Water and Raw Materials

Saving water in the Council

Top tips for saving water

How to report a water leak

Paper use in the Council

Top tips for saving paper

Timber and horticultural materials used by the Council

Top tips for choosing timber and gardening materials

Saving water in the Council

The Council has identified its use of water as a key environmental issue.  The storage and purification of water, and its treatment after use, all have significant impacts.  For this reason, we manage our water use through our Eco Management and Audit Scheme .

In 2006/07 the Council used over 218,000 cubic metres of mains water - equivalent to the typical amount that about 4000 people would use at home in a year.  Our current target is to reduce this by 5% by 2011/12.  Our biggest water users include:  swimming pools, the indoor market and DeMontfort Hall along with our main administrative buildings at New Walk Centre.

View a summary of our environmental targets

We monitor our water use through automated ‘intelligent water meters’ and these help us to spot leaks quickly and get them dealt with.  We have also fitted these meters in many schools and a joint project with Severn Trent Water in 2008 and 2009 fitted additional water saving measures in over 40 of the schools.

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Top tips for saving water

Water is a precious resource with environmental implications in its storage, treatment and distribution.  The average person in England and Wales uses 150 litres of water each day and demand is expected to grow as the population and the number of households goes up.

Water saving tips on the Environment Agency website .

How to report a water leak

Water leaks should be reported to Severn Trent Water.  The link here will take you to the relevant page of the Severn Trent Water website. 

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Paper use in the Council

Amongst the raw materials used by the Council, paper is one of the most environmentally significant.  Environmental impacts can result from the harvesting of timber, the use of water, chemicals and energy in paper manufacture and its disposal after use.

The Council is taking a three-pronged approach to reducing the impact of its paper use: 

• Cutting paper use – In 2009/10 we used the equivalent of nearly 43 million A4 sheets (excluding Leicester Link).  This was a cut of 5.5% by staff reducing the amount of paper they use.  For example, the number of people receiving copies of Cabinet meeting papers was reduced by almost 58% making a significant paper saving from these meetings alone.

• Using recycled paper – We have stringent standards requiring staff to use recycled paper wherever possible.  In most cases staff must use recycled paper made from 100% ‘post-consumer’ waste paper.

• Ensuring our waste paper is recycled – Most of our biggest buildings have been collecting their waste paper for recycling for a number of years.  We are rolling this out across all our buildings by April 2011.  Our target is to recycle 40% of our office waste.

For more details see our Environmental Statement. A list of all our Environmental Targets is also available.

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Top tips for saving paper

WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) provide a useful set of web pages with tips for saving paper at home and in the office.  Use the following link to go to the paper saving section of the WWF website. 

For details of local waste paper recycling services go to our recycling pages. 

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Timber and horticultural materials used by the Council

Through its Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) the Council has identified timber and peat as other raw materials with significant environmental impacts.  We manage and minimise those impacts as part of our procurement systems for goods and services.

Timber features amongst the materials used in Council housing repairs, renovation and construction projects.  Our policy is that timber we use must come from a ‘certified’ sustainably managed forest.

Peat is commonly found in horticultural products such as potting compost, soil conditioner and container-grown plants and our policy is that products containing peat should be avoided unless there is no suitable alternative. 

For details about our policies on both timber and peat see our Guide to Sustainable Procurement.

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Top tips for choosing timber and gardening materials

• 'Sustainable timber' – there are a number of ‘certification’ schemes to help consumers find timber that comes from sustainably managed forests.  For details of those used by the Council, see our Guide to Sustainable Procurement.

• Compost, 'grow-bags' and soil conditioner – when buying any of these you can reduce your environmental impact by choosing a peat-free product.  There is an increasing range and quality of these now available.  For more details and a link to products information try the Act On CO2 website.

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