Replacing a paper-intensive government tendering system with an electronic service has reduced carbon emissions by 500 tonnes over three years in printing alone, according to the company that runs the service.
The implication for businesses is that emissions and costs can be reduced even by tackling relatively obvious inefficiencies.
The system in question is OGCbuying.solutions, an executive agency of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in the Treasury. Previously it handled paper-based tenders, for all sorts of contracts ranging from new police bicycles to an Olympic stadium. Just one of these tender processes can result in warehouse-volume quantities of documents.
But for the last three years electronic sourcing specialist BravoSolution has been providing the system as a managed service, hosting electronic documents rather than storing paper ones.
“When we started running the system, the environmental impact was never part of the proposition,” Nader Sabbaghian, UK managing director of BravoSolution told BusinessGreen.com. “It was about modernising government procurement, reducing cost, increasing efficiency ad making the process more traceable.”
Nevertheless, Sabbaghian’s team estimates that over the three years it has removed the need to print 53 million pages – an equivalent to 500 tonnes of carbon emissions.
That does not include the cost and emissions saved in not transporting the documents which, had they been printed, would have been transported by courier.
Big cuts in carbon emissions delivered through simple steps such as switching off PCs, using double-sided printing, and extending computer lifecycles 15 Sep 2009
Airline says entire fleet operating from London City airport could be using bio jet fuel from 2014 15 Feb 2010
Recession and oil price main drivers behind fall in consumption as developing world emissions rise above 50 per cent for first time 26 Jun 2009
Here, in full, is shadow chancellor George Osborne's Imperial College speech on the Conservative's environmental plans 24 Nov 2009
Lord Hunt releases Marine Action Plan ahead of anticipated announcement of around 700MW of new wave and tidal energy projects 15 Mar 2010
New £7m research project to accelerate the development of pyrolysis-based biofuels made from waste materials 15 Mar 2010
Manufacturer of sensors used in solar panels, low emission vehicles and green offices raises $569m 15 Mar 2010
From hydropower hot spots to record-breaking Texan winds, we run down the top stories from the past week 12 Mar 2010
Few debates cast the UK's business and political community in such an unedifying light as the never-ending row over skills.... 12 Mar 2010
Christian Kjaer, chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association, argues that a supergrid is essential to EU efforts to cut carbon emissions 11 Mar 2010




