GovPrint: Advancing digital sustainability and social value
Explore how GovPrint supports operational efficiency and digital sustainability ambitions across government departments.
GovPrint is a cross-government, cloud-based service managed and delivered by the Government Property Agency (GPA). In 2024 to 2025, the service rolled out to 244 locations, and is now available in 355 buildings.
By allowing civil servants to print documents from any enabled location securely using a single account, building pass and GovWifi. The shared service provides a practical way for departments to support sustainability commitments while simultaneously improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.
By shifting departments away from managing localised print services, GovPrint bypasses costly, time-consuming procurement exercises to deliver immediate financial savings. A centralised management portal gives IT teams real-time visibility into device activity, which proactively reduces device downtime and minimises service desk calls. Because staff can print at any enabled government building, even where their specific department has no official presence, departments can reduce their overall quantity of printers while maintaining service resilience. A smaller print estate translates directly to lower energy consumption, reduced emissions and less consumption of ink and paper over time.
A core component of GovPrint is its direct contribution to environmental wellbeing and digital sustainability. The service empowers departments to take active, measurable responsibility for their ecological footprint by transforming routine printing into an intentional, eco-conscious habit.
GovPrint links everyday paper use to a cloud-based platform that tracks consumption and quantifies its real-world forest impact. Unavoidable paper use is automatically balanced through certified, third-party audited reforestation projects worldwide, directly supporting global biodiversity, carbon reduction and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This has resulted in 5,033 replanted trees to date through our agreement.
Furthermore, the platform embeds digital sustainability into daily workflows. By enforcing double-sided, black and white default settings and automatically purging uncollected print jobs (408 trees saved since inception in 2023), GovPrint actively prevents resource waste, reduces energy consumption and systematically lowers the government’s overall carbon footprint.
“As more departments use GovPrint and become less reliant on printing, printers can be returned and reused elsewhere across government. GovPrint is currently reusing around seven devices each month, reducing the need to buy new printers as the service grows.” – Keith Houghton, Product Owner, Government Property Agency
Through a circular partnership with the Ministry of Justice and specialist partners Xerox and DSA Connect, GovPrint diverts devices that have reached the end of their operational life to prison workshops where they are digitally tracked, manually dismantled and sorted. By ensuring all components are reused, resold, or recycled, the initiative achieves zero landfill waste from processed devices while embedding social value directly into operations.
Beyond environmental impact, the programme supports rehabilitation and real-world outcomes by developing practical, transferable skills, resulting in at least four participants securing post-release employment. Since stable employment is a critical factor in reducing reoffending, the benefits of this work extend well beyond the office environment and directly into local communities.
Ultimately, GovPrint showcases how shared services can seamlessly blend operational efficiency with significant reduction in environmental impact, offering a measurable and sustainable model for modern government operations.