Corporate report

Greening Government Commitments ICT Annual Report 2024 to 2025

Published 16 July 2026

This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government

Introduction

This is a report under the 2021 to 2025 framework, which was developed and implemented under the previous Conservative government. 

This report summarises the UK government’s progress on the Greening Government Information and communication technology (ICT) commitments (as set out in the Greening government commitments 2021 to 2025)

In particular, the report provides a narrative update on progress against the Greening Government ICT commitments. This is followed by more detailed analysis of data on carbon emissions and circularity at government and departmental level. The scope of the IT commitments covers emissions and waste associated with hosting infrastructure and hardware, including relevant supply chain impacts. It does not encompass the full environmental footprint of government digital operations, such as emissions associated with supplier contracts and services outside of hosting and hardware.

This report has been produced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but covers progress across all UK government departments. Each department has submitted a return to this report detailing their own progress on digital sustainability.

The Devolved administrations are not included in this report, and a full definition of departments and information in scope is included in the appendix.

Departments and their IT suppliers have worked hard over the past year to improve the accuracy of the data they submit. For example, a number of departments have been able to work with their cloud providers to improve the accuracy of their hosting data.

The information gathered in this report is intended to support progress and reporting on digital sustainability issues., The data is also useful for understanding the makeup of UK government’s technology estate more widely, for example, the data on hosting and asset volumes.

The insights of Ewen Anderson (Chair of the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance’s (GDSA) Scope 3 working group), Anthony Levy and Mark Butcher (Scope 3 working group members) have also been extremely valuable in updating the calculations for hardware emissions in this report. The support of the wider Scope 3 working group and GDSA members has also been vital to the work reflected in this report . Michael Ferris from Crown Hosting Data Centres has provided valuable further assurance and support.

Nonetheless, departments and their supply chains still face several challenges in reporting on their digital sustainability performance. These are encountered across the technology sector and include:

• reflecting an accurate location-based grid balance for energy use in hosting
• identifying accurate figures for the embodied carbon produced in the manufacture and distribution of different technology devices
• accurately measuring the amount of time devices are used for, in calculation of scope 2 figures
• identifying and measuring outsourced services not currently within scope of the commitments, to better understand where reductions may reflect true decarbonisation rather than outsourcing emissions to third parties

The figures provided in this report should therefore be treated as best estimates, rather than precise actuals.

Executive summary

A huge amount of hard work took place across UK government from 2024 to 2025 to deliver more sustainable and efficient IT operations, particularly by reducing ICT waste However, the overall scale of the challenge and opportunity facing us remained significant.

For example:

• estimated carbon emissions from government ICT fell 13% from the previous year but remained at nearly 300,000 tonnes
• an increasing proportion of these emissions came from hosting operations, but the largest proportion continued to come from the embodied carbon in end user devices and peripherals
• estimated ICT waste from UK government fell 36% from the previous year, but remained at nearly 1,000 tonnes
• less than 1% of ICT waste went to landfill or incineration, but nearly two thirds of it was processed for recycling rather than being directly re-used or resold
• government realised over £2 million in value from reselling end of life IT equipment

This work relies on partnerships with supply chains and UK academic organisations, as showcased by our Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) advisory group. The group has now grown to over 100 member organisations.

Collaboration across government and with supply chains has also been essential to the improving coverage and accuracy of this report. Whilst there are still important caveats (particularly on estimates of emissions), we are continuing provide a fuller picture of UK government’s digital sustainability performance each year.

Indeed, this annual report is now an important source of wider information about UK government’s overall technology estate. For example:

• UK government’s technology estate contains over a million monitors, more than 900,000 laptops, nearly 350,000 smartphones and over 275,000 desktop PC’s. The opportunity for improving circularity, reducing waste and realising more value from this estate is significant
• UK government’s hosting consumption (based on power consumed) is spread across private cloud (250 million kWh), public cloud (68 million kWh), and on premise (64 million kWh) arrangements. This gives a clear opportunity to take advantage of the sustainability features of private and public cloud hosting

The data in this annual report has also been central to the upcoming digital sustainability strategy for UK government, as committed to in the Roadmap for modern digital government.

