Reduce Your Use Initiative in the Public Sector

As part of the Reduce Your Use campaign, the public sector has made a concerted effort to lead by example by cutting back on the amount of energy it uses.

Over winter 2022/2023, the Government required all public bodies to commit to saving between 5-10% of their energy use across all operations, and up to 15% in their buildings.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Office of Public Works (OPW) developed a staff energy awareness campaign across public organisations to achieve these energy-saving goals.

The initiative focuses on taking action in the short term, while implementing measures that will set public sector organisations on a pathway towards achieving their 2030 energy efficiency and decarbonisation targets.

163 organisations signed up to the 2023/2024 campaign, representing over 70% of the public sector's energy use. They undertook a variety of actions to reduce their energy use, including reducing the use of lighting, limiting temperatures in buildings and reducing hours of operation of heating. The results from the 2023/2024 campaign can be found here.

Reduce Your Use winter 2024/2025, which runs from October to March, encourages public bodies to maintain or improve on energy savings made over the past two winters.

For further information on Reduce Your Use in the public sector, see here.