Sustainable Development in Government Assessment '08

Government is starting to get to grips with its sustainable operations targets, with improvements on waste, water, and travel; but carbon emissions from offices are still not on track.

While departmental performance remains mixed, performance across government shows overall progress. 

Specifically:
- Government is "on track" or better in all the major SOGE target areas except carbon emissions from offices and Combined Heat and Power (CHP).

- Carbon emissions from offices and the CHP target both show only "some progress" or an amber traffic light. However, encouragingly both targets show an improvement from last year's performance.

Government has scored four out of five "stars" in the SDC's star rating system; up one from last year.  The SDC welcomes this progress and recognises the hard work by practitioners in all departments and organisations covered by this process over the last few years.

This is the seventh annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) assessment, examining central government's performance against the operations and procurement targets and commitments of the Framework for Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE). It is based on data provided by departments for the period 2007/08, and is undertaken by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) - Government's independent advisor and watchdog for sustainable development. 

The assessment aims to inform and inspire continuous improvements across government. This year we are using the SDC website to present the performance data along with our scoring. The SDiG 2008 Report: Challenges for Government making recommendations for meeting the future challenges departments face in improving the sustainability of their operations.