Corporate report

Greening Government Commitments ICT annual report 2023 to 2024

Published 9 January 2025

Introduction

This is a report under the 2021 to 2025 framework, which was developed and implemented under the previous Conservative government.

This report summarises the UK government’s progress on the Greening Government ICT commitments (as set out in the Greening Government Commitments 2021 to 2025 framework), along with supporting data.

In particular, the report provides an update on progress against the Greening Government ICT commitments, followed by detailed analysis of data on carbon emissions and circularity at government and departmental level.

This report has been produced by Defra but covers progress across all UK government departments. Devolved administrations are not included - a full definition of departments and information in scope is included in the appendix.

Departments and their IT suppliers are at different levels of maturity in their approach to sustainability data reporting (especially on issues such as waste, public cloud hosting and the IT supply chain). Treat the figures provided in this report as best estimates, rather than precise actuals.

Government will work over 2025 to improve reporting tooling and clarify methodology – in particular for the Scope 3 emission category (covering emissions which are not the result of activities from assets owned or controlled by government, but which it is indirectly responsible for up and down its value chain).

Executive summary

Government departments continued to work hard to deliver the Greening Government ICT commitments and sustainable IT strategy for government over 2023 and 2024, collaborating with their supply chains and peers to test innovations and share best practice.

At the same time, the increasing digitisation of government continued to create upward pressure on emissions and waste targets, as departmental technology estates grew in volume and computing power and energy requirements.

Digital sustainability is now well established in main strategies and policies (such as the roadmap for digital and the technology code of practice) and is a mandatory part of all digital projects and procurements. However, government has more to do to embed collaboration between departments and make the strategic changes needed to make greater improvement. 

We are making good progress with this work, and will set out some of the specific deliverables as part of the updated Government Digital Sustainability Strategy later in  2025 – but it is fair to say that during 2023 and 2024, a number of significant barriers to sustainability remained in place and not all suppliers or departments had access to the capability, support or collaboration needed.

The difficulties of getting accurate and consistent data reflecting the different methodologies used across departments and suppliers remains a challenge. It is therefore important to treat individual statistics with caution and consider them in the context of other evidence and data. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, this challenge should not serve as a barrier to measuring what we can and taking action to make our services more sustainable.

It is encouraging to see the progress departments have made in doing this over 2023 and 2024 – even while recognising the urgent need to go further.

For example, CO₂e emissions from government IT were estimated to be 343,000 tonnes in 2023 and 2024 – a reduction of 8% from their 2022 and 2023 levels, but still representing a significant environmental effect.

Similarly, the volume of government e-waste dropped to c1500 tonnes in 2023 and 2024 – a reduction of 17% from 2022 and 2023 and the lowest since at least 2020 and 2021.

This encouraging progress should give us confidence in the appetite and commitment of government and suppliers to address digital sustainability, which we can build on as we update and strengthen our approach in the years ahead.

Summary of performance against Greening Government commitments

The Greening Government: ICT and digital services strategy 2020-2025 sets out 5 main ambitions with associated objectives to be completed by March 2025. Based on the data that we received this year, as well as feedback and updates from across government, we can provide a high level summary of the latest performance against these.

Ambition 1: reduce carbon and cost

Objective - Only procure from suppliers who have committed to science based targets (SBTs).  

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: this requirement is now embedded in government procurement policy notes (PPNs) and guidance.

Objective - Reduce the ICT carbon and ecological footprint.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: the footprint continues to reduce, with both CO₂e emissions and waste volumes decreasing in 2023 and 2024.

Objective - Design ICT and digital services with sustainability in mind and through adherence to the technology code of practice.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: work continues to embed digital sustainability in service design and delivery (for example by developing green service design principles and improving support for digital teams across government).

Ambition 2: increase resilience

Objective - Embed ‘gold standard’ procurement criteria removing modern slavery from the ICT supply chain.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: no cases of modern slavery have been identified in government’s ICT supply chain. Further work to assure and support departmental procurements is planned in 2025.

Objective - Map and monitor the supply chain data for the ICT systems and services utilised across government.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: our understanding of supply chains for government ICT systems continues to improve. Nonetheless it continues to be a complex picture with a range of supplier models and procurement and contractual arrangements and working practices in place. The Government Digital Sustainability Alliance will be central to our work to make further progress on this objective.

Objective – Stress and scenario test ICT supply chains to increase preparedness to ecological and climate breakdown.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: all government ICT suppliers are expected to have business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place (including for disruption caused by climate change). Further work to assure this is planned for 2024 and 2025.

Ambition 3: Increased responsibility – doing the right thing

Objective - Increase awareness of effect of the role of the responsible digital citizen through delivery of training and education.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: a number of awareness campaigns have taken place, along with staff training across government on this topic.

Objective - Embed sustainable ICT principles within roles and deliverables across government.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: sustainable IT is embedded into  policy and strategy, and a Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) is in place at Senior Civil Servant level. Further work to strengthen how sustainable IT is included in roles and deliverables is in progress.

Objective – Embed sustainable ICT principles within departmental, agency, body policy and strategy.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: digital sustainability is embedded in the technology code of practice (point 12), and part of the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data (mission 4).

Ambition 4: Increased transparency and collaboration

Objective – Publish an accurate ICT footprint based on the services consumed, on estates and with suppliers, encompassing embodied or embedded carbon.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: this year, we included scope 3 hardware and waste emissions for the first time. This is the first year that we have included estimates of the embodied carbon of our hardware estate for all standard devices. We also adjusted the 2022 and 2023 figures to include scope 3 hardware for better comparison. We will continue to backdate these changes over 2024 and 2025 to demonstrate reductions over the Greening Government Commitments (GGC) period.

Objective – Map and account for all ICT at end of life.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: we report on ICT end of life outcomes within this report but are aware of challenges with transparency and consistency on scope and definitions used across suppliers and departments which we plan to address in 2024 and 2025.

Objective – Establish, operate and participate in an HMG sustainability supplier steering group.

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: The Government Digital Sustainability Alliance serves as this steering group and has been very active over 2023 and 2024 in shaping our approach to the topic.

Ambition 5: Increased accountability

Objective – Report an annual percentage improvement in the procurement of remanufactured or refurbished ICT, promoting multiple usage lifecycles.

• Progress up to March 2024 is at risk: although many departments are taking steps to procure on this basis, we are not yet able to measure this extent to which this happens.

Objective – Report ICT figures within GGC processes (and successors in cross-government sustainability reporting).

• Progress up to March 2024 is on track: we have aligned this report with GGC commitments, and the cross-government digital sustainability team have strengthened their engagement with the Greening Government Commitments team to further align processes and future ambitions.

Summary of government ICT sustainability footprint

The high level summary of government’s ICT sustainability footprint over 2023 and 2024 was as follows:

• Overall reporting of ICT sustainability data increased across government in 2023 and 2024 (as measured by submissions to this annual report) and now includes data from 19 ministerial departments (covering 69 departments, agencies and government bodies). Last year it covered 16 ministerial departments, (covering 56 departments, agencies and government bodies).
• UK government’s ICT carbon emissions decreased from the previous year. These emissions were estimated to be 3423 tonnes over 2023 and 2024 – this is a reduction of 30,913 tonnes (or 8%) compared to 2022 and 2023.
• UK government’s ICT waste volumes also decreased – this was estimated at 1491 tonnes in 2023 and 2024 – this is a reduction of 309 tonnes (or 6%) compared to 2022 and 2023.
• However, slightly more of this waste went to landfill. The percentage of government ICT waste that went to landfill was 1.3% - this is an increase from 0.8% in 2022 and 2023. Given the reduction in overall waste volumes, this represents 20 tonnes in 2023 and 2024 and 15 tonnes in 2022 and 2023.

Detail of government ICT emissions footprint

The overall emissions information is:

• total CO₂e emissions from government ICT and digital services over 2023 and 2024 are estimated to be 342,874 tonnes – this is a reduction of 30,913 tonnes (or 8%) compared to 2022 and 2023.
• CO₂e emissions from IT per full time equivalent (FTE) over 2023 and 2024 are estimated to be 0.45 tonnes – this is a reduction of 0.10 tonnes (or 19%) compared to 2022 and 2023.
• the UK Electricity CO₂e factor used to estimate the emissions above increased by 7% in 2023 and 2024. If it had remained the same between 2022 and 2023 and 2023 and 2024, total emissions would have been 329,702 and emissions per FTE would be 0.43 tonnes.

Notes on emissions data

• The main metric for the Greening Government commitment is total CO₂e emissions, as this shows the ultimate footprint of government ICT services. The emissions per FTE figure can be helpful to indicate underlying trends, but drivers of ICT emissions do not always vary directly in line with FTE numbers (for example, some organisations employ relatively few staff but are responsible for large and numerous digital services - which generate significant hosting emissions; whereas others have lots of staff but are responsible for relatively few digital services due to the nature of their departmental responsibilities).
• The UK Electricity CO₂e factor is used to calculate scope 2 emissions (these are emissions that HMG causes indirectly from the purchase of energy - for example the emissions caused when powering hardware and on-premise servers).
• This year, we included scope 3 hardware and waste emissions for the first time. This is the first year that we have included estimates of the embodied carbon of our hardware estate for all standard devices.
• We also adjusted the 2022 and 2023 figures (including ‘per FTE’ figures) to include scope 3 hardware emissions for better comparison with this year’s results (but were not able to do the same for waste. We will continue to backdate previous figures over 2024 and 2025 to enable the most accurate comparison.

