Dear colleagues,
Nottingham City Council has just been inspected on its commitment to sustainaable development.
The inspection is distinctive in that it has been conducted by officers from across Europe - Vienna, Malmo, Tampere, London and Birmingham.
Whilst having many positive things to say about what we do, it asks challenging questions on -
1. are we sufficiently committed to developiong the environmental element (or "environmental capital") of the city?
2. do we have a strategy for our role to combatting climate change strategy?
3. could the departments of the Council achieve more on sustainable development if they worked together more effectively and shared good practice.
It is to be hoped that the report will be coverted into a series of actions for a plan on what to do next rather than a simple statement of what we don't do.
Of the ideas raised, possible actions may include -
1. including EMAS (or ISO14001) in the next annual series of services plans;
2. effectively tracking the progress on sustainable development through Quality of Life indicators;
3. preparing for the new European Union directives on handling specialist waste;
4. developing bus tickets that are valid on all bus services (both private and public sector);
5. writing a new procurement policy for the Council which includes "green procurement"?
6. training Councillors to scrutinise policies and services against sustainable development.
There were some ideas that were less helpful; integratio of computer systems and various plans (arguably for their own sake) and questioning the viability of ourlong term commitment to incineration of waste when the only current effective alternative is land-fill.
Best wishes,
Michael Edwards,
City Councillor,
Nottingham.
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