MOD St Athan applies military precision to cutting carbon
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s (DIO) energy management team based at MOD St Athan have been working with the Carbon Trust Wales to develop an innovative carbon management reporting tool.
The project has been so successful in its pilot of five Welsh MOD bases that the Monitoring and Targeting tool will now be used to analyse and report the performance at 160 of MODs highest energy consuming sites across the UK.
With assistance from a Carbon Trust Wales consultant, DIO’s Utility Management Bureau Service designed and developed the tool to monitor individual sites’ performance against the MOD’s Greening Government targets. These 2015 targets aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared to 2009 levels. The new target is to reduce by 25% estate related non-operational greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 from a 2009/10 base year.
Tony Moss, manager of the DIO Utility Management Bureau Service, said: “DIO’s priority is to support our Armed Forces as they prepare for operations, providing the infrastructure that meets both military needs and Government environmental targets. Monitoring and targeting provides the mechanism for the long-term management of energy use and highlighting improvements in its efficiency use.
“This innovative reporting tool provides information identifying MOD sites that need to improve the use of their energy. The team can prioritise those MOD sites that require the most support towards managing their energy, delivering against carbon targets and making financial savings.”
Mr Moss added that the tool also provided a valuable source of evidence justifying actual savings being achieved through ‘spend to save’ investment programmes and securing future investment funds.
Mike Batt, Manager of Carbon Trust Wales, commented: “This case proves the importance of a solid monitoring and targeting system to larger organisations with multiple sites to analyse. The new system will allow the MOD to focus its efforts by consolidating and continuing to build on its already impressive green credentials.”
The reporting tool has been developed with two formats - an overview Carbon Management Report and a Matrix Summary report – each of which has different practical uses.
The Carbon Management Report allows the MOD to monitor and report individual sites’ performances against the Greening Government emissions target. It will also allow the MOD to forecast future consumption, which assists with setting and managing utility budgets. The accuracy of this reporting is helped by taking in account variations in consumption usage and being able to input variables such as changes in utility unit prices and carbon emission factors into the tool.
It will also allow the MOD to forecast future consumption, which assists with setting and managing utility budgets. The accuracy of this reporting is helped by being able to input variables such as changes in utility unit prices and carbon emission factors into the tool.
The Matrix Summary report is automatically linked to the Carbon Management Report. It presents all the pertinent monitoring information covering each site on a summary sheet. Because it is impractical to try and continually monitor every MOD site constantly a colour coded exception line highlights any areas where there are issues for remedial actions to be undertaken.
The Monitoring and Targeting tool was trialled at five MOD sites across Wales – including Castlemartin, Dering Lines, Sennybridge and RAF Valley - and the pilot programme is now being extended to include the 33 sites with the highest carbon emissions across the UK.
Eventually the Carbon Performance Report will be rolled out to cover 160 of MODs highest energy consuming sites. The DIO Utility Management Bureau Service team were chosen to assist with the development of the reporting tool because of its commendable track record for overseeing the performance of energy saving projects.
The five Welsh sites are progressing well towards meeting their Greening Government targets by 2015. Reports in March 2012 showed that they have reduced their carbon emissions by 3,857 t/CO2 since 2009, which is a 14.8% reduction.
For more information on how the Carbon Trust can help your business, call the helpline on 0800 085 2005 or visit the Carbon Trust website: www.carbontrust.co.uk/wales.
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For further information please contact Tony Moran, DIO Senior Communications Officer, on 0121 311 3879 oe e-mail tony.moran572@mod.uk
DIO website: www.mod.uk/DIO
Note for Editors
1. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is part of the MOD. It is responsible for managing and maintaining land and properties to meet the current and future needs of the MOD and personnel at home and abroad, and to support current operations.
2. Our work includes providing, supporting and improving: operational units; single living and service family accommodation; training areas and historic military sites. DIO actively manages these to ensure the needs of Defence are met, value for money achieved, heritage protected and environmental goals achieved.
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