Environment Capital

YOU’RE WORKING TOWARDS PETERBOROUGH “CREATING THE UK’S ENVIRONMENT CAPITAL”. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It was eighteen years ago that Peterborough was designated one of four UK Environment Cities. Since then partners across Peterborough have worked together to trial innovative environmental projects, help businesses, communities and residents to live more sustainability, and protect and improve the natural environment. Peterborough now wants to continue this journey towards a truly sustainable city and the aspiration to create the UK’s Environment Capital represents a formal commitment to this goal. Creating the UK’s Environment Capital isn’t about being the greenest at everything – it’s about the commitment and determination to continuously review and improve.
The system we’re using to keep measuring and improving is the globally recognised One Planet Living initiative developed by BioRegional. If everyone in the world lived like a European, we’d need three planets to sustain us. Of course, we only have one planet and so we need to reduce the amount of resources we are using and the impact we are making. Peterborough already has a track record for enabling partners to work together to solve environmental issues, and for trialling innovative green projects. We’re in a position to work with other cities to share information and best practice. For local people, the Environment Capital aspiration is about a cleaner, greener, healthier city – of real benefit for everyone.

SO, ACHIEVING ENVIRONMENT CAPITAL STATUS IS DEPENDENT UPON ACHIEVING ONE PLANET LIVING… BUT HOW IS THAT JUDGED?

One Planet Living is based upon 10 principles of sustainability. For example, waste, sustainable transport, water, as well as land use and wildlife. Using these key themes we can review our current position, set targets for improvements, and continue measuring. Peterborough has invested significantly in studying its environmental impact and the sustainability of key provisions, for example water and energy, so we have a good amount of baseline data at our fingertips. Now it’s about continuously seeking to improve
and checking progress on and on-going basis. We have a team of experts in the city to help us do this and we’re also drawing on input from the private sector. For a number of years now Peterborough has attracted environmental organisations and businesses to the city – we have a unique opportunity to use that expertise and knowledge.

SO CAN WE ACHIEVE IT?

These are exciting times for Peterborough at the moment, and particularly for our Environment Capital aspiration. Peterborough has just been named as one of the final four cities in line to secure £24 million to fund innovative projects to integrate transport, communications and other city infrastructure to improve the local economy, increase quality of life and reduce impact on
the environment. The other three finalists are Glasgow, Bristol and London. We are becoming recognised nationally and internationally for our focus on sustainability and expertise in this area.
We are currently setting ourselves stretching targets, using the One Planet Living indicators. These will help us continue to improve, help city partners all work in the same direction, and help us continue to attract funding and investment to the city. We are laying out a clear plan to help us achieve these targets. But the whole idea is that once we achieve them, we’ll look at further improvements
and continue to push forwards. The Environment Capital aspiration is all about continuous improvement and the journey of sustainability.

WHO SETS THE TARGETS FOR ENVIRONMENT CAPITAL?

The targets have been set leading up to 2050, based upon the idea of One Planet Living.In order to do that, we do compare ourselves with other cities. That encourages us to work harder. But Environment Capital itself isn’t a competition – it’s more a sharing of ideas and getting other cities to follow. There are other cities that are very good on environmental issues – Bristol, for example – but we would like to be considered as leaders in terms of environmental projects. We want people to come to us.

WHAT ABOUT NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE CITY – CAN YOU INFLUENCE THAT?

As Peterborough grows, we’re always considering sustainability. And we work in partnership with the council all the time.s Things are definitely changing for Peterborough. When we discuss Environment Capital, we also discuss how we’re going to sell that to people coming to Peterborough, and why they should come here. The city will be branded “Creating the UK’s Environment Capital” from next year, so that will increase awareness. It’s a bold statement. But we want people to look at Peterborough
and think “Hey, we want to be like them”.

HOW ARE YOU FUNDED?

It’s a mix. We win money for individual projects through funding bids. There’s funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund – with the Forest for Peterborough project we initially got funding from that, but now we rely on companies sponsoring the project in terms of buying trees. The council just bought 500 trees for a planting day, and IKEA and Trees For Cities buy trees for
us, so we get it from different sources. We’ve now got a fundraiser to help us get money from a variety of sources, and this year she’s raised £650,000.

IF THE CHARITY DISAPPEARED TOMORROW WOULD IT BE MISSED?

The projects have a huge impact on people. We have someone here who works with schools and she’s aiming to get every school working in an environmental capacity – we’ve achieved that with 92% of schools in Peterborough at the moment. We have other people who work with the elderly – there’s a Winter Warmth project that is happening at the moment which means that if you’re over 65 and on low income you can have your boiler serviced or replaced for free. And we’re delivering free portable heaters through help we get from the Salvation Army and the council – actually five different partners on this project. Help like that, people would really miss. Last year, for example, we detected five homes that were at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s things like that I think people don’t realise we do.

HOW DID YOU PERSONALLY GET INVOLVED WITH PECT?

I came from a corporate, property background. I’ve lived in Peterborough all my life, so was quite interested to get involved in helping the city, and since I’ve been here I’ve learned so much about the city that I didn’t know, and met people I would never have met. I have to say working here has really educated me on how much money I spend on things, and energy usage and so on.

PECT’S TOP TIPS FOR GREENING YOUR BUSINESS

• Switch off the lights when you leave the building. Lights left on overnight use enough energy in a year to heat a home for almost 5 months.

• Keep the temperature at 19°C and wear an extra jumper if you get a bit chilly instead of cranking up the heating. Your heating costs will go up by 8% each time you increase the temperature by just one degree.

• Look for the potential in your rubbish. Eastex is the national materials exchange. Online at www.eastex.org.uk users can list materials they would like to re-home, and items they are looking for. Get your staff involved.

• Open a window instead of using air-con. Air conditioning an office for one extra hour a day uses enough energy in a month to power a TV for over a year!

• Make a sustainable choice for travelling to work. Try walking, cycling, public transport or car sharing. Car sharing to work 10 miles away will save you and your colleague £250 a year – more if there’s three of you!

• Go green for your away days. Do something environmentally friendly for your team building – why not help a school build an outdoor garden or volunteer at your local wildlife reserve.

• Turn off electrical equipment when you leave the building. Leaving a computer on overnight for a year creates enough CO2 to fill a double decker bus. A photocopier left on standby overnight wastes enough energy to make 30 cups of tea or 5,400 A4 copies!

IS THAT PERSPECTIVE IMPORTANT?

I think it’s been very good for me to come from a different environment. It has made me realise how much we wasted where I used to work. But also I still have in my mind what I used to think when I worked for the corporate sector, so that helps me think about how to engage those people, who often are totally switched off from this. I can see how they think, and that’s important – we need to consider everyone when we are trying to engage people.

WHAT’S COMING IN 2013?

Forest for Peterborough will continue – we aim to plant a tree for every resident of Peterborough in the next 20 years, and teach people about the benefits of having trees. Engaging more schools, supporting over 1,500 businesses, and supporting more families out of fuel poverty with projects like Winter Warmth. And we have a project called Greeniversity – a skillshare project – which we won funding for last year to roll out nationally, and we now have five other towns operating Greeniversity. We’ve also got a Green Festival coming up at the end of May, on the theme of One Planet Living. And just continuing keeping people warm and saving them money!