Sustainability and whole-of-Government arrangements
QGCPO establishes and manages a number of whole-of-government purchasing arrangements designed to service government clients across Queensland - including agencies, state hospitals, state schools, government-owned corporations and statutory authorities.
All future whole of government arrangements will be progressively updated with sustainable criteria. These include: Records Storage, Retrieval and Destruction Services, ICT Contractors & Consultants, Postal Services, Office Supplies, Courier/Freight Services, Executive Search and Professional/ Technical Recruitment.
ICT Arrangement (QP707)
The whole of government arrangement for desktop PCs, portable computers and servers delivers significant financial and environmental savings to the Queensland government.
The Queensland Government fleet of desktop PCs, delivers benefits of reduced operating costs relating to energy efficiencies and associated environmental benefits of reduced carbon emissions have also been attained.
Whilst energy-efficient machines have an increased up front cost in the order of $30-$50 each compared with standard hardware, the payback period to recover this cost is approximately 12 months. Therefore over the three year life of each machine, savings from the reduced energy consumption will be approximately $60. This will save the government a further $6 Million dollars in reduced energy costs of its PC fleet, an estimate based on today's electricity pricing which is anticipated to rise significantly in coming years.
These savings equate to 2.2 Million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year from this sector alone, or 67 Million kms travelled (by car).
The intention of the QGCPO was to develop an arrangement that would demonstrate best practice in sustainability and showcase the significant benefits that could be realised by integrating sustainability requirements into purchasing decisions. A key feature of the arrangement is that it addresses energy efficiency, content of hazardous substances, packaging, product take back and reuse, eco-design and sustainable goods development.
Queensland Government Travel Policy
The Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office now manages the whole-of-Government Air Travel Policy for the Queensland Government.
In December 2007 Executive Government decided that all Queensland Government agencies must purchase carbon offsets for domestic air travel. The QGCPO Travel Management Unit (TMU) can administer this requirement on behalf of your agency. TMU has developed methodologies to calculate the amount of CO2 produced by each agency's air travel, and will calculate the cost to offset those CO2 emissions.
It should be noted that the offset schemes offered at point-of-sale by airlines, on their websites and via call centres should not be used. This would lead to Agencies being double charged for their offsets collected through the offset arrangement are being invested in tree planting.
Funds are redirected to the new EcoFund which invests in Queensland based projects including the purchase of nature reserves and expansion of state forests.
Government Energy Management Strategy (GEMS)
The Queensland Government introduced the Strategic Energy Efficiency Policy for Government Buildings in December 2007. This established mandatory energy reduction targets for departments of:
- 5% savings by 2010; and
- 20% savings by 2015
Savings targets for the Government Energy Management Strategy were adjusted at this time to target energy reduction rather than financial savings to allow consistent reporting with the Strategic Energy Efficiency Policy and ClimateSmart 2050. For more information go to the Government Energy Management Strategy website.
QFleet
To help combat the damaging environmental effects of the Queensland Government's vehicle fleet, QFleet has put in place a package of green initiatives designed to reduce vehicle emissions and to neutralise those that cannot be avoided.
In June 2007 the Queensland Government released ClimateSmart 2050 Queensland climate change strategy: a low carbon future. This strategy commits the Queensland Government to reducing and neutralising greenhouse emissions for the government vehicle fleet. The QFleet ClimateSmart Action Plan 2007-2010 provides a framework to meet this commitment. The action plan commits Queensland to playing its part in meeting a national target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of a minimum of 60 percent by 2050. The Action Plan applies to vehicles leased from or procured through QFleet as of 1 January 2008.
On 10 December 2007 Premier Anna Bligh announced CO2 emissions reduction targets that underpin the action plan. Emissions from the QFleet fleet will be reduced by 15 percent by 31 December 2010, 25 percent by 2012 and 50 percent by 2017 compared with 30 June 2007.
The action plan focuses on lower-emission vehicles to improve the environmental profile of the fleet and carbon offsets to negate the effects of unavoidable vehicle greenhouse emissions, and minimum standards have been set for passenger and light commercial vehicles.
Further details about all Qfleet's initiatives can be found in the QFleet ClimateSmart Policy.
Last updated May 2009
