Warwickshire News Mine

And in gaining the honour Warwickshire County Council becomes one of the very first local authorities in the entire country to prove its environmental credentials.

The county council has achieved ISO14001, which means that every part of the authority, from education and social work through to the fire service and libraries are all doing their bit to protect the environment.

A key part of the gaining the standard is also in proving that plans are in place to continue the environmental good work.

External auditors from BSi spent time in Warwickshire last month to assess the council’s environmental commitment. What they saw confirmed that the whole authority is good enough to be registered to the international environmental management system standard ISO14001.

Gary Fenton, Operations Director for Bsi, who presented the award, said: “The team at Warwickshire County Council has worked very hard to achieve such an extensive certification to the Environmental Management System standard which really positions them ahead of almost all other UK local authorities and we congratulate them.

“This proves that the council is committed to consistency and improvement of working practices, which in turn should provide a service that meets its customers’ requirements. Like most of our other clients with similar certificates they can expect to see significant benefits in terms of greater efficiencies and higher levels of customer satisfaction.”

The award is the culmination of a three-year programme of hard work that has involved council officers from all parts of the authority and a lot of support from county councillors.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “This great achievement signals the end of the beginning for Warwickshire County Council. The external auditors will return every six months to make sure the county council continues to protect the environment and deliver services efficiently.”

Leader of the Council Cllr Alan Farnell said: “ISO14001 provides a systematic method for managing environmental risk, identifying environmental efficiency savings and communicating best practice throughout the organisation. Using and maintaining the system helps the authority demonstrate continual environmental improvement and our leadership in sustainable development.”

The ISO14001 programme has generated real projects that reduce Warwickshire County Council’s impact on the environment.

Examples include:
Saving £17,500 by starting a furniture reuse scheme within the county council.
10 per cent of all WCC car parking spaces are now car sharing only spaces.
The mobile library fleet has taken delivery of four new low emission buses.
WCC is buying renewable energy for 90 per cent of its buildings and all street lighting.
Many materials used in the building of Avon Valley School in Rugby were reused from the structure of the old building.
All WCC staff can now get 20p a mile for using a cycle on business use.
Fire and Rescue is now using biodiesel for its fleet.

More information about Warwickshire County Council’s Environmental Management System can be found at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ems

Link to WCC