One of the South West's leading charities has been awarded a top environmental award.
Devon Wildlife Trust, whose main headquarters is in Exeter and bases at Wembury
(near Plymouth) and Cookworthy (near Great Torrington), demonstrated its commitment
to environmental management recently by becoming the first county wildlife trust to
gain the prestigious ISO - international standard accreditation. Many businesses are committed to reducing their environmental impacts, but few have
taken the time and made the investment to gain the coveted ISO14001 award.
Devon Wildlife Trust's Stuart Hodgkiss was the man given the task to guiding the
charity through the vigorous accreditation process. Stuart said: "Getting ISO status
meant implementing an Environmental Management System which means we took a long
look at every bit of the running of our charity and focussed on minimising the
impacts of the activities which cause most environmental harm."
The process highlighted several areas for improvement; emissions from vehicle use,
the amount of fossil fuels used to heat and power the charity's buildings and the
amount of waste it sent to landfill, were all things the process uncovered.
Stuart continued: "We now place a focus on considerate vehicle use, replacing our
cars with cleaner vehicles where possible and to promote car sharing and the use of
public transport. We are also educating our staff on reducing energy use and
actively seek alternative energy for our buildings to compliment the hydro turbine
and air source heating already employed at some of our offices. We also now measure
our waste on a monthly basis and set targets for reduction to landfill. We have
increased recycling facilities at all sites and our HQ at Cricklepit Mill has become
our first 'Zero to Landfill' office, by using Devon County Council's Energy from
Waste Facility."
Now the work begins in ensuring that Devon Wildlife Trust maintains its ISO status.
With this in mind the charity has agreed a set of yearly pledges which include:
* Reduce CO2 emissions from vehicle use by one tonne
* Conserve energy to cut reliance on fossil fuels by 1 tonne of CO2
* Reduce waste to landfill from the charity's offices by ½ tonne in the first six
months.
* Install rainwater harvesting at one of the charity's sites
* Conserve natural resources by reducing the use of paper hand towels at the
charity's Cricklepit Mill headquarters
* Protect watercourses by equipping each of the charity's offices with new portable
and workshop spill kits to ensure that any accidental spills can be contained
* Install new bicycle storage facilities at Cricklepit Mill to increase capacity and
encourage cycling to the site as an alternative to car use
Stuart concluded: "As a charity whose mission is to protect Devon's environment we
need to be seen to be greener than green. ISO accreditation gives us that."
To find out more, visit the Devon Wildlife Trust website www.devonwildlifetrust.org
Photo copyright DWT (All rights reserved)
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