Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1021. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Defence the actions and engagements that his Department has taken to date to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in all buildings under his Department. [40907/22]
View answerIn 2009 the Government set a national target to improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. It set the public sector the more challenging target of improving its own energy efficiency by 33%. The Department of Defence met this target through several energy saving initiatives such as changing all lights inside and outside our buildings from halogen to light emitting diode (LED), installing passive infrared sensor motion detectors (PIR) on lighting throughout our buildings and switching away from kerosene oil for heating.
The Department is a member of OPW-Energy, participating in their state-wide staff energy conservation campaign titled Energy Optimising Power @ Work. The core principle of this campaign is to encourage staff behavioural change with regard to energy usage. The overall aim is to identify and eliminate energy wastage.
The Department established a Green Team. Staff members from different branches of the Department work together to ensure staff are reminded to power off office equipment such as monitors and PC’s at the end of each day.
The Department's Facilities Management Team monitor and update the Building Management System (BMS) daily and ensure that the heating is powered off for weekends and public holidays.
The Climate Action Plan 2021 provides a detailed plan for taking decisive action to achieve a 51% reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and setting us on a path to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050, as committed to in the Programme for Government and set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021.
The Department will continue to follow the Climate Action Plan 2021 in particular section 9 - Public Sector Leading by Example - as we work towards 51% reduction in overall greenhouse gases by 2030.
