How green is your group?
Do you want to make your group more environmentally sustainable?
A series of new guides have been published to encourage voluntary and community organisations across England to become more environmentally friendly.
The guides are part of the ongoing Every Action Counts programme which is aimed at providing support, resources and information for national and local voluntary and community organisations on how to protect and improve the environment.
Extreme weather conditions, as experienced across the UK in recent months, are likely to become more commonplace as the temperature in the UK rises year on year, with average annual temperatures expected to rise by up to 5°C over the next 100 years. It is now strongly believed by the scientific community that it is our actions are partly to blame for this.
The Voluntary Sector Assembly in Herefordshire has been putting some of the practical advice offered by the guide into action. The VSA now works with other members of the voluntary and community sector in a collaborative effort to combat climate change, with a hope that it will make a difference.
So what can organisations do to become more environmentally friendly? Some top tips in the guide include:
• Drawing up an action plan for your organisation to highlight practical things that staff and volunteers can do to reduce the amount of waste produced, the amount of energy consumed, and the amount of resources used
• Paper - if possible, don’t use it at all! Stop and think – do you really need to print out that e-mail, or if you do need to print, can you re-use paper? When you’ve used it, don’t forget to recycle
• Minimise your power consumption, and what you do use, make sure it’s green energy. This means simple things such as switching off computers, monitors, photocopiers, franking machines etc when they’re not in use. Using low energy light bulbs, turning the heating down to between 19 and 21 and switching to a green electricity supplier are all really effective ways of saving energy
• When you buy, make sure you’re buying low environmental impact products wherever possible. Recycled paper and office supplies, re-fillable cartridges and ecologically sound cleaning materials are all easy to source today. When buying larger goods such as appliances and hardware, make sure they’re low energy rated to reduce your impact on the environment
For the latest news and information on ‘greening’ your organisation and to download the guides visit http://www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/index2.asp
