Environmental Policy

Shrewsbury Town Council is committed to transforming Shrewsbury into a cleaner and greener town and a more prosperous place to live and work. We commit to making Shrewsbury a low carbon town and a healthy and active town – with a high quality built and natural environment.

Our Environmental Policy supports these goals. Through it we will use our powers and influence to protect and improve the environment and make continual improvement in our own environmental performance, as set out below.

A Low Carbon Town

• Ensure all of our vehicles are serviced and maintained to a high standard
• Use clean fuel sourced locally

A Quality Built and Natural Environment

• Prevent or minimise pollution to air, water or land (including noise pollution, litter, fly tipping and the impact of car travel).
• Protect and, where possible, enhance the quality, extent and accessibility of Shrewsbury’s open space, trees and natural environment.
• Contribute to the creation of a sustainable built environment through the planning process and our own developments.

The Wise Use of Natural Resources

• Minimise energy and water demand across our estate and reduce the fuel used by vehicles on Council business, promoting equivalent measures across the Town.
• Encourage the appropriate generation and use of renewable and low carbon energy.
• Minimise waste and the impact of its disposal by applying the ‘waste hierarchy’: reducing, reusing, recycling or composting and energy recovery before landfill of what remains.
• Use products and materials such as paper efficiently and specify goods that, wherever possible, have a minimal environmental impact in the extraction or sourcing of materials, manufacture, use and disposal.

Scope of the Policy

We affect the environment through our services and policies, enforcement of laws and regulations, the choices we make when buying goods and services – as well as our role as a community leader.

Environmental Management

We will manage our impact and monitor implementation of this Policy, fulfilling our environmental responsibilities and ensuring that all Council activities, and those carried out on our behalf, comply with or exceed statutory environmental requirements and any other relevant commitments we make.

We will take steps to understand and control any risks of harm to the environment resulting from our activities.

Involvement

We will enable the full involvement of Councillors and employees by providing information, training and other support. We will work with our contractors and suppliers to help them improve their environmental performance and ensure that, when working for the Council, they adopt equivalent environmental standards.

We will encourage the public and partners to take action too, through environmental information, advice and services.

Accountability

This Policy is reviewed annually.

July 2013