Carbon Neutral Action Reports
Under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, all public sector organizations are required to report out annually, beginning in June of 2009, on their plans and actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, core government is required to report on emissions associated with business travel beginning in October 2007 through the end of 2008, and on the offsets purchased to achieve carbon neutral travel.
View a summary of the 2009 public sector reports:
- Getting to Carbon Neutral Government (PDF, 1.74 MB)
The individual reports are also available to view and are organized by sector:
Many public sector organizations already have existing sustainability reporting mechanisms that provide significant detail on their programs, so the Carbon Neutral Action Reports were designed to meet regulatory requirements without requiring duplicate reporting.
Achievements
Core government has already made significant achievements on the road to carbon neutrality. It has:
- Supported over 170 energy retrofit projects under the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement with close to $50 million in combined provincial and BC Hydro funding, saving operating costs of over $7 million annually in addition to almost 19,000 tonnes/yr GHG reductions and over 38 GWh/yr electricity savings;
- Reduced the need for 210 new physical servers through server virtualization, yielding an estimated 88 per cent power savings;
- Implemented advanced power management, including auto-sleep mode during off hours, saving more than 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually;
- Supported ministries in the purchase of multi-function devices to replace single purpose printers, photocopiers and fax machines;
- Replaced existing computers with Energy Star 4 models, which included new collaborative tools such as Window’s Live Meeting, Groove and Office Communicator – tools that allow staff to collaborate online, reducing the need for business travel;
- Supported the procurement of hybrid vehicles, bringing the total up to 21 per cent of government’s light vehicle fleet and giving B.C. one of the largest hybrid fleets in North America; and
- Developed Corporate Supply Arrangements for energy efficient refrigerators, cradle to cradle furniture, hybrid rentals and green hotel accommodations, as well as establishing a service agreement for enhanced video-conferencing.
Government is using all of its available tools to maximize energy savings, GHG reductions and financial savings. But even with these achievements, there is still a lot of work to do, and there will be many more changes as the Province works to meet its commitment of making B.C.’s public sector carbon neutral by 2010.
