The future of digital sustainability in Government

A recent panel discussion on the future of digital sustainability in government has highlighted the significant progress that has been made in embedding better sustainability practices into the public sector – while also identifying the substantial work that still needs to be done.

The panel at the Think Digital Sustainability for Government event comprised Tom Parry, head of digital sustainability at Defra, Mattie Yeta PHD, chief sustainability officer (CSO) at CGI, Ishmael Burdeau, lead sustainability business architect at DWP Digital, and Jennifer Marks, head of digital sustainability at Government Digital Service (GDS).

A recurring theme among the experts was the need for greater cross-sector collaboration, and bringing different stakeholders together.

Parry urged attendees to get involved with the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) cross-government group. He noted the need for better data strategies, particularly around international collaboration and tapping into the “green digital place” initiatives. Parry also stressed the value of strengthening relationships between the technology function and the CSO role within organisations.

“Within government and within our own organisations, there’s a question how we tap into that CSO function, which often sits outside the technology space. But that could be a good digital relationship that we can get better at using,” said Parry.

Burdeau also noted the challenges of siloed activities within the civil service and the need for more cross-government collaboration and thinking.

“One of the difficulties of the civil service is set up, is that activities are very siloed. My department looks after pensions and disability and so forth, and NHS looks after health, and HMRC looks after taxation. But some things are cross – climate change and environmental issues are not just Defra’s job,” said Burdeau.

Transforming sustainability from an obligation to an opportunity

Marks detailed her experiences in getting get everyone on board with digital sustainability as part of the One Login for Government programme.

“I’ve gone on this massive learning curve, this massive journey. Have I done loads and loads of courses? Yes, actually I have. Have they all been fancy ones run by Cambridge University? No, they haven’t. Has Ishmael helped me a huge amount? All the time. It doesn’t matter where you are in this journey, it’s the fact that you want to do it, and we work together and we keep on getting our message out.

“We have the power to transform sustainability from an obligation to an opportunity. We have the opportunity is in front of us,” she said.

Elsewhere, Yeta highlighted the importance of balancing the link between IT for sustainability and sustainable IT, emphasising the opportunities in areas like heat capture, mapping, monitoring, and business continuity planning.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunities on IT for sustainability that can have such a positive impact on the sustainable energy front,” she told attendees.

Yeta also pointed to the financial aspect of the triple bottom line and the importance of building robust business cases for sustainability initiatives, leveraging the work done by the Treasury.

“There’s an opportunity there for digital sustainability personnel to…articulate those business cases more robustly, because ultimately, we’re able to demonstrate the savings and the benefits of quite a lot of our programmes, which might help with that case for resources and finances.”

The audience engagement also provided valuable insights, with Oliver Cronk suggesting the rebranding of sustainability as “efficiency” to make it more relatable and actionable.

As the discussion came to a close, Yeta highlighted the need to seek out and engage with communities beyond the immediate group, while Marks reiterated the importance of hope and positivity in driving sustainability initiatives.