Civil Service in the news
Cabinet secretary announces phasing out of bottled water across Government estate
The use of bottled water for meetings and other official business is to be phased out across Government by the summer.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell has written to the head of every Government department suggesting they should replace bought–in bottled water with tap water for all meetings in future.
- More than 2 billion litres of bottled are sold across the UK every year
- Sales of bottled water in the UK are increasing 9% a year
- More than 154 billion litres are sold globally
- Tap water requires around 300 times less energy than bottled water
Tap water requires around 300 times less energy than bottled water (for packaging and transport) and does not leave bottles to be disposed of. More than 2 billion litres of bottled water are sold in the UK ever year at an average cost of 95p a litre.
A number of departments, including Defra, the Food Standards Agency and BERR, have already stopped using bottled water for official meetings. Gus O’Donnell’s proposal will extend this ‘tap water only’ policy across all government departments.
Sir Gus said:
“The Government is committed to sustainable operations across its estate and I have made this issue one of my key priorities for the Civil Service.”
“Today's announcement is a small part of a much bigger programme of action in this area.”
