Corporate Environmental Action Plan
Sustainability is a concept that involves assessing and reducing the impact of mankind's development on the environment. Many of today's environmental problems, including climate change are due to unsustainable consumption of natural resources. Sustainability is about the protection of the environment by using earth's resources wisely for example using recycled products and improving energy efficiency.
North East Lincolnshire Council recognises the need for a sustainable future, to protect and improve the environment for future generations. For this reason we have written our Corporate Environmental Action Plan which sets out how we will incorporate environmental issues into our day to day business. Aside the obvious benefits to the environment we could also make significant savings through improving our energy efficiency.
The action plan tackles a number of key issues; they are what the council buys, overall targets on climate change, Natural Resources and the Natural Environment, our policies, and how we raise awareness of environmental issues. Each issue has been looked at separately within the action plan, but the key targets are listed below.
• Buy ethically and environmentally by increasing the amount of stationary holding an environmental label, and to increase the number of products that contain 80% recycled material.
• Reduce the councils overall carbon footprint by 20% by 2015 by reducing emissions from fleet vehicles, improving energy efficiency and reducing the consumption of water.
• Improve the biodiversity of the natural environment
• Increases the amounts of waste recycled by the council and reduce the amount of waste it produces.
• Establish a policy on climate change and consider the environmental impact of all our policies.
• We also aim to increase awareness of environmental issues amongst schools, the community and council staff.