Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to minimise the carbon footprint of his Department; the carbon auditing that has been undertaken by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15490/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To minimize the carbon footprint of my Department in its daily operations, the Department through its Green Team, which was established some years ago, has over the past few years initiated the following actions:

Ensured that all lighting in the Department's eight buildings is switched off overnight;

Ensured that the Office of Public Works, which looks after the replacement of electric light bulbs in my Department's buildings, uses energy efficient bulbs and long life bulbs wherever possible when electric light bulbs are being replaced;

Ensured that the central heating arrangements for the Department's buildings are switched on and off to achieve optimum energy efficiency;

Ensured that the staff in the Department have been exhorted to:

1.switch off all their computer equipment (base units, monitors and peripheral devices) at the end of each working day;

2.switch off their PC monitors at lunch time and while attending meetings etc;

3.ensure that the last person leaving each individual office switches off all electric lights, printers, photocopiers and heaters.

My Department will continue to monitor its energy consumption and will where practicable continue to implement steps to minimise the carbon footprint of the Department in its daily activities. No carbon auditing has been undertaken by my Department. However, under the National Climate Change Strategy 2007 – 2012 it is understood that specific data on greenhouse gas emissions will be collated in respect of the public sector in general by the Environment Protection Agency and my Department will liaise with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the matter.