This strategy will set out how UK government intends to:

• improve environmental and social outcomes from its ICT estate

• reduce waste and improve circularity from its ICT estate

• improve efficiency across its ICT estate

• enhance resilience of its ICT estate

• support growth and innovation from British businesses

The Defra sustainability team is grateful for the work of everyone involved in this issue for their support with this report, and for their ongoing efforts to deliver these important outcomes in the years ahead.

Summary of performance against Greening Government commitments

The Greening Government: ICT and digital services strategy 2020 to 2025 sets out 5 key ambitions and objectives to be completed by March 2025. Based on the data that we received, as well as other updates from across government, we can provide a high-level summary of performance against them.

Ambition 1: Reduce carbon and cost

Objective: Only procure from suppliers who have committed to Science Based Targets (SBTis)

Progress to March 2025 – on track: this requirement is now embedded in government procurement policy notes (PPNs) and guidance.

Objective: Reduce the ICT carbon and ecological footprint

Progress to March 2025 – on track: the footprint continues to reduce, with both CO2e emissions and waste volumes decreasing in 2024 to 2025.

Objective: Design ICT and digital services with sustainability in mind and through adherence to the technology code of practice

Progress to March 2025 – on track: work continues to embed digital sustainability in service design and delivery. For example, we have added sustainability to the Government Design Principles and Government Digital Service Manual, and produced the Greener Service Principles to collate practical advice for digital teams on actions they can take.

Ambition 2: Increase resilience

Objective: Embed ‘gold’ standard procurement criteria removing modern slavery from the ICT supply chain

Progress to March 2025 – on track: no cases of modern slavery have been identified in government’s ICT supply chain.

Objective: Map and monitor the supply chain data for the ICT systems and services utilised across His Majesty’s Government (HMG)

Progress to March 2025 – on track: this supply chain data has been used to produce the data in this report.

Objective: Stress and scenario test ICT supply chains to increase preparedness to ecological and climate breakdown

Progress to March 2025 – on track: all government ICT suppliers are expected to have Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans in place (including for disruption caused by climate change).

Ambition 3: Increased responsibility – doing the right thing

Objective: Increase awareness or impact of the role of the responsible digital citizen through delivery of training and education

Progress to March 2025 – on track: departments and members of the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance have played an active role in awareness raising within departments and in sector-wide events. These included doubling the alliance’s membership to nearly 50 organisations, hosting lunch and learn sessions, and direct engagement from Defra and other departments such as DWP at industry events.

Objective: Embed sustainable ICT principles within key roles and deliverables across government

Progress to March 2025 – on track: sustainable IT is embedded into key policy and strategy – for example, the Roadmap for Modern Digital Government. Chris Howes (Defra’s Chief Digital and Information Officer for 2024 to 2025) has provided senior responsible owner support for the work, and the Functional Leaders Group has supported these efforts as required.

Objective: Embed sustainable ICT principles within departmental, agency, body policy and strategy

Progress to March 2025 – on track: digital sustainability is embedded in the:

• Technology Code of Practice
• Service Manual
• Design Principles for Government
• Roadmap for Modern Digital Government

Ambition 4: Increased transparency and collaboration

Objective: Publish an accurate ICT footprint based on the services consumed, on estates and with suppliers, encompassing embodied or embedded carbon

Progress to March 2025 – on track: we embedded the improvements in last year’s report (where we included scope 3 hardware and waste emissions for the first time). We used the insight of our GDSA Advisory Group to improve the embodied carbon figures for devices. An increasing several hosting providers are reporting more accurate and location-based information to departments.

Hardware suppliers more regularly publish manufacturer data that includes power consumption and scope 3 embodied carbon estimates.

Despite this, challenges remain in standardising and consistently measuring emissions across the wider digital services landscape.

Objective: Map and account for all ICT at end of life

Progress to March 2025 – on track: we report on ICT end of life outcomes within this report and have even greater detail than last year. However, we know there is still more that we need to do, especially on mineral recovery and providers transporting waste overseas to recycle it.

Objective: Establish, operate and participate in an HMG sustainability supplier steering group

Progress to March 2025 – on track: the cross-government digital sustainability steering group has served as this digital sustainability steering group. Crown Commercial Service and other commercial policy colleagues also continue to support these efforts.

