It's been revealed that the Scottish body at the forefront of turning Scotland into a low-carbon economy is not in fact adhering to its own policies. After new monitoring software was installed on the office computers of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), it was found that around 400 of the agency's 1,700 computers were being left on overnight, with only around 100 identified as essential to services.
Chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, Stan Blackley, reacted by saying, "Given that SEPA is a public body with an environmental protection remit, it does seem to be a long way behind the curve on this issue. The Agency has been urging the switch-off of computers, electrical appliances and lights when they're not required for as long as I can remember. This has been a key message of the Scottish Government's own 'do a little, change a lot' campaign for years. It sounds to me like SEPA could be doing a whole lot more to spread that message to its own staff."
The news comes after SEPA admitted that it will not reach its own target of reducing its carbon footprint by 25% against 2006/7 levels by 2012.
However, they responded by arguing that the number of computers left on were actually far below the average. "Typical figures show that 40%-50% of computers are left on overnight. In March there were only 400 instances of computers being left on overnight out of 1,700 machines, with 100 of those being identified as business critical that cannot be switched off. We have been undertaking a sustained campaign to remind staff to switch off their computers at night, with the installation of the Nightwatchman programme a part of that. We were the first UK environment agency to install this software."
The move follows other successful initiatives at SEPA that have seen it reduce its paper consumption by 20% and a 24% reduction in emissions from business travel.
