17 May 2007
City’s leading London-wide charity pushes ‘Third Sector’ to go
green - faster
The City Bridge Trust, the leading grant-giver to London-only
charities, today (Thursday 17 May) gave the ‘Third Sector’ a firm
push to go green – faster - at the results-launch of the pilot
series of eco-audits it commissioned for 12 charities.
Lord Mayor John Stuttard, who heads the Square-mile-based City
of London Corporation, which is the sole trustee of The City Bridge
Trust, said:
“Big-brand business is adapting rapidly to climate change –
under pressure from customers, investors and suppliers – but there
are 170,000 general charities in the UK, turning over £26 billion,
employing 600,000 people – plus at least as many formal volunteers.
This pilot shows that they, too, have a long way to go."
“The 12 pilot charities have already learned a lot and should be
congratulated on their commitment to future improvement; we’ll be
visiting them again before the end of the year to see how they got
on. Environmental thinking begins with self-awareness and these 12
are setting the pace.”
Key findings of the eco-audits, paid for by The City Bridge
Trust and carried out by independent expert Donnachadh McCarthy of
3 Acorns, are published today, alongside top tips.
The snap-shot of the sector thrown up by the 12 charities
visited shows: four had a formal environmental policy, one a staff
travel plan, one an environmental purchasing policy; seven could
not provide full figures for an energy carbon footprint; none were
on a green electricity tariff and none were using carbon offsetting
for energy use. Most were able to provide gas and electricity usage
figures – but only six had figures for water use, with eight giving
figures for un-recycled waste.
Three had efficient gas boilers, seven did not know the age of
their boiler, five had badly-fitting single-glazed windows, five
were air-conditioned, nine had inefficient lighting controls and
five had broken radiator controls.
All 12 had paper recycling in place but only three used recycled
paper for photocopying and printers and none used recycled paper
for external printing of leaflets/reports etc.
Only one had full recycling in place for glass/cans/plastic
bottles, two used environmentally friendly cleaning materials, ten
used disposable plastic cups for drinking water seven used plastic
bottled (instead of mains based) water coolers and six used fair
trade tea/sugar/coffee for staff drinks.
Some examples of problems discovered during the 12 eco-audits:
lack of knowledge on how central heating and hot-water controls
worked (due to missing manuals and staff turnover); hot-water
systems running 24 hours a day (or heating to 10-200 Centigrade
above the 600 recommended temperature setting); central heating
hours not aligned to building use (or set at 260 when recommended
temperature is 190); inability to control heating or
air-conditioning – leading to opening windows for cooling in
winter, or having the heating on in summer.
Key tips for the Third Sector include:
- Get a clear environmental policy and make sure staff,
volunteers and users know about it. ·
- Save energy with a modern boiler; set your heating to 19
degrees Centigrade (every degree upwards adds 10% to your
bill).
- Use only energy-efficient lighting; set fridges to 30 or
40.
- Switch to a green electricity supplier, check your water meter
and use spray taps for hand-washing.
- Discourage free car-parking, pay a bike mileage allowance, use
rail instead of air travel where possible and offset carbon – but
check credentials.
- Buy recycled office furniture and use only recycled
paper.
Organisations participating were: Association of Charitable
Foundations, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary
Organisations, Building Exploratory, Centrepoint, Community Service
Volunteers, Crisis, East London Mosque, Hackney Community
Transport, Merton Voluntary Services Council, National Council for
Voluntary Organisations, Race On the Agenda, Royal National
Institute for the Deaf.
Lord Mayor John Stuttard said The City Bridge Trust, which
grants £15+million a year from surplus trust funds the Square Mile
holds to look after the five City bridges across the Thames,
regularly seeks to promote innovation and best practice in the
Third Sector, eg research into tackling “Knife Culture” on London’s
streets, support for good governance practice in small charities
and taking on a role in helping swift distribution of 7/7 appeal
funds.
Lord Mayor Stuttard, whose principal role is to act as the
annually elected ambassador for the UK-based and world leading
financial services industry, said:
“City firms have so far been amongst the leaders in green issues
but we all have much further to go.”
Ends
See
www.citybridgetrust.org.uk and
www.3acorns.co.uk.
Contact Ruth Attridge at Rain Communications for comment on 020
7222 4345.
Email
Bullet-point notes on City of London Corporation and
green issues
The City of London Corporation WAS the largest buyer of renewable
energy – now pipped by M&S. Our internal recycling is 77%. We
have a dedicated climate-change adaptation strategy for the Square
Mile. The Lord Mayor & officers offset business travel
(including air) for the last 10 years. The Lord Mayor’s Show is
also offset. The major Sustainable City Awards incentivises City
firms. We back the London Accord research project with BP, YZen and
leading financial research houses; we supported the founding of the
carbon trading markets in London and have a pioneering green energy
local powerplant.