Simon is Head of Internal Environmental Management at the Environment Agency, driving forward a strategy to improve the Agency's own environmental performance After working at Alcan Smelting and Power carrying out biological sampling for fluorides, air quality and EMS auditing, Simon started work with the Environment Agency in 1998. He worked in a regional post as an environmental footprint advisor to senior management. He also worked as EMS project manager, helping the Agency achieve ISO 14001 certification at four sites.

What are the most important lessons you have learned so far in implementing carbon reduction measures?

"Firstly, have a good understanding of the organisation's carbon footprint. Without this it is likely that you will put a lot of effort in the wrong place. Carbon reduction measure will more readily be accepted if it also delivers financial savings so focus on the quick efficiency wins first. After this, move to technology and take into account whole life carbon cost. Running alongside all of this, needs to be a staff behavioural change to ensure progress doesn't slip back once you focus on another initiative."

How do you plan to achieve reduction of carbon emissions by 30% by 2012?

"The Environment Agency's CO2 footprint is 64,000 tonnes. Our target is to reduce this by 30% by 2012 through efficiency and the use of technology. We won't participate in carbon offsetting until then. Instead of investing in carbon offsets we have established a fund to allow us to finance carbon reduction projects.

"We aim to improve the environmental performance of our office space, where average desk use is less than 50% because a lot of staff are working in the field. We do not just want to move into new, purpose built green buildings. We want to demonstrate what can be done with existing buildings. Also, our IT department is currently producing an action plan which should result in significant energy and financial savings.

"To reduce the impact of our travel we use a 'travel hierarchy.' When travel is essential, our preferred option is train travel. We have a policy that we won't fly on any journey that can be done by train in five hours or less. We are willing to pay extra to keep our impact down. When we do drive we prefer this to be done in lease cars because these have the lowest emissions. At the operational end, the fundamental issue is to use the right vehicle for the right job. Emissions range from a light van at 172 g/km to a heavy 4x4 at 295 g/km. As part of a trial, 90 of our badged fleet are running on 22% biodiesel.

"Pumping water is the single largest contribution to our carbon footprint and the hardest to manage - it is largely in the lap of the gods as to when and where we have to pump to avoid flooding or to provide drinking water. We are assessing how efficient our pumps are to direct improvements in the future. We are working with the Carbon Trust's Partnership for Renewables, who lease public sector land to install large wind turbines."

What are the key ingredients for success of a low carbon initiative that could be applied to any sector?

"You need full commitment from the top of any organisation to get an initiative delivered. I think it's important to start by improving efficiency and the elimination of wasted energy. This will provide a financial as well as a carbon saving. After this get some good advice, be bold and take on initiatives that will deliver the greatest carbon savings. Do something that will deliver real reductions and not just provide short-term headlines."

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role and how do you deal with them?

"The Environment Agency is a large and diverse organisation with growing duties. My challenge is to keep our carbon performance alive within these competing demands. I make our environmental performance part of how we work and how we are. If it is seen as a 'bolt-on' it will never get to the top of the priority list. This means when we select new vehicles, we have a CO2 emission limit for cars; and when we refurbish a building we have set standards.

"To win the hearts and minds of all our staff to do the right thing environmentally [is challenging]. To help instil the right behaviours requires real leadership from the top.

"The final challenge is trying to understand the full life carbon cost and saving from any initiative. It is often hard to identify and quantify the embedded carbon impact which can mean that a decision is based on the carbon impact in use, which may be misleading."

Are current UK Government climate change targets realistic?

"I think targets are realistic, but I think the UK will have real difficulty in achieving them unless we really start to tackle transport and electricity production in a co-ordinated way."

What have been the most successful means to encourage staff to become 'greener'?

"We engage staff through forums such as 'chat with the chief.' For an hour, once a month our Chief Executive answers questions on a topic over an internet forum. The chat on our environmental performance raised a good debate and some interesting ideas which we are carrying forward. We use our internal communications to share successes and inform staff of initiatives we are pursuing. At the other end of the spectrum we use individual mileage targets to influence changes in behaviour, for example.

"Ultimately we are aware that we will only deliver the challenges we have set ourselves in our strategy by engaging and energising our 12,000 staff. We want people to think and act differently. To reflect this we have moved our internal environmental management team into our Human Resources Directorate. This is helping us draw closer links between environmental performance and our people management and development."

What advice would you give to someone starting out in your role?

"Keep it simple, ensure you have support from the top and make sure you embed environmental and carbon improvements at the core of how you do business and not as an afterthought."

What is your future vision of the "low carbon" Environment Agency?

"We will have fewer, smaller efficient offices in a way that others would aspire to. We will only travel on business when necessary and when we do we will take the lowest carbon option available. Where appropriate, we will have used our land assets and waterways to generate renewable energy. Our staff will behave differently because they understand the importance of being green and they will use this understanding to influence others."