The digital team within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has developed a printing dashboard as part of an effort to reduce the use of printers around its offices.
Emma Presley Abbott, head of digital sustainability at DWP Digital, described the initiative as part of her presentation to the UKAuthority Powering Digital Public Services conference last week.
She said it is part of a broader effort to increase sustainability reporting, one of six areas of focus within its work.
“We’re introducing targeted reporting where we could try to influence individual behaviours,” she said. “We’re about to launch a printing dashboard in Power BI to be used by sustainability champions, and we’re hoping to foster healthy competition between neighbouring sites, of which we have about 800, to bring down print volumes.
“This will bring awareness to a wider audience to drive action.”
Shift in reporting
The initiative is complemented by a move toward more automated reporting on sustainability factors, providing a shift from retrospective reporting to more active management.
As part of another focus on service baselining, DWP Digital has produced an in-depth analysis of the carbon footprint of one of its major benefits systems, taking into account the digital aspects.
“We’ve been able to measure the carbon emissions per user in applying for benefits,” Presley Abbott said. “This is everything from entering the work page and making the application to the application being processed and the user being notified.
“We found some emissions hotspots and been able to make targeted recommendations to improve the design of the service from a sustainability perspective.”
She outlined the other areas of focus as employee engagement, capability development, governance and process, and procurement.
Training, designs and principles
Among the other initiatives has been a review of the available training for digital sustainability skills, introducing a requirement that any technical designs in the department demonstrate a consideration of sustainability, and adding the issue to the core principles of its engineering practice.
Efforts are also being made to develop scoring on sustainability as part of the quarterly reviews with suppliers.
Presely Abbott emphasised that DWP Digital is working on how the department’s digital legacy will look in 2050, the target date for the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
“The time is now to make sure sustainable working practices are our new norm,” she said.
