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The Carbon Neutral Public Service programme

In February 2007 the government announced that six public service departments will take the lead on achieving carbon neutrality. Those agencies are:

Department of Conservation
Inland Revenue
Ministry for the Environment
Ministry of Economic Development
Ministry of Health
Treasury.

This group was chosen for the first stage because good information existed, or could quickly be obtained, about their energy and transport use and they were a representative cross-section of core government agencies.

In addition, moving the public service towards carbon neutrality involves 28 other core agencies. The six lead agencies listed above will be carbon neutral by 2012 and the other 28 will be well on the way to carbon neutrality by the same date.

The Ministry for the Environment is leading the programme, which has a budget of $10.4 million over three years (Budget 2007).

There are three aspects to achieving carbon neutrality.

Measuring emissions
Reducing emissions
Offsetting unavoidable emissions

Measuring emissions

Measuring carbon emissions is the essential first step in effecting behaviour change and managing emissions. Agencies gather accurate information on the greenhouse gas emissions linked to their energy and electricity use, transport (including domestic and international air travel), and waste sent to landfill. The credibility, transparency and reporting methodologies used align with international public and private sector carbon neutrality efforts.

The 2006/07 results provide the baseline from which to measure future emissions. Total emissions for the 2006/07 financial year for all 34 agencies is approximately 159,000 tCO2-e. Emission inventories for 2007/08 will be prepared at the end of 2008.

Reducing emissions

Reduction planning is an essential part of the process. It involves identifying opportunities to reduce emissions.

The six lead agencies will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they release by putting in place:

energy-efficiency measures, which might include conducting energy use audits, educating staff on using less electricity, installing low-energy lighting systems and more efficient heating and cooling systems, and buying equipment that uses less electricity
travel measures, which might include creating workplace travel plans to eliminate unnecessary journeys, buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, and using transport alternatives such as videoconferencing facilities
waste reduction and recycling systems.

The Ministry for the Environment has already committed to many sustainability initiatives through its part in the Govt³ programme.

Other core public service departments will also start to cut their emissions as part of the transition towards a carbon neutral public sector. Agencies are expected to lower their carbon emissions, not reduce them to zero (which would be impractical with current technology).

The 34 agencies’ reduction plans for 2008 highlight over 300 tangible activities that will reduce emissions below business-as-usual levels. These many small steps will together make a big improvement in sustainability across the public sector.

Agencies will not undertake emissions reductions that would lessen their effectiveness. More emphasis will be put on making purchase decisions that have the lowest overall cost in the long term, rather than a low initial purchase cost but high running costs.

Offsetting unavoidable emissions

Offsetting emissions without having made plausible efforts to reduce emissions first would compromise the credibility of the Carbon Neutral Public Service programme and could possibly prevent external verification of departments’ carbon neutral status. It is not feasible to reduce the public service’s greenhouse gas emissions to zero, so some offsetting will be required.

Individual departments will not be asked to identify or implement their own offsetting programmes. The Ministry for the Environment will investigate the most environmentally appropriate and cost-effective offsetting options for the six lead agencies. The initial preference is for New Zealand-based, forestry-related projects on Crown land, but other New Zealand-based projects will also be considered.

More information

Each agency has released its emission inventory report for 2006/07 on its own website. Many of the agencies have also released their reduction plans to demonstrate the actions that they will be undertaking.

The following is a list of the 34 agencies involved in the programme and links to the emission inventory reports for 2006/07 on their websites.

Ministry for the Environment

If you would like further information about the Carbon Neutral Public Service programme, contact us by emailing cnps@mfe.govt.nz.