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Greener Service Principles

Updated 14th March 2025. Help us improve it and give your feedback by email.


The Greener Service Principles are a set of guidelines for the design, development and operation of more environmentally sustainable services.

These principles have been developed through an open and collaborative process involving colleagues from a wide range of disciplines across UK government and beyond.

In many cases, actions we can take to deliver more environmentally sustainable services build on what is already established best practice from a cost, usability, accessibility, reliability or other perspective.


1. Understand the problem and policy intent

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2. Create a sustainability strategy

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3. Measure the impact of the service and teams

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4. Work with partners who can support greener goals

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5. Take a greener approach to AI and software tools

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6. Take a greener approach to hardware

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7. Design for greener user journeys across all channels

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8. Design for greener architecture, data and security

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9. Develop and test for efficiency

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10. Operate a greener service

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