One of the most venerable organizations in the Green Movement has published and interesting report on UK Government Travel.
http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/wwf_excess_baggage_exec.pdf
The report challenges the new UK Coalition Government of reducing travel or moving it to such greener options as Ferry and Rail. It names names!
The report using information obtained under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act examines the number of trips taken by the respective government departments.
Now one of them the Environment Agency has banned certain types of travel and will save a small number of tons of carbon emission (30).
The WWF report demonstrates that the UK central government could save over GBP100 Million per year and 60,000 tons of carbon if a comprehensive Green Travel Program was implemented.
For many years the central UK government has moved departments away from central London and into the rest of the country.
From the perspective of smoothing out the spikes of traffic flows this was a good thing and also fulfilled social policy goals of creating employment in the regions.
Almost every government in the world has practiced this to some extent. It might seem ironic that the de-centralization of a centralist body such as the national government is a national policy.
We can expect to see many more examples of this pressure to ban or curtail government travel. Bad news for BA. Interestingly the UK essentially has almost no VIP Flight left.
In 2008 the UK government announced that it would be disbanding the remaining arm 32 Squadron currently based at RAF Northolt.
So all the Royals and the UK Ministers will have to fly commercial. They do long haul now anyway.
The sole remaining aircraft is a Bae146 with the rest either retired or sent to other operational units.
The distinctive Red markings of the Queen’s flight was quietly removed when terrorism fears prompted a change.
As with all good green programs – the WWF promotes abstinence then reduction. Travel for the UK Government looks like becoming an endangered species itself!
One of the most venerable organizations in the green movement has published an interesting report on the UK government's travel trends.
The report from WWF challenges the new UK Coalition Government of reducing travel or moving it to such greener options as ferry and rail. It names names!
The report using information obtained under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act examines the number of trips taken by the respective government departments.
Now one of the departments, the Environment Agency, has banned certain types of travel and will save a small number of tons of carbon emissions.
The WWF report demonstrates that the UK central government could save over £100 million per year and 60,000 tons of carbon if a comprehensive Green Travel Program was implemented.
For many years the central UK government has moved departments away from central London and into the rest of the country.
From the perspective of smoothing out the spikes of traffic flows this was a good thing and also fulfilled social policy goals of creating employment in the regions.
Almost every government in the world has practiced this to some extent. It might seem ironic that the de-centralization of a centralist body such as the national government is a national policy.
But it does raise the question to how far technology, such as VoiP and videoconferencing, for example, will get into the DNA of national institutions.
We can expect to see many more examples of this pressure to ban or curtail government travel. Bad news for BA. Interestingly the UK essentially has almost no VIP flights left.
Mneanwhile, in 2008 the UK government announced that it would be disbanding the remaining arm of 32 Squadron currently based at RAF Northolt.
So all the Royals and the UK ministers will have to fly commercial. They do on long haul these days anyway.
The sole remaining aircraft is a Bae146 with the rest either retired or sent to other operational units. The distinctive red markings of the Queen’s flight was quietly removed when terrorism fears prompted a change.
As with all good green programs – the WWF promotes abstinence then reduction. Travel for the UK government looks like becoming an endangered species itself.
Editor's note:
This is the first in a series of articles from Tnooz and its team of contributors looking at how travel and technology can combine (or not) on environmental issues. Tnooz is committed to exploring the green agenda from the perspective of travel tech and would also welcome guest contributions. Get in touch.