Leeds City Council environmental policy

As a council, we want to make sure that we have a positive impact on our environment.

Leeds City Council carries out lots of activities that have positive and negative impacts on the environment. Some of the environmental impacts we control ourselves, for example the carbon emissions from our buildings. In other areas we influence the environmental impact, for example, the way that we deliver our services and spend public money. Our greatest environmental impact is clearly through our service delivery.

Our Environmental Policy identifies how we want to improve the environmental impact we have on the city by taking action on the areas we control ourselves, and work with others so we can help them have a positive impact on the environment too.

The policy helps us makes decisions about what we do and how we do it so that we protect the environment, reduce the amount of resources we use and cut our carbon emissions.


Environment Policy
2008-2011

Looking After Leeds
“We are committed to improving the quality of life in Leeds and want to inspire pride in our city and communities. We will work with our partners, build on our successes and protect our city for future generations.”

The core function of Leeds City Council is to deliver a comprehensive range of services to the 760,000 residents of Leeds. This involves a workforce in excess of 30,000 employees who deliver nearly 500 specialist services covering an area of 552 square kilometres. To support this service delivery, an annual budget of approximately £2.4 billion is allocated. As the largest employer and consumer of goods and services in the city, the direct and indirect impacts of the organisation are at the forefront of how we manage our business.

Leeds City Council recognises that its activities and services have both beneficial and adverse impacts on the environment. In working toward a more sustainable future we will:

1. Prevent pollution and minimise our impacts
2. Comply with environmental legislation and other national initiatives
3. Continually improve our environmental performance
4. Assess the risk associated with climate change and adapt accordingly
5. Make effective use of natural resources

The Council will encourage and enable all employees to integrate this policy into all its activities, services, policies, strategies and decisions. We want to lead by example and to encourage others to improve their environmental standards. To do this we are committed to working with our contractors and suppliers, influencing our partner organisations and encouraging the wider community to exercise greater care for the environment.

In order to deliver improvements across the city and within its own operations two strategic plans have been developed. The Leeds Strategic Plan and the Council Business Plan identify the key priorities and outcomes that are expected between 2008 and 2011. The strategic and business outcomes linked to the environment are:

1. Reduce the ecological footprint of the city through responding to environment and climate change and influencing others
2. Create a cleaner, greener and more attractive city through effective environmental management and changed behaviours
3. We will take significant steps to reduce our carbon emissions
4. Increase accessibility and connectivity through investment in a high quality transport system and through influencing others and changing behaviours

These outcomes are supported by numerous improvement priorities which will allow continual improvement to be measured.

Specifically we will:

1. Reduce carbon emissions arising from public sector buildings, operations and service delivery, and encourage others to do so
2. Increase the proportion of socially responsible goods and services that we procure
3. Support the achievement of our strategic outcomes through our corporate social responsibility programme
4. Increase the amount of waste reused and recycled and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill
5. Undertake actions to improve our resilience to current and future climate change
6. Address neighbourhood problem sites; improve cleanliness, access to, and the quality of, green spaces
7. Improve the quality and sustainability of the built and natural environment

To ensure we address other areas of the environment, including air quality, wildlife, the use of natural resources and the natural environment, we will use the following methods to identify, drive, monitor and report progress:

1. A formal environmental management system (EMAS)
2. National indicators
3. Comprehensive Area Assessment for the ‘Use of Natural Resources’
4. Support other national initiatives where appropriate
5. Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal