News 15 October 2020 News from SKAO
Ministries of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality set to work with the CO2 Performance Ladder
The Ministries of Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZK) and Climate Policy and Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) are today publishing their first joint report on the sustainability of their own business operations. In 2019, the national government has included the objective of climate-neutral operations by 2030 in the Climate Agreement. The sustainability report provides insight into the progress. The ministries of EZK and LNV share, among other things, the building, vehicle fleet and operational management and therefore opt for one sustainability report. The report published today covers calendar year 2019.
CO2 Performance Ladder makes emissions transparent
The sustainability report is about the operational management of the ministries, including all services and agencies such as the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). In addition, a link is made with important policy themes of the departments, such as energy, food, circularity and socially responsible purchasing.
An important basis for the report is the CO2 performance ladder. This provides insight into the annual CO2 emissions and helps to determine measures that will bring them to bed step by step. The current footprint is divided into building-related emissions such as electricity consumption and heating, and mobility-related emissions such as the vehicle fleet and business air travel. This demarcation is part of level 3, the usual entry level of the CO2 performance ladder. In the future, the ministries want to add the following levels, including the emissions from suppliers, for example.
Much profit to be made in transport
A large part of the emissions of both ministries is related to transport. On the LNV side, this is largely due to the large fleet of the NVWA in connection with the large number of inspectors who use a car for their work. The organization is only replacing cars for electric vehicles and wants to realize a zero-emission vehicle fleet by 2026. More air travel is being made at EZK. This is mainly due to the role of RVO in supporting international (economic) diplomacy.
Approach and objectives
For the heating and cooling of the main building of both ministries a Heat Cold Storage installation is used. This means that heat and cold that is not needed in the building is stored in water sources in the ground. In 2019, it was determined that the building meets the energy saving requirements of the Environmental Management Act. That is positive for a monumental building, but there is still room for improvement. The main building now has energy label C, the objective is to make it at least energy label B.
The sustainability report describes more objectives and plans to achieve climate-neutral business operations by 2030. Among other things, stimulating sustainable catering, improving socially responsible purchasing, sustainable ICT, 50% less CO2 emissions as a result of business mobility in 2030, a maximum of 35% residual waste in 2020 and improving the data provision about CO2 emissions from business operations.
Read the Sustainability Report 2019 ministries of EZK and LNV here (Dutch only)