Green Team

The Office of the Auditor General’s Carbon Neutral Action Report

As per the requirements in the Provincial Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, this report identifies the actions taken by the Office of the Auditor General over the past year to minimize our greenhouse gas emissions. It also provides an overview of our plans to continue minimizing these emissions in the coming years.

Throughout 2008, the Office of the Auditor General engaged in the following practices in an effort to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions:

1.  reduced work related travel – the nature of our auditing work requires us to travel to our auditees, who are located throughout the province. Off the island, our modes of travel vary from ferry to flight, including the use of sea planes. Our location in downtown Victoria makes the use of sea planes and helicopters very efficient given that staff can walk to their terminals for departure. To further reduce our travel, we look to utilize teleconferencing services with our auditees whenever possible.

2.  green commuting – the Office encourages staff to travel to and from work via green commuting modes by providing a secure bike locker and shower facilities and encouraging use of public transit rather than personal vehicles.

In 2009, the Office of the Auditor General will look to:

1.  reduce the number of copies of our reports that we print,
2.  continue to make conscious decisions around our methods of travel,
3.  review our internal use of paper,
4.  review our printer usage to maximizing their efficiency,
5.  establish a ‘green team’ to lead the Office in greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning,
6.  determine a baseline from which to measure our efforts
7.  develop an action plan to guide future environmental endeavours
8.  increase the size of our secure bike locker to encourage more staff to bike to work,
9.  promote greater use of video conferencing and teleconferencing as alternatives to travel, and
10. review opportunities to reduce our energy consumption related to heating and lighting.