"Our vision is of a beautiful, vibrant, clean and green city that is a great place for people to live, but that does not create an unacceptable burden on the planet." One Leicester – Shaping Britain’s Sustainable City.
The Council is committed to transforming Leicester into "Britain’s sustainable city."
Our Environmental Policy supports this goal. Through it we will use our powers and influence to protect and improve the environment and make continual improvement in our own environmental performance, as set out below.
Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
Creating a Quality Local Environment
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Prevent or minimise pollution to air, water or land (including noise pollution, litter, fly tipping and the impact of car travel).
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Protect and, where possible, enhance the quality, extent and accessibility of Leicester’s open space, trees and natural environment.
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Contribute to the creation of a sustainable built environment through the planning process and our own developments.
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Anticipate the effects of climate change and adapt our services to protect the City.
The Wise Use of Natural Resources
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Adopt energy and water-saving measures in our buildings and reduce the fuel used by vehicles on Council business, promoting equivalent measures across the City.
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Encourage the appropriate generation and use of renewable energy.
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Minimise waste and the impact of its disposal, based on the principle of reducing, reusing, recycling or composting and energy recovery before landfill of what remains.
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Use products and materials such as paper efficiently and specify goods that, wherever possible, have a minimal environmental impact in the extraction or sourcing of materials, manufacture, use and disposal.
Implementing the Policy
Scope of the Policy
We affect the environment through our services and policies, enforcement of laws and regulations and the choices we make when buying goods and services. This Policy covers all our activities and extends to schools by invitation.
Environmental Management
We will manage our impact and monitor compliance with this Policy through EMAS, fulfilling our environmental responsibilities and ensuring that all Council activities, and those carried out on our behalf, comply with or exceed statutory environmental requirements and any other relevant commitments we make.
We will take steps to understand and control any risks of harm to the environment resulting from our activities.
Involvement
We will enable the full involvement of Councillors and employees by providing training and other support. We will work with our contractors and suppliers to help them improve their environmental performance and ensure that, when working for the Council, they adopt equivalent environmental standards.
We will encourage the public and partners to take action too, through environmental information, advice and services.
Schools
We will encourage schools to adopt this Policy by joining ‘EMAS in Schools’.
Accountability
This Policy was approved by the Cabinet on 8th December 2008 and will be reviewed annually. Its delivery is the overall responsibility of the Chief Executive. The Council will publicise its environmental performance each year to enable the people of Leicester to hold us to account.
Further copies of this Policy and information about its delivery are available from The Environment Team. Telephone: 0116 252 6775. E-mail: emas@leicester.gov.uk