Ambition 5: Increased accountability

Objective: Report an annual percentage improvement in the procurement of remanufactured or refurbished ICT, promoting multiple usage lifecycles

Progress to March 2025 – at risk: although many departments are recognising the opportunity for cost savings and high reductions in embodied carbon through second life devices, there is not an accurate way to measure this as a percentage improvement within the data available. We intend to address this in the next reporting period.

Objective: Report ICT figures within GGC processes (and successors in cross-government sustainability reporting)

Progress to March 2025 – on track: we have aligned this report with GGC commitments. The cross-government digital sustainability team have strengthened their engagement with the Defra Greening Government Commitments team to further align processes and future ambitions.

Summary of UK government’s overall ICT sustainability footprint

Last year’s report was the first time that every department provided a return, which marked an important milestone. That comprehensive engagement has remained the case this year, with data from all 21 ministerial departments (covering 62 departments, agencies and government bodies).

Headline figures are as follows:

• UK government’s ICT carbon emissions decreased from the previous year. These emissions were estimated to be 294,654 tonnes over 2024 to 2025. This is a drop of 45,631 tonnes (or 13%) from the 340,285 tonnes over 2023 to 2024

• UK government’s ICT waste volumes also reduced. The total volume of ICT waste was estimated to be 955 tonnes in 2024 to 2025. This is a drop of 536 tonnes (or 36%) from the 1,491 tonnes in 2023 to 2024

• less than 1% of UK government ICT waste went to either landfill or incineration without energy recovery in 2024 to 2025. In total, 6 tonnes (or 0.7% of the total volume of ICT waste) was reported as being disposed of through these routes, with nearly all of this coming from incineration. This is a reduction of 14 tonnes (or 68%) from the 20 tonnes which went to landfill in 2023 to 2024 (which accounted for 1.3% of the total waste that year)

• UK government realised over £2 million of value by reselling ICT devices at their end of life for UK government, in line with the preferred outcome of a circular economy approach. We did not report on this figure in previous years

Detail of UK government’s ICT emissions footprint

Overall emissions

The UK government’s ICT carbon emissions decreased from the previous year. These emissions were estimated to be 294,654 tonnes over 2024 to 2025. This is a drop of 45,631 tonnes (or 13%) from the 340,285 tonnes over 2023 to 2024.

Emissions per full time equivalent (FTE) (total FTE = 1,452,677) were estimated to be 0.41 tonnes – this is a reduction of 0.03 tonnes to 0.44 tonnes per FTE in 2023 to 2024.

Notes on emissions data

The key metric for the Greening Government commitment is total CO2e emissions, as this shows the ultimate footprint of government ICT services. The emissions per FTE figure can be helpful to indicate underlying trends, but drivers of ICT emissions do not always vary directly in line with FTE numbers.

For example, some organisations employ few staff but are responsible for large and numerous digital services - which generate significant hosting emissions. Other departments may have lots of staff but are responsible for few digital services due to the nature of their departmental responsibilities.

The UK Electricity CO2e factor is used to calculate scope 2 emissions. These are emissions that HMG causes indirectly from the purchase of energy, for example, the emissions caused when powering hardware and on-premise servers.

This year, we updated the estimates for embodied carbon and electricity consumption in the devices reported across UK government’s estate. This reduced the emissions of some devices (mainly audio and visual) but increased the emissions for others (such as end user devices).

It is not possible to confidently apply these updated estimates across all the relevant data in previous years’ reports to produce updated emissions figure for previous years. However, the updated estimates (and their impact on this year’s data) should be noted when comparing this report to previous ones.

Figure 1: total UK government ICT CO2e emissions (million tonnes)

Reporting period	tCO2e emissions (millions)
2020 to 2021	0.21
2021 to 2022	0.2
2022 to 2023	0.37
2023 to 2024	0.34
2024 to 2025	0.30

Figure 2: average UK government ICT CO2e emissions per FTE (tonnes)

Reporting period	tCO2e
2020 to 2021	0.40
2021 to 2022	0.33
2022 to 2023	0.55
2023 to 2024	0.44
2024 to 2025	0.41

Notes for Figures 1 and 2

Figures prior to 2022 to 2023 do not include scope 3 waste and hardware emissions, and 2022 to 2023 does not include waste emissions.

Drivers of emissions

It is important to understand the different sources of government ICT emissions so that we can prioritise interventions where they can make the most impact. The main sources of ICT emissions in 2024 to 2025 were end user devices (especially from embodied carbon in their manufacture and distribution), peripheral IT equipment and data centres.

This mirrors analysis across the technology and sustainability sectors and further highlights the importance of a more circular approach to devices to reduce emissions.

Table 1: UK government ICT CO2e emissions by category

Type	Total tCO2e	Percentage of total UK government ICT CO2e emissions
Server	110,855.17	38%
Peripherals	69,361	24%
End user devices	52,388	18%
Network	25,356	9%
Imaging	27,543	9%
Telephone (excluding smartphone)	7,390	3%
Audio-Visual	1,616	1%
Other	139	0%
Waste	6	0%
Total	294,654.17	100%

Definition of categories:

• end user devices: PCs, laptops, smart phones and other hardware used to interact with data and applications
• peripherals: auxiliary hardware devices (such as a monitor), that a computer uses to transfer information externally
• servers: a computer or system that provides resources, data, services or programs
• on premise servers: servers and data centres owned by departments off premise servers and private cloud: servers and data centres outsourced to a third-party supplier
• public cloud: data centres providing a multi-tenant hosting environment
• networking: devices used for communication and data transmission between computers and networks (such as routers, network switches, firewalls)
• imaging: devices that print and scan information
• telephone (excluding smartphone):  hardware used to connect and facilitate communication over telephone lines
• audio-visual: devices designed to capture, process, transmit, and display sound and imagery
• waste: ICT that has reached end of life in the department

A large majority of government ICT emissions are defined as Scope 3 (which also mirrors the pattern seen across the world in the same World Bank report).

Figure 3: government ICT CO2e emissions by scope

Emission scope	CO2e emissions
Scope 1	0.09%
Scope 2	25.19%
Scope 3	74.72%

The makeup of UK government’s ICT estate is also revealed in the data collated for this report. As well as being used to calculate embodied carbon emissions, these numbers show the potential value in taking a more circular approach to managing this estate, reducing costs at procurement and extracting greater value through the device lifecycle.

Table 2: quantity of hardware assets reported across UK government 2024 to 2025 (only above 10,000 shown).

Note servers are not included in this due to shared infrastructure models in public cloud.

Hardware type	Total number of assets
Monitors	1,061,209
Laptops	902,667
Smartphones	346,112
Desktop personal computer (PC’s)	275,556
Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) distributed (networking devices)	136,316
Wireless access points	53,715
Mobile phones	51,191
Laser printers	49,229
10/100 switches (networking devices)	39,147
Tablets	33,064
Room based hubs	31,269
Docking stations	17,299
Locally powered VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones	16,916
Videoconferencing studio unit	14,837
10/100/1000 switches (networking devices)	12,791
Power over Ethernet (POE) (networking devices)	10,709
Core switches (networking devices)	10,254

Detail of government ICT services circularity and planetary impact

Overall position

Detail on the government’s e-waste volumes is as follows:

• UK government’s ICT waste volumes also reduced. The total volume of ICT waste was estimated to be 955 tonnes in 2024 to 2025. This is a drop of 536 tonnes (or 36%) from the 1,491 tonnes in 2023 to 2024
• the government’s strategy is based on the waste hierarchy. Where possible waste should be re-used (either as a whole device or in component parts). If this is not possible then it should be recycled (securely disassembled and broken down to its core elements for re-use). No waste should be sent to landfill or incinerate
• the percentage of government ICT waste which was reused after end of life in government was 37% - a slight increase from 34% in 2023 to 2024. Note that reuse within government is not included within this figure. The percentage which was recycled was 62% - a slight decrease from 63% in 2023 to 2024
• less than 1% of UK government ICT waste went to either landfill or incineration without energy recovery in 2024 to 2025. In total, 6 tonnes (or 0.7% of the total volume of ICT waste) was reported as being disposed of through these routes, with nearly all of this coming from incineration. This is a reduction of 14 tonnes (or 70%) from the 20 tonnes which went to landfill in 2023 to 2024 (which accounted for 1.3% of the total waste that year)
• UK government realised over £2 million of value by reselling ICT devices and materials at their end of life for UK government, in line with the preferred outcome of a circular economy approach. We did not report on this figure in previous years

Figure 4: government ICT waste volume

Reporting period	Total waste volume (tonnes)
2020 to 2021	1,722
2021 to 2022	2,322
2022 to 2023	1,800
2023 to 2024	1,491
2024 to 2025	955

Figure 5: government ICT waste outcomes

Reporting period	Percentage of waste reused	Percentage of waste recycled	Percentage of waste to landfill
2020 to 2021	51	41	0.3
2021 to 2022	54	39	1.6
2022 to 2023	41	50	0.8
2023 to 2024	34	63	1.3
2024 to 2025	37	62	0.6

As we work to support departments to take a more circular approach to their devices, including at end-of-life within their organisation, we can use the data below to understand which categories of devices are currently more likely to feature at different stages of the waste hierarchy.

Note that as not all departments are currently able to provide the breakdown of data, the totals will not align with totals reported.

Table 3: destination of UK government ICT waste (2024 to 2025)

Asset type	Donation (units)	Re-sell (units)	Recycle (units)	Disposal (units)
Desktop	174	6,140	2,278	191
Laptop	1,599	21,988	28,764	728
Network equipment	143	662	5,105	1
Other	6,701	6,579	24,863	1,505
Printers	20	41	9,533	16
Screens	223	6,016	5,750	230
Servers	57	215	830	14
Smartphones	1,118	6,130	4,708	261
Tablet	63	2,063	656	60
Total	10,098	49,834	82,487	3,006

For the first time, this report also gives us a valuable insight into UK government’s overall technology estate. Our primary interest in this data is to estimate emissions, but it also gives an indication about potential value available from a more circular approach to device management.

Table 4: top 20 items in UK government estate

Item	Total number
Monitors	1,061,209
Laptops	902,667
Smartphones	346,112
Desktop PC’s	275,556
PABX distributed	136,316
Wireless access points	53,715
Mobile phones	51,191
Laser printers	49,229
10/100 switches	39,147
Tablets	33,064
Room based hubs	31,269
Docking stations	28,079
Locally powered VOIP phones	16,916
Videoconferencing studio unit	14,837
10/100/1000 switches	12,791
Thin Clients	11,622
Other POE	10,709
Core switches	10,254
Meeting room screens	9,854
POE Class 4	9,504

Detail of departmental position

Departmental position on emissions

Departments emission reporting status is as follows:

• individual departments continued to support the collation of this report, working across their sustainability and digital teams as well as with their supply chain
• last year’s report was the first time that every department provided a return, which marked an important milestone in UK government’s maturity on the topic. that comprehensive engagement has remained the case this year, and this report therefore includes data from 21 ministerial departments (covering 62 departments, agencies and government bodies)

Departments individual performance and analysis is reported in Table 5:

• the figures from individual departments are subject to the same caveats concerning accuracy and reliability of the data as the overall figures
• it is therefore important that departmental figures should not be used to benchmark or compare departments. departmental figures reflect the enormous variety in operational responsibilities (and resulting ICT use and data reporting maturity between departments)
• nonetheless, we are publishing departmental figures in the interest of transparency and to help us continue to build maturity and understanding of departmental performance

Table 5: total department emissions in tCO2e

Department	tCO2e
Cabinet Office	1,821.39
Crown Prosecution Service	1,580.23
Department for Business and Trade	1,130.08
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	474.33
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	11,544.22
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	475.19
Department of Education	1,196.66
Department for Transport	3,217.84
Department of Health and Social Care	23,698.23
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology	3,472.50
Department of Work and Pensions	27,889.44
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	2,233.56
Food Standards Agency	403.45
His Majesties Revenue and Customs	26,608.84
His Majesty’s Treasury	22,496.12
Home Office	6,580.56
Ministry of Defence	134,391.08
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government	612.71
Ministry of Justice	22,531.01
National Crime Agency	2,756.06
UK Export Finance	104.84

Departmental position on waste

As with emissions, these statistics should not be used to compare departmental performance – different departments have different asset ownership models and there is still some inconsistency in reporting.

For example, departments who have run device amnesties (which contribute to overall sustainability goals) often find that personal items are returned as part of the exercise.

Several IT assets needed to carry out roles within a department can also vary significantly depending on the nature of the department’s work – this naturally affects the amount of IT waste generated by the department.

There are still gaps in waste reporting (for example, in ensuring full coverage within a department’s organisation span, or in confirming reporting by weight or quantity).

Figure 6: Volumes of UK government ICT waste (2024 to 2025)

Department	Tonnes of waste
Cabinet Office	35.21
Crown Prosecution Service	1.60
Department for Business and Trade	15.21
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	2.99
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	40.03
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	0.72
Department for Transport	13.91
Department of Health and Social Care	265.32
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology	52.88
Department of Work and Pensions	124.23
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	27.23
His Majesty’s Treasury	6.55
Ministry of Defence	358.04
National Crime Agency	12.31

Figure 7: tonnes of waste per FTE by department

Department	Kilograms of waste per FTE
Cabinet Office	2.88
Crown Prosecution Service	0.22
Department for Business and Trade	1.3
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	0.25
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	1.11
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	0.13
Department for Transport	1.31
Department of Health and Social Care	8.06
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology	3.49
Department of Work and Pensions	1.39
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	3.40
His Majesty’s Treasury	2.21
Ministry of Defence	1.61
National Crime Agency	2.03

Note that for Figures 6 and 7, weight of waste was not received for the following departments:

• Department of Education
• Food Standards Agency
• His Majesties Revenue and Customs
• Home Office
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Ministry of Justice
• UK Export Finance

Appendix

Scope of the report

The scope of this report is the ICT of the:

• office, non-office estate and operations of UK central government departments and their executive agencies (EAs)

• non-ministerial departments (NMDs)

• non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs)

The GGCs do not include the devolved administrations, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.

Exemptions can apply if:

• the organisation has fewer than 50 FTE

• there are no safe, technically feasible and environmentally options for meeting the commitments

• application of commitments would deliver a perverse outcome

• an organisation has dual multi-status

ICT that is currently out of scope includes outsourced services (such as call centres or print services) and Software as a service (SaaS).

Departments and arm’s length bodies included in the reporting

Departments and Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) included in the reporting for 2024 to 2025:

• Cabinet Office (CO) including Government Property Agency, Crown Commercial Service, Office for the Secretary of State, Government Digital Service, Central Digital and Data Office

• Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Attorney General’s Office

• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) including Mining Remediation Authority and North Sea Transition Authority

• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) including Intellectual Property Office, Met Office, National Physical Laboratory Management and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

• Department for Business and Trade (DBT) including British Business Bank, Companies House, Competition and Markets Authority, Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and Advice, Conciliation and Arbitration service

• Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) including Historic England

• Department for Education (DfE) including Skills England, Standards & Testing Agency, Teaching Regulation Agency, LocatED and Office of Children’s Commissioner

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Forestry England, Office for Environmental Protection, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Kew Gardens, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, OFWAT, Seafish, Veterinary Medicines Directorate

• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)

• Department for Transport (DfT) including British Transport Police and National Highways

• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), The pensions regulator and The Money and Pensions service

• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) including the Care Quality Commission, Health Research Authority, Health Technology Assessment Programme, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NHS Business Services Authority, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS Business Services Authority, NHS England, NHS Resolution and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

• Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office (FCDO) including FCDO services, British Council and Wilton Park

• His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

• His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) including the Government Actuary Department, NS&I, UK Debt Management Office, Government Internal Audit Agency, National Infrastructure Commission, Office of Budgetary Responsibility and UK Government Investments

• Home Office (HO)

• Ministry of Defence (MOD)

• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

• Ministry of Justice (MOJ) including the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, HM Prison and Probation Service, Legal Aid Agency, Office of the Public Guardian, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), Civil Service HR Casework, Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA), Design102 eJudiciary, Civil Service HR Casework, Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, Judicial Appointments Commission, Legal Ombudsman’s Office, Legal Services Board, Parole Board and the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales

• National Crime Agency (NCA)

• UK Export Finance (UKEF)

ICT and digital services

ICT and digital services encompasses the following areas for this report:

• Hosting

• Hardware

• Waste

Hosting

Emissions from any server providing storage and computing resources. SaaS is not currently included within the scope due to the lack of consistent methodologies in calculating this.

Hardware

Emissions from the production and usage of infrastructure and components that enable modern computing and communication. This includes 6 areas of device:

• end user devices: such as PC’s, smartphones, laptops

• peripherals: auxiliary hardware that a computer uses to transfer information (such as monitors, mice, keyboards)

• network devices: Hardware allowing communication between computers and networks (such as routers, network switches or firewalls)

• telephony equipment (excluding smartphones)

• imaging equipment

• audio-visual equipment (such as projectors and meeting room conferencing equipment)

Waste

Waste from infrastructure and components that enable modern computing and communication. This reporting relates only to ICT assets typically managed through an IT or ICT waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) disposal or recycling contracts. In scope are end-user and infrastructure ICT assets and out of scope is non-ICT electrical waste, such as white goods and general electrical maintenance waste.

Methodology

Hosting emissions

On premise servers: The CO2e for on premise servers is calculated by multiplying the server electricity usage by the UK Electricity CO2e factor.

Off-Premise/Private cloud and Public Cloud: The CO2e data for this is provided by suppliers. Calculation methodologies differ from supplier to supplier. Differences in what can be reported are:

• Scope 1 estimates (from backup generator power): These are not consistently reported across all providers

• Scope 2 purchased electricity: All suppliers report on purchased electricity emissions, however some suppliers offset provided figures with renewable energy and carbon credit purchases

• Scope 3: Some suppliers include Scope 3 estimates in their reporting. This is primarily from the embodied carbon of building the data centres

Waste volumes

Waste quantities are provided by third party Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recyclers. To convert weights into estimates for CO2e, the UK WEEE - mixed waste disposal CO2e factor is used. Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 waste processors must report WEEE tonnage and types to regulatory authorities but are not required to report this to the company from which the WEEE originates. Some departments are still negotiating with their WEEE providers to receive this data.

Hardware - Consumption

Hardware consumption has been estimated by multiplying the number of devices that departments reported by the estimated annual energy consumption per device. This is then multiplied by the UK Electricity CO2e factor to calculate the CO2e produced.

Hardware - Embodied Carbon

Embodied carbon estimates have been calculated by multiplying the number of devices that departments reported, by the embodied carbon estimates provided in the below table. The resulting figure has then been divided by the estimated lifetime of the device, usually 5 years.

Where new devices have entered the government estate since the table 6 was published, embodied carbon estimates have been obtained from manufacturers data sheets, or similar reference items if the manufacturer data was unavailable.

In a few instances, embodied carbon figures have not been included as this data was not available through the manufacturer estimates or reference data.

Table 6: annual energy consumption and embodied carbon estimates per device type

Item	Typical Annual Energy Consumption (TEC) (kwh per year)	Scope 3 Emissions per Device (kgCO2e) (new)
Desktop PC’s	40	205
Laptops	18	163
Tablets	10	65
Smartphones	4	46
Thin Clients	22	50
Monitors	64	260
Docking stations	6	38
Locally powered VOIP phones	103	32
Mobile phones	2	10
Production mono multi-function devices (MFD)	6,000	1,178
Production colour MFDs	6,000	1,178
MFDs (colour)	71	600
MFDs (black and white)	43	300
Laser printers	25	100
Ink-jet printers	8	44
Scanners	22	70
Projectors	159	34
Screens	74	553
Videoconferencing studio unit	4	59
10/100 switches	315	219
10/100/1000 switches	613	219
Core switches	5,256	869
Wireless access points	140	71
Room based hubs	35	158
Unmanaged edge switches	219	158
POE Class 1	26	30
POE Class 2	61	30
POE Class 3	114	30
POE Class 4	219	30