Why doesn’t government just reduce its GHG emissions instead of paying for offsets?
Under the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement government will assess all facilities to identify carbon savings opportunities. To date, projects that will achieve over $7 million in annual energy savings have been approved. The BC government is also promoting active transportation, increased use of technology that improves work-life balance, and conservation of resources in all forms. In addition to formal programs, government “Green Teams” have been instrumental in engaging staff to do their part to reduce GHGs. Some examples: • Reduced the need for 210 new physical servers through server virtualization, yielding an estimated 88 per cent power savings; • Implemented advanced power management, including auto-sleep mode during off hours, saving more than 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually; • Replaced existing computers with Energy Star 4 models, including new online tools such as Window’s Live Meeting, Groove and Office Communicator –reducing the need for business