Figure 1: total UK government ICT CO₂e emissions (million tonnes)

Reporting period	tCO2e emissions (millions)
2020 to 2021	0.21
2021 to 2022	0.2
2022 to 2023	0.37
2023 to 2024	0.34

Figure 2: Average UK government ICT CO₂e emissions per FTE (tonnes)

Reporting period	tCO2e
2020 to 2021	0.4
2021 to 2022	0.33
2022 to 2023	0.55
2023 to 2024	0.45

In figures 1 and 2, data prior to 2022 to 2023 does not include Scope 3 hardware emissions, and data prior 2023 and 2024 does not include waste emissions.

Drivers of emissions

It is important to understand the different sources of government ICT emissions so that we can prioritise interventions where they can have the greatest effect.

The main sources of ICT emissions in 2023 and 2024 were end user devices (especially from embodied carbon in their manufacture and distribution), peripheral IT equipment and data centres. Although establishing a sector-wide benchmark is difficult due to different reporting methodologies, this broadly mirrors the findings of the World Bank’s recent Measuring the Emissions and Energy Footprint of the ICT sector report. 

A large majority of government ICT emissions are defined as Scope 3 (which also mirrors the pattern seen across the world in the same World Bank report).

Figure 3: Percentage of total UK government ICT CO₂e emissions by category.

Category	Percentage of total UK government ICT CO2e emissions
End user devices	33.52%
Peripherals	26.64%
Servers	23.73%
Networking	6.23%
Printers and scanners	6.83%
Others	3.06%

Definitions of categories for Figure 3:

• end user devices include PCs, laptops, smart phones and other hardware used to interact with data and applications
• peripherals include auxiliary hardware devices (for example, a monitor), that a computer uses to transfer information externally
• servers are a computer or system that provides resources, data, services or programs, they include on premise servers and data centres owned by departments, off premise servers, private cloud servers and data centres outsourced to a third-party supplier and public cloud servers and data centres that provide a multi-tenant hosting environment
• networking includes devices used for communication and data transmission between computers and networks such as routers, network switches, firewalls
• printers and scanners are devices that print and scan information
• waste is ICT that has been disposed of and generates emissions in its disposal

Figure 4: Government ICT CO₂e emissions emissions by scope

Scope	CO2e emissions
Scope 2	33.76%
Scope 3	66.24%

Departmental emissions reporting

Individual departments continued to support the collation of this report, working across their sustainability and digital teams as well as with their supply chain.

In a sign of the growing interest in this issue, this year we received data from 19 ministerial departments, covering 69 departments, agencies and government bodies (an increase from the 2022 to 2023 report that covered 16 ministerial departments, representing 56 departments, agencies and government bodies).

The data covers 767,179 FTE employees (an increase of 91,745 FTEs compared to the 2022 and 2023 report).

Figure 5: Number of departments reporting ICT sustainability performance

Year	number of departments	overall coverage
2022 to 2023	16	56
2023 to 2024	19	69

Overall coverage includes departments, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments and non-department public bodies).

Departmental emissions statistics

The statistics from individual departments are subject to the same caveats concerning accuracy and reliability of the data as the overall figures.

It is therefore important that departmental statistics should not be used to benchmark or compare departments. Departmental statistics reflect the enormous variety in operational responsibilities (and resulting ICT use and data reporting maturity between departments).

Nonetheless, we are publishing departmental statistics in the interest of transparency and to help us continue to build maturity and understanding of departmental performance.

Table 1: Change in cardon dioxide equivalent from 2022 to 2024 and 2023 to 2024 where comparison is possible.

