Sustainability

Sustainable development means a better quality of life now and for generations to come. A widely-used definition of ‘sustainable development’ is: 'development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.

Greening the Council

Our Environmental Policy was drawn up and signed by the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council in August 2006. The Policy Statement outlines what steps Carlisle City Council will take towards managing the environmental impacts of our activities as an organisation, with the aim of improving our 'in house' environmental performance.

In our corporate aim for a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Carlisle, Carlisle City Council will take responsibility for managing the environmental impacts of our activities and aim to continually improve our ‘in house’ environmental performance. In order to achieve this we will:

• Identify the significant environmental impacts of our activities.
• Develop suitable objectives, targets and programmes to manage and reduce our environmental impacts.
• Comply with relevant environmental legislation.
• Implement actions to manage and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, through energy conservation, greater use of renewable energy and sustainable transport.
• Reduce consumption of resources whilst endeavouring to re-use or recycle where practicable.
• Conserve the natural environment and enhance the biodiversity of our land holding.
• Implement initiatives that seek to minimise the environmental impact of our procurement of goods and services, working with our suppliers and contractors to help achieve this.
• Raise awareness and motivate staff and members to conduct their activities in an environmentally responsible manner, making sure that environmental responsibilities are defined, communicated and understood at all levels across the council.
• Encourage our partner organisations, developers and the general public to adopt sustainable principles and undertake sound environmental management, taking advantage of educational opportunities where possible.
• Carry out regular reviews and monitor progress of our environmental policy to enable us to strive for continual improvement.

In accordance with this we have been developing and monitoring initiatives to improve the Council’s environmental performance.

The City Council has received a Silver award for its environmental practices from Cumbria Business Environment Network.

The awards are based on internationally-recognised standards and each business undergoes a 'surveillance' visit that assesses how they are continually striving to improve.