The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has become the second government department to provide real-time information about its energy usage.
The data, which is available on Defra's website and updates every five seconds, shows energy consumption as well as cost and carbon dioxide emmissions used at their Nobel House headquarters in London.
The department joins the Home Office in providing the information and as more data is collected, users will be able to compare energy usage against previous weeks and beyond.
At the time of writing, the tool said the department had generated a carbon footprint of 243kg in the past hour and a spend of £37.23p.
Defra said: "This approach ensures that Defra is transparent about the amount and cost of energy use within the department. The valuable energy performance data generated will help to raise awareness amongst Defra staff and provides a further incentive to reduce our energy use."
The move is part of David Cameron's aim to get all government departments to publishing real-time information about their energy use and emissions with an aim to becoming "the greenest government ever" and with an aim of cutting carbon emissions across central government by 10% by May 2011.
Last year the parliamentary environmental audit committee said it was "unconvinced" with the previous government's claim that it was on track to exceed targets to cut carbon emissions from its estate but did praise an improvement in data quality.
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
