Head Office Press Office
- 22-Oct-2007 - The Environment Agency has
announced a new print contract worth around
£1 million over the next three years.
"The Environment Agency tries to lead
by example when it comes to working with
environmentally friendly businesses that
provide services like printing. In this
contract we looked to employ business with
good green credentials, this helps us work
with suppliers who we can trust will take
their environmental responsibility seriously"
Said Dawn FitzGerald, Design Manager at
the Environment Agency.
"This decision highlights the benefits
of businesses getting serious about reducing
consumption and wastage. If you want to
be more eco friendly then recycling used
paper is a great start, but why not think
about every element of your business, from
the electricity that keeps the printing
press turning to the chemicals you use on
the paper, even the plastic cups by your
water cooler. These are all areas where
you could make significant reductions"
Bellmont, Cambrian Press, Colourprint,
Lexon, Linney and Polar were the print companies
that made it through the tough selection
process involving 60 applicants. The contract,
which will supply the Environment Agency
head office, will commission both litho
and digital work to each company on a case
by case basis.
"We were looking for print companies
that have sound environmental credentials
like the ISO 14001, which is only awarded
to business achieving the highest standards
in reducing their environmental impact.
We also visited all twelve short listed
printers so that we could see how they actually
ran their business.
"Producing products or services using
less resources, less wastage, and less pollution
isn’t just good for the environment, it
can be good for business too. Increasingly
organisations are looking for more than
just product quality in their suppliers,
and ensuring that you are at the frontline
of such changes means both your business
and the environment can benefit."
+ More
Environment Agency launches new tool to
help reduce carbon footprint from construction
projects
National Press Office - 22-Oct-2007 - A
new online tool that will help construction
companies plan carbon-wise projects and
reduce their carbon footprint has been launched
today (Monday) by the Environment Agency.
The spreadsheet-based tool, which from
November 2007 will be mandatory to use during
the planning stage on all major Environment
Agency construction projects, is now being
made available to other construction companies,
government bodies and consultants.
Andrew Powell, Technical Advisor at the
Environment Agency, said: “At the Environment
Agency we are always looking to ways of
reducing the environmental impact from our
own construction projects. We spend around
£200 million a year on construction
projects, which accounts for about 3% of
the construction civil engineering sector.
“With this in mind over the past year,
together with Jacobs Consultants, we developed
a new tool for calculating the carbon footprint
from construction projects. We have been
trialling the tool as part of environmental
audits on the building of new flood defences
schemes.”
Features of the new tools take into account:
estimating the CO2 in the raw materials
used
direct emissions from personal travel by
employees and transportation of raw materials
emissions from site activities such as earthworks
and excavation
allows comparison of waste management options
The tool provides a way to find where significant
carbon savings can be made during the planning
and design process and can be also used
to audit the carbon footprint of a completed
project.
During the trial of the tool, the Environment
Agency’s auditing of one of the flood defence
schemes found that one tonne of ordinary
Portland cement emits 970kg of CO2 when
made in a wet kiln, whilst ash cement gives
off 585kg and slag cement emits 280kg. With
1.5 million tonnes of cement used in flood
defence work in 2005/6, this highlights
how the choice of materials can help achieve
a significant reduction in carbon output.
Andrew Powell added: “As an environmental
regulator, our role is to lead by example
and demonstrate what sustainable construction
means in practice. Promoting resource efficiency
and reducing carbon emissions from our construction
projects is an important part of that.”
The Carbon Footprint Calculator can be
viewed and download via the link under "See
also..."
