Department for Work and Pensions: Sustainable Development

(asked on 16th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consultative arrangements are in place between trade unions and her Department to discuss sustainability issues at her Department.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 23rd September 2020

The Department is creating an Estates Carbon Management plan with prioritised impactful activities. The resulting activities are currently being incorporated into the department’s CSR20 bid to Treasury.

Should the Department’s CSR20 Estates Sustainability bid be successful with HM Treasury, the practicalities and impacts of the plans will be consulted upon with the Departmental Trades Union and our Sustainability Champions network.

In 2019/20, we set up an extensive network of Sustainability Champions, covering the majority of the estate and with over 600 volunteers. A programme of monthly campaigns was underway, although this is currently on-hold due to COVID-19.

We will continue to work with our Sustainability Champions by:

  • Ensuring that there are regular campaigns addressing energy and water consumption, amongst the many other wider aspects of sustainability.
  • Communicating new sustainability targets, when they are confirmed.
  • Investigating how we can further utilise the Sustainability Champions to drive the Estates sustainability agenda.
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