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Report to: |
Lead Member for Resources and Climate Change |
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Date of meeting: |
12 December 2023 |
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By: |
Chief Operating Officer
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Title: |
Updated corporate Environment Policy |
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Purpose: |
To seek approval for the proposed updated corporate Environment Policy |
1.1 The County Council’s corporate Environment Policy was adopted in 2001. This report proposes an updated corporate Environment Policy, which has been revised to take account of related new policies and programmes the County Council has adopted since 2001. In addition, the updated policy will enable the County Council to meet the requirements of some external funders and suppliers. The draft updated corporate Environment Policy is set out in Appendix 1.
2.1 Most medium-to-large sized organisations in the UK have a corporate Environment Policy, or similar, which sets out what they will do to reduce their corporate environmental impacts. The scope of the Environment Policy in Appendix 1 covers the County Council’s direct corporate environmental impacts. The draft Policy was developed following a review of the County Council’s current corporate environmental policies and programmes as well as a sample of environmental policies from other organisations (including neighbouring local authorities). In addition, a cross-party working group of the Place Scrutiny Committee has inputted into the proposed updated policy. If approved, the policy will be periodically reviewed by Officers to ensure that it reflects any key changes to legislation, standards, technology or understanding of environmental impacts. Any substantive changes required to the Policy will be brought back to the Lead Member for approval.
2.2 For clarity, the hierarchy of policies is as follows:
1) County wide: the East Sussex Climate Change Road Map is a subset of the East Sussex Environment Strategy.
2) Corporate: the Environment Policy is the overarching framework, under which sit more detailed policies (e.g., on sustainable procurement) and plans (e.g., the climate emergency plan).
3.1 The Lead Member for Resources and Climate Change is recommended to approve the updated corporate Environment Policy set out in appendix 1, which has been revised to take account of related new policies and programmes the County Council has adopted since 2001.
Chief Operating Officer
Contact Officer: Andy Arnold. Email: andy.arnold@eastsussex.gov.uk
LOCAL MEMBERS: All.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None.