Lake District Foundation Environmental Policy
Mission statementÂ
At the Lake District Foundation we recognise that the environment is important to our organisation, our staff and our funders and supporters. We exist to fund, collaborate and inspire change on things that matter to the region by prioritising our natural environment, climate and people. We also have a responsibility to manage our operational environmental impacts carefully, including meeting all legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our organisational strategy and operating methods, with regular review points. We will encourage staff, trustees, funders and other stakeholders to do the same.Â
Objectives, targets and priority actions
1. Reduce our operational carbon footprint (Scopes 1, 2 & 3)
Targets: TBC
- We will measure and report our operational carbon footprint on an annual basis.
- We will focus our reduction action on the biggest sources of emissions over which we have the most control
- We will keep our targets under review, bringing dates forward and increasing reduction aspirations, if possible, as our carbon reduction plans develop.
- In the longer term, we will seek to better understand the emissions associated with the projects and initiatives that we fund so that we can include this in our carbon reporting and identify opportunities for maximum beneficial carbon impact.
Targets: NAÂ
- We will seek to routinely account for environmental impacts in the planning of our events, including consideration of:
- Ease of access to low carbon forms of transport for guests
- Energy performance of venues
- Food and drink supply chains and sourