Sustainable Development Action Plan 2009/10

Contents 1.Introduction 2.Foreword 3.DfT Goals 4.Principles of Sustainable Development:Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability 5.Our Commitments 6.Staff Awareness and Engagement 7.Sustainable Procurement 8.A Success Story 9.Action Plan/Progress Report

Introduction 1. The Department for Transports Sustainable Development Action Plans (SDAPs) The UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy Securing the Future (March 2005) requires all central Government Departments to produce action plans. The Department for Transport (DfT) and its seven agencies have produced individual action plans which set out our collective commitment and strategy for implementing sustainable development. Links to all plans can be found on the DfTs website at: The SDAPs were developed after a joint workshop attended by all parts of DfT where it was decided broadly how we would proceed. The plans were then reviewed by DfT, circulated for best practice and then approved by each business unit. This process also included a review by the Sustainable Development Commission who work to assist and critique Governments progress on Sustainable Development. A Sustainable Development Action Plan is a tool to help facilitate the uptake of SD: it sets out an overarching commitment to the principles and priorities of SD and details targets to be achieved that will further integrate SD. The SDAP process involves establishing targets and publishing the SDAP, implementing activities towards the targets, monitoring and assessing progress, and then reporting progress at the end of the SDAP period. Previous GCDA SDAPs and Progress Reports can be found at This plan covers the period April 2009 to March We will further develop commitments for delivery next year during the life of this plan for publication in Spring 2010.

2. Foreword I am pleased to introduce the third GCDA Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP). We are delighted that we are able to continue to make good progress in our aim to support the Department for Transports sustainability agenda. Over the past three years our focus has been on the vehicles we drive and our efforts to reduce our tailpipe emissions while growing the business have been incredibly successful. The use of hybrid vehicles has continued to reduce our average tailpipe emissions and, more importantly, the amount of fuel we use. Our success in this area has been recognised with a number of awards and the process continues. We anticipate new vehicle technologies over the lifetime of this plan and we will take advantage of those new technologies wherever we can. We should of course acknowledge that the changes to our fleet would not be possible without full commitment from our customers, and for that we are grateful. We are now moving onto a new phase of our plans, which will focus on how we utilise other resources and ensure that there is an embedded culture in the organisation which understands the need to reduce reuse and recycle. Roy Burke Chief Executive GCDA

3. DFT Goals Delivering a Sustainable Transport System In November 2008 DfT published Delivering a Sustainable Transport System (DaSTS) which sets out five goals for the UK transport system: Supporting economic growth; Tackling climate change; Contributing to better safety, security and health; Promoting equality of opportunity; and Improving quality of life and a healthy natural environment. DfT expects to make progress against all five of these goals, but are aware that there can be tensions between them. In particular, supporting economic growth while reducing greenhouse gas emissions is likely to be the most challenging to deliver in parallel, at least in the short term. That said, it is expected that there will be a strong synergy between different goals and there is no reason why emissions cannot be tackled and continued economic growth achieved. More detail on DaSTS is available on the DfT website at: The Scope of GCDAs Business Government Cars and Government Mail are the governments own services for moving people and documents safely and reliably throughout the UK. We exist to help government departments and the wider public sector achieve efficiency and savings by providing these services direct.

4. Principles of Sustainable Development: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability Our operation in respect of the environment is monitored continually by means of our accreditation to ISO and by way of our targets agreed with the Secretary of State for Transport. We are committed to the principles of Sustainable Development. We will ensure that staff remain aware of the need to reflect sustainable development principles in decision-making. Responsibility for managing the SDAP process within GCDA lies with its Sustainable Development Management Team. Overall responsibility for the implementation, monitoring and review of the SDAP is held by the SDMT. The Services Manager manages and reports environmental performance data to DfT under the Framework for Sustainable Operations in the Government Estate (SOGE).

5. Our Commitments The GCDA is already within striking distance of the government's own target of a maximum of 130 g/km CO 2 average tailpipe emissions by 2012 – it already achieves this target on all newly purchased cars. The cars we use for the Green Cars service, a taxi style service for public sector employees, have the lowest recorded emissions of CO 2 in their class, as shown in the VCAs official New Car Fuel Consumption & Emissions Figures publication. This means that on a 20km (12.4 miles) journey our cars will produce 2kg of CO 2, compared with 5.6kg produced by a typical diesel- engine cab. We use hybrid electric/ petrol cars for our Green Cars service. Our cars significantly reduce the number of harmful pollutants that have been shown to contribute to poor air quality. Our cars are recognised by Transport for London and are currently exempt from the Congestion Charge. Coordination through a Sustainable Development Team In November 2008 GCDA developed a Sustainable Development Management Team. The Chief Executive also attends this meeting which is scheduled every month. The team discusses initiatives to develop sustainability across the Agency. The team is also working towards ensuring knowledge and skills are embedded to allow the principles of sustainable development to be applied as standard practice. When SD is fully implemented and integrated, GCDA will: consider the impacts on sustainability (i.e. on the economy, society and the environment) in all of its decisions, according to the principles set by the UK SD strategy; take action to prioritise and adjust, where possible, its activities in order to mitigate adverse impacts on sustainability; demonstrate full accountability for the adverse impacts on sustainability that cannot be prevented due to the nature of its business, and take action to counterbalance these by implementing improvements in other areas; seek to utilise its position and influence to safeguard and positively develop at-risk aspects of the economy, society and the environment wherever possible.

6. Staff Engagement and Awareness GCDA plans to implement a campaign titled Emission Mission to be published within our website providing guidance, advice and awareness to our staff on how they can make an impact and help reduce their carbon footprint in the workplace, it sends a message of every little counts by: Reducing Energy Consumption Switching on to Switching off Increasing recycling Encouraging sustainable Travel We hope to report on the progress of this campaign in the next reporting period. Additionally, we aim to develop the 09/10 Action plan with the contribution of our industrial/non-management staff members. GCDA are committed to further raise awareness among our staff through specific training, performance information, and publication of this document; by promoting our ISO environmental management systems to pursue sustainability and continual improvement.

7. Sustainable Procurement GCDA will continue to play an active part in DfTs Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, which aims to embed and implement sustainable procurement practices throughout the DfT family by December GCDAs capability and performance is measured (with independent assessment) through the Flexible Framework, a toolkit designed to benchmark an organisations sustainable procurement capability. Already, GCDA has included within its new Government Cars sub-contractor tender a requirement which actively encourages suppliers to follow our lead in introducing alternatively fuelled, low carbon vehicles to their executive car fleets. Our London based Green Car suppliers contracts have included a requirement for alternatively fuelled vehicles since its establishment in Elsewhere, the Agency is being encouraged to source goods and services (where available) through OGC buying solutions frameworks. In-house procurement workshops have started to increase awareness about sustainable procurement practices amongst non-procurement staff.

8. A Success Story and the winner is … Last year we reported that we were runners up for the Green Fleet Awards. GCDA are proud to announce that we won the following awards: Green Fleet Awards – Public Sector Fleet Manager Of the Year 2008 Green Fleet Awards – Public Sector Fleet Of the Year 2008 Energy Saving Trust – Fleet Hero Awards 2008 – Smarter Driving GCDA were Runners Up for the Energy Saving Trust awards for Industry Leadership.