15. Deliver a sustainable service
All services must meet the 14 points of the cross-government GOV.UK service standard. Due to Defra's role in protecting the environment, services must also meet an additional 15th point about sustainability.
What this standard is about
This standard covers the social and environmental risks your service may create and the steps you should take to reduce them.
Why it's important
Defra's services aim to bring tangible environmental benefits to our society – from improving water quality to boosting the nation's resilience to flooding. Benefits can also come from replacing existing processes that are relatively resource intensive with more lightweight and modern equivalents.
The use of technology for government services also contributes to climate change and other sustainability risks. This can include:
- energy use that contributes to warming greenhouse gases
- hardware manufacturing (mining and processing) that leads to water scarcity, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss
- supply chains with unintended social impacts, such as labour exploitation
You can read more about the environmental impacts and Defra's 5 year digital sustainability strategy on GOV.UK (opens in a new tab).
What you need to do
Service teams should design, develop, and operate their services to be as sustainable as possible. For information on how to do this throughout your service's lifecycle, read the greener service principles guidance. The greener service principles are under review and updated guidance will be available later this year.
You will also need to set out your approach in a sustainability statement.
A sustainability statement should lay out what actions have been taken, and those that are planned, against the 6 objectives in Defra's digital sustainability strategy.
Where to find out more on sustainability
For information about sustainability and artificial intelligence, read Defra's AI sustainability guidance.
Get support
The Sustainable IT Team can help you understand these risks and draft your statement.
- Email: sustainableICT@defra.gov.uk