Monday 14 September 2020

UK Government sets out new digital procurement strategy

The UK Government has set out a new strategy to ensure its ICT and digital technologies estate is progressing towards net zero.

It says it will work in partnership with industry and other sectors to ensure government ICT and digital services professionals, end-users, suppliers and supply chains will be able to play their part in the decarbonisation journey.

While acknowledging that "the true sustainability impact of digital is still not fully understood or published", it sets out a number of goal outcomes - the principal one of these is to reduce carbon emissions and cost.

It dictates by 2025, all government ICT suppliers must have made a formal and actionable commitment to delivering net zero, as well as to have established zero waste to landfill targets.

The strategy highlights that wherever possible, waste will be removed from its systems, for example, through the shutting down of redundant services, the deletion of duplicate files, the end of use of legacy ICT systems and hardware and the increased use of shared systems and services.

It also plans to increase resilience, responsible behaviours, transparency, collaboration and accountability.