The green credentials of the public service

As the largest consumer of products and services, the government has published a draft green public procurement (GPP) policy guideline for the public sector to consider the impact of its purchases on the environment.

This is one of the many green initiatives the public service has embarked upon since the establishment of the green leaders. This is in line with this government's belief that sustainable development is a desirable and an essential goal of public policy. Achieving sustainable development requires an approach to public policy that is comprehensive, integrated, open and accountable. It should embody a commitment to continuous improvement.

The public service delivers on its green commitment not just in policymaking and service delivery but also through its daily housekeeping. The public service acts in an environmentally-responsible manner to create a better working environment and ensure that actions do not adversely affect the wider environment. This is the reason why the performance plan of each permanent secretary includes green targets with a cascading effect on all director generals and directors. The principal permanent secretary has put the environment amid the top of the public service priorities.

Since the appointment of all 14 green leaders, one in each ministry, the Prime Minister committed the public service to an effort towards meeting the government's corporate responsibilities with regard to the environment.

The green leaders have a duty to create environmental awareness within their ministries and act as catalysts for action to promote environmentally-acceptable work practices within respective spheres.

The green leaders are coordinated by the Government Environmental Corporate Responsibility Office, purposely set up within the Office of the Prime Minister. Within each ministry, however, each green leader will report to the director responsible for programme implementation, who has been designated as the main focal point for environmental issues.

One of the major changes currently being brought about with the introduction of GPP are changes in public procurement procedures. Government agencies such as ministries, departments and authorities are the biggest consumers, purchasing goods and services on a regular basis on the local market. By choosing goods and services that are sensitive to the environment, the public service can make an important contribution towards sustainable development.

Green public procurement covers areas such as the purchase of energy-efficient IT and other office equipment, recyclable paper, use of electric vehicles, electricity generated from renewable energy sources and other similar initiatives. Prior to the publication of the GPP, a survey was carried out among government officers by the task force formulating the GPP policy guideline. In this survey, it was identified that the major part of the ministries indicated they already included some green conditions in their tender documents.

At the time of the survey, four ministries, that is, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, the Ministry for Resources and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated they did not practise green procurement but that they were willing to do so once the guidelines were adopted by the public service. To date, all ministries are collaborating on these green initiatives.

Other than GPP, all ministries are also allocated an annual budget for green initiatives and it is the responsibility of the respective green leaders to maximise on the use of this budget. Some of the initiatives worth highlighting include the procurement of the necessary equipment for the gradual implementation of waste separation from offices. Office waste separation bins have been placed in government buildings to increase the recycling of waste generated by the employees. Battery bins have been placed in all government buildings to help facilitate the collection of batteries.

It is to be noted that the public service is also supporting an initiative whereby internal mail is served through reused envelopes. Through this initiative, the Office of the Prime Minister, to cite one example, has managed to reduce the amount of envelopes used in the first three months of 2006 to 10,750 envelopes when compared to the 33,636 envelopes used in the same period in 2004.

The public service has also adopted a system for the reuse of printer ink cartridges. Upon a request for a new cartridge, the user gives the empty cartridge in exchange for the new one. The old/used cartridges are returned to the supplier to be refilled.

Furthermore, all ministries have installed photovoltaic panels to generate electricity using solar energy. This helps reduce the dependence the public service has on fossil fuels. The total installed power to date is over 54kWp.

The public service has also benefited from EU funding to train employees within the maintenance department of the Ministry for Education. In total, 12 civil servants were trained on procedures to install PV panels. Training is being held in Pamplona, Spain through the Leonardo da Vinci EU funding programme. The training of these personnel will help in the maintenance of photovoltaic panels on schools.

Additional tasks currently being implemented include energy auditing in public offices. The purpose of such energy auditing is to identify the energy-saving potential within the different ministries. The outcome of the energy includes a comprehensive report on the current state of energy management together with the identification of better practice. Each ministry is in the process of undergoing at least one energy audit of a specific building as identified by the respective ministry during this year.

Dr von Brockdorff is permanent secretary at the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment.