buying products and services which are less environmentally damaging; for instance, the use of “thin client” units which use less energy than conventional ‘base unit’ desktop computers;
• complying with environmental legislation and regulatory requirements including relevant environmental conditions or criteria in specifications and tender documents, and evaluating supplier offers accordingly; and
• raising awareness of environmental issues within the department, and amongst suppliers and contractors