ORR corporate sustainable development activity

• When making formal decisions about ORR’s corporate actions we consider the impact of them on our Greening Government Commitments (and wider sustainability issues as appropriate) and aim to maximising the sustainability benefits we can deliver.
• We have developed a Corporate Environmental Strategy with input from colleagues. It is based around the Greening Government Commitments, and brings together corporate and staff activities across a range of themes whilst recognising the constraints we face.
• The ‘Sustainability’ section of our annual report and accounts provides an annual update on activity in this area. 

• As a public body we provide data to DfT as part of the UK Government’s Greening Government Commitments, which have been updated for 2021 to 2025. These set out targets for UK government departments and their agencies to:
  • reduce water consumption
  • reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • minimise waste and promote resource efficiency

Greening Government Commitments latest data

• They also set out commitments for departments and their agencies to:
  • improve sustainable procurement
  • develop and deliver Nature Recovery Plans
  • develop and deliver Climate Change Adaptation Strategies
  • reduce environmental impacts from ICT and digital services
• We report quarterly against our Greening Government Commitments targets and annually against our commitments as part of Department for Transport group. We will continue to include data in our Annual Report and Accounts.     
• The Greening Government Commitments 2021-25 sets targets and commitments to be met by the end of the 2024-25 financial year (against a 2017-18 baseline), and requires us to monitor our progress and take action to ensure we meet them. 

The charts below illustrate our own environmental performance, reported as part of our Greening Government Commitments. We are committed to continually improving the quality and consistency of data as part of our GGC activity. 

Please note: There may be differences between the data reported in our past ORR annual reports and accounts and the data summarised below. This is due to revised emissions factors retrospectively being applied by Defra to our submitted consumption data.

Total greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and travel (tonnes CO2e), annual data, April 2017 to March 2022

Domestic flight emissions (tonnes CO2e), annual data, April 2017 to March 2022

Non-hazardous waste, annual data, April 2021 to March 2022

• We are raising awareness with ORR staff about how our internal processes and regulatory activities incorporate sustainable development and environmental objectives, and the role all our staff have in delivering the objectives of the Sustainable Development Policy. 
• The ORR Board ensures that it has access to appropriate expertise to provide scrutiny and challenge of our activities across the breadth of sustainability issues. Our Board includes members with environment and sustainable development expertise.