Chesterfield Borough Council earns environmental plaudit

Chesterfield Borough Council has become one of the first councils in Britain to be awarded Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) certification.

The authority has been developing an environmental management system since June 2004 to help improve its environmental performance.

External auditors assessed the system recently and judged that it meets the requirements of the EMAS certification scheme. At the moment, just over 60 UK organisations have EMAS certification, including only 15 local authorities.

The Council's Sustainability Officer, Charlotte Winnert, said: "This is a tremendous achievement as we are one of only a few organisations and even fewer local authorities that have EMAS.

"However, this doesn’t mean we will sit back on our laurels. There are still lots of ways that the Council can improve its environmental performance and EMAS can help us do this."

During 2005/06, EMAS helped the Council improve its environmental performance significantly, including:

Reducing the amount of waste produced by 5.5% to 5,455 tonnes
Identifying several new recycling opportunities, which along with existing schemes ensured the Council reused, recycled and composted 1,020 tonnes of the waste it produced
Reducing gas consumption by 11%
Reducing employee mileage by 7.5%
Reducing carbon emissions by 5.3% to 4,672 tonnes

More information about the Council's environmental performance can be found on its website, www.chesterfield.gov.uk.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Ray Russell, said: "This is great news and underlines the Council's commitment to conservation of the Earth's resources.

"It is a win-win situation because as well as reducing our negative impact on Chesterfield's environment, these measures have also saved the Council money by reducing our costs."

Ends

Press release issued: January 2 2006