What are we doing?
The New Forest National Park Authority made a public pledge to reduce its own contribution to climate change by signing the Nottingham Declaration in 2009.
The Nottingham Declaration is a voluntary agreement. By signing the Declaration Local Authorities pledge to systematically address the causes of climate change and to prepare their community for its impacts
After calculating all the energy used directly by the Authority in its buildings and travel, the carbon footprint for the organisation was calculated at 215 tons of CO2 for the financial year 2008/09.
We will use this figure as our starting point and plan to reduce our emissions year on year.
The New Forest National Park Authority is taking climate change very seriously and it is an integral part of our Management Plan.
In addition
- We have signed up to the 10:10 campaign and as such have publically pledged to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by ten percent from April 2010 to March 2011
- Our greatest contribution to climate change comes from commuter travel so we have developed a Travel Plan – which contains many actions to facilitate differing commuter and business travel habits, such as a hybrid pool car
- We are working through a Sustainability Action Plan which is leading to many changes in our workplace such as low-flow taps and a composting system for organic waste
- An independent environmental audit has been conducted and we are using the results to guide further work on improving the sustainability of the Authority and its operations
- We aim to promote sustainable development through our planning policies.
We are working on climate change internally and externally, at a strategic level and a community level. We see our role as coordinating and communicating, as well as learning from examples of best practice. Working with others is key if we are to be effective on climate change.