Department	Percentage change	Total change tCO2e
Cabinet Office	27.01	513
Crown Prosecution Service	-9.55	-282
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	8.35	764
Department of Education	-8.10	-187
Department for Transport	9.48	1,259
Department of Health and Social Care	-35.12	-10,515
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities	72.40	282
Department of Work and Pensions	13.30	5,162
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	8.15	332
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs	-7.12	-2,184
HM Treasury	-47.83	-443
Home Office	21.25	2,213
Ministry of Defence	-19.00	-36,827
Ministry of Justice	46.14	10,896
UK Export Finance	-9.98	-13

Detail of government ICT circularity and planetary impact

The overall position is that:

• The total volume of government ICT waste reported in 2023 and 2024 was 1491 tonnes – this is a reduction of 309 tonnes (or 6%) compared to 2022 and 2023.
• The government’s strategy is based on the waste hierarchy, for example, as much as possible should be reused (either as a whole device or in component parts); but if that is not possible then it should be recycled (for example, securely disassembled and broken down to its core elements for reuse); and none sent to landfill.
• The percentage of government ICT waste which was reused was 34% - this is a reduction from 41% in 2022 and 2023. The percentage which was recycled was 63% - this is an increase from 50% in 2022 and 2023.
• The main reasons for recycling rather than reusing e-waste, are the incompatibility of waste components with newer technologies (often driven by extending the pre-waste lifecycle of devices) and lack of market demand for reused devices.
• The reduction in the percentage of ICT waste reused may also be explained by a change in reporting parameters which reduced the scope of that category by removing the ability to include an estimate of devices kept in use beyond their expected lifespan – this was done because these estimates were highly inconsistent and not based on an agreed methodology. It is not possible to retrospectively update previous years’ figures to account for this change.
• The percentage of government ICT waste which went to landfill was 1.3% - this is an increase from 0.8% in 2022 to 2023. Given the reduction in overall waste volumes, this represents 20 tonnes in 2023 to 2024 and 15 tonnes in 2022 to 2023. The main reasons for use of landfill are inclusion of personal devices in waste (which are harder to assure for reuse or recycling), security restrictions on reuse or recycling, and insufficient market incentives.

Table 2: Government ICT waste volumes

Reporting period	Total waste volume (tonnes)
2020 to 2021	1,722
2021 to 2022	2,322
2022 to 2023	1,800
2023 to 2024	1,491

Figure 6: Government ICT waste outcomes

Reporting period	Percentage of waste reused	Percentage of waste recycled	Percentage of waste to landfill
2020 to 2021	51	41	0.3
2021 to 2022	54	39	1.6
2022 to 2023	41	50	0.8
2023 to 2024	34	63	1.3

Departmental position

As with emissions, these statistics should not be used to compare departmental performance – different departments have different asset ownership models and there is still some inconsistency in reporting.

In particular, departments who have run device amnesties (which contribute to overall sustainability goals) often find that personal items are returned as part of the exercise – these usually need to go to landfill and so can distort the departmental statistics.

The number of IT assets needed to carry out roles within a department can also vary significantly depending on the nature of the department’s work – this naturally affects the amount of IT waste generated by the department.

There are still gaps in waste reporting (for example, in ensuring full coverage within a department’s organisation span, or in confirming reporting by weight or quantity). We will continue to work with departments and suppliers to address barriers to waste reporting over 2024 and 2025.

Figure 7: Tonnes waste by department

Department	Tonnes of waste
Ministry of Defence	747.84
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	198.38
Department of Health and Social Care	183.94
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs	122.75
Department for Transport	67.95
Department for Work and Pensions	67.94
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology	24.74
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	20.50
Home Office	10.48
His Majesty’s Treasury	10.48
Department for Education	10.02
Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office	8.99
Department for Business and Trade	5.28
Cabinet Office	2.65
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities	0.80

Table 3: Tonnes of wate per FTE by department

Department	Tonnes of waste per FTE
Ministry of Defence	0.0035
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	0.0065
Department of Health and Social Care	0.0045
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs	0.002
Department for Transport	0.001
Department for Work and Pensions	0.001
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology	0.002
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	0.003
Home Office	0.0005
His Majesty’s Treasury	0.004
Department for Education	0.0015
Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office	0.0015
Department for Business and Trade	0.0005
Cabinet Office	0.0005
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities	0.00025

Crown Prosecution Service, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Ministry of Justice, UK Export Finance did not report any waste volumes.

Appendix

Scope

The scope of the report is the ICT of the office, non-office estate and operations of UK central governments and their executive agencies (EAs), non-ministerial departments (NMDs) and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).

The GGCs do not include the devolved administrations, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.

Exemptions can apply if:

• the organisation has fewer than 50 FTE
• there are no safe, technically feasible and environmentally options for meeting the commitments
• application of commitments would deliver a perverse outcome
• an organisation has dual multi-status

ICT and digital services

ICT and digital services encompasses the following areas

Hosting: Emissions from any server providing storage and computing resources. Software as a service (Saas) is not currently included within the scope due to the lack of consistent methodologies in calculating this.

Hardware: Emissions from the production and usage of infrastructure and components that enable modern computing and communication. This includes 6 areas of device:

• end user devices such as PC’s, smartphones, laptops
• peripherals are auxiliary hardware that a computer uses to transfer information (such as monitors, mice, keyboards)
• network devices is hardware allowing communication between computers and networks (such as routers, network switches, firewalls)
• telephony equipment (for example, smartphones)
• imaging equipment
• audio-visual equipment (such as projectors and meeting room conferencing equipment)

Waste: from infrastructure and components that enable modern computing and communication. The 6 areas of device in scope for hardware are also considered for waste.

ICT that is currently out of scope includes outsourced services (such as call centres, or print services) and Saas.

Departments and arms length bodies (ALBs)

Departments and arms length bodies (ALBs) included in the scope of the reporting for 2023 and 2024 include:

• Law Officers Department and Attorney General’s Office
• Cabinet Office (CO)
• Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) including National Nuclear Laboratory, North Sea Transition Authority, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and The Coal Authority.
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) including Intellectual Property Office, Met Office, National Physical Laboratory Management and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
• Department for Business and Trade (DBT) including British Business Bank, Companies House, Competition and Markets Authority, Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Insolvency Service
• Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) including Historic England
• Department for Education (DfE)
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO)
• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
• Department for Transport (DfT) including British Transport Police Authority, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, National Highways, Network Rail and the Northern Lighthouse Board
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), The pensions regulator and The Money and Pensions service
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) including the Care Quality Commission, Health Research Authority, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS Business Services Authority, NHS England, NHS Resolution and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
• Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office (FCDO) including FCDO services
• His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) including the Government Internal Audit Agency, National Infrastructure Commission, Office of Budgetary Responsibility and UK Government Investments
• Home Office (HO)
• Ministry of Defence (MOD)
• Ministry of Justice (MOJ) including the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), Civil Service HR Casework, Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA), Design102 and eJudiciary which includes Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, Judicial Appointments Commission, Legal Ombudsman’s Office, Legal Services Board, Parole Board and the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales
• UK Export Finance (UKEF)

Methodology

Hosting Emissions:

• on premise servers: The CO₂e for on premise servers is calculated by multiplying the server electricity usage by the UK Electricity CO₂e factor
• off-premise, private cloud and public cloud: The CO₂e data for this is provided by suppliers. Calculation methodologies differ from supplier to supplier.

Differences in what can be reported are outlined below:

• Scope 1 estimates (from backup generator power): These are not consistently reported across all providers.
• Scope 2 purchased electricity: All suppliers report on purchased electricity emissions, however some suppliers offset provided figures with renewable energy and carbon credit purchases.
• Scope 3: Some suppliers include Scope 3 estimates in their reporting. This is primarily from the embodied carbon of building the data centres.

Waste Volumes

Waste quantities are provided by third party WEEE recyclers. To convert weights into estimates for CO₂e, the UK WEEE - mixed waste disposal CO₂e factor is used. Note that under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 waste processors must report WEEE tonnage and types to regulatory authorities but are not required to report this to the company from which the WEEE originates. Some departments are still negotiating with their WEEE providers to receive this data.

Hardware – Consumption

Hardware consumption has been estimated by multiplying the number of devices that departments reported by the estimated annual energy consumption per device. This is then multiplied by the UK Electricity CO₂e factor to calculate the CO₂e produced.

Hardware - Embodied Carbon

Embodied carbon estimates have been calculated by multiplying the number of devices that departments reported, by the embodied carbon estimates provided in the below table. The resulting figure has then been divided by the estimated lifetime of the device, usually 5 years. Where new devices have entered the government estate since the below table was published, embodied carbon estimates have been obtained from manufacturers data sheets. In a few instances, embodied carbon figures have not been included as this data was not available through the px3 data or manufacturer estimates.  

Table 4: Scope 3 emissions per device provided by px3, Justin Sutton-Parker 2022

Hardware Type	Scope 3 per device kg CO2e
Desktop PCs	221
Laptops	266
Tablets	110
Smartphones	65
Thin clients	108
Monitors	324
10/100 switches	219
10/100/1000 switches	219
Core switches	869
Wireless access points	71
Room based hubs	158
Unmanaged edge switches	158
POE Class 1	30
POE Class 2	30
POE Class 3	30
POE Class 4	30
PABX distributed	219
Locally powered VOIP phones	20
Mobile phones	23
Other, such as POE	30
Production mono MFD	1,178
Production colour MFD	1,178
MFD (colour)	670
MFD (b/w)	670
Laser printer	65
Ink-jet	75
Scanner	70
Other imaging devices	177
Projectors	118
Screens	1,184
Videoconferencing studio unit	231
Fax	221