Striving to protect the environment

HMRC is committed to meeting the Prime Minister’s pledge to make this government the greenest government ever. As part of this commitment, we are publishing figures on our real-time energy consumption in 100 Parliament Street, our London headquarters.

Our goals

Tackling sustainable development represents a major challenge globally, nationally and for all of us working in government. HMRC is serious about protecting the environment. As the Department responsible for administering environmental taxes: Climate Change Levy, Landfill Tax and Aggregates Tax and protecting frontiers, we are committed to ensuring that our own estate is sustainable. We recognise that we need to make further progress in this area and are putting policies and practices in place to improve our performance. The Department's Sustainable Development Action Plan (PDF 169K) serves as focus for our sustainability agenda and to take forward the commitments set out in the UK Sustainable Development Strategy - Securing the Future, which was published in March 2005.

Like other Whitehall departments, HMRC has a number of key environmental targets, including requirements to:

  • achieve a 12.5 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010
  • achieve a 30 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020.

Outcomes

Our performance in protecting the environment for 2005/06 was published in the 'Sustainable Development in Government Report' (SDiG) (Opens new window), by the Sustainable Development Commission in March 2007. This report assessed the performance of central Government operations for 2005/06 against the targets laid out centrally for the Government Estate. It placed HMRC among some of the higher performing government departments for environmental achievement.

We have been recognised for improving our record on cutting waste and water consumption and for greatly increasing the proportion of our electricity that comes from renewable sources.

The SDiG report states that, during 2005/06, HMRC:

  • achieved targets to reduce water consumption in office buildings, to an average of 7.7 m³ per person per year from 9.04 m³ per person in 2002/03
  • achieved 13 per cent recycling as a proportion of total waste arisings during 2005/06 (up from 10.2 per cent in the previous year)
  • purchased 87 per cent of electricity from renewable sources (an increase of 42 per cent since 2004/05).

It also covers the need for further work to be undertaken to reduce energy consumption as we endeavour to become carbon neutral by 2012.

Practical measures taken to protect the environment

Travel

  • Road travel cut by more than six million miles during 2002-06.
  • 169 fewer vehicles in our fleet than in 2002/3. New official vehicles are more environmentally friendly, mostly with smaller engines, mainly diesel or alternatively fuelled.
  • In 2006 we joined the Government's carbon offsetting scheme for air travel and we plan to extend offsetting arrangements to all business travel by 2008.
  • Telephone and video conferencing is being promoted to reduce business mileage. Domestic air travel is being discouraged.

Buildings

  • Changed policies, procedures and attitudes to the use of energy and water in buildings and powering IT equipment.
  • Environmental impact assessments are conducted for all office closures and changes to our estate.

Waste reduction and recycling

  • Business areas are putting plans in place to eliminate paper waste in forms and letters to our customers.
  • Printers are being upgraded so that double sided printing can become the norm.
  • Staff are being encouraged to print less and plans are being developed to curb printing further.
  • Progress has been made on recycling toner cartridges, CDs, floppy discs and mobile phones.
  • Recycling bins for paper have been provided in the majority of our offices, and we purchase 100% recycled paper for general office use.

Working with suppliers

  • We have developed a Sustainable Procurement Strategy and further work is in progress to apply minimum environmental standards and take 'whole life costings' into account with all departmental purchases. Our buyers engage with potential suppliers on environmental issues such as: environmental standards employed in the production and supply of goods and services and the disposal of waste materials and packaging, to ensure our procurement practices are sustainable. Details of any environmental requirements are included in Invitation to Tender documents and general requirements are set out in Guide to selling to HMRC

Environmental awards

Our Newcastle Estate was credited with the 'Big Tick' in the 'Shields Environmental Award' category of the 2004 Business in the Community (BITC) Awards for Excellence and went on to gain re-accreditation in 2005 and 2006.

Carbon offsetting

The UK Government has committed to offsetting carbon dioxide emissions from all Central Government official and ministerial air travel from April 2006. HM Revenue and Customs is participating in the largest of these schemes, the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund (GCOF) (Opens new window) alongside 36 other departments, agencies and bodies.

Operating from 2006 to 2009, the GCOF will offset around 305ktCO2e. Using rice husks to generate heat and electricity in the Philippines, turning human sewage in Manila into clean electricity and creating power from pig waste are amongst the ways GCOF will offset government emissions. The fund will purchase and cancel Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) from small-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy CDM projects with strong sustainable development benefits. The fund ensures that credits are of the highest quality, demonstrating how the Government can lead by example.
Environment Minister Phil Woolas said that paying towards the projects, in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China and Brazil, would ensure that the carbon footprint of Government air travel was neutralised by ensuring emissions were avoided elsewhere. This will help to cut emissions and ensure developing countries are not impoverished by carbon-cutting measures.

Useful documents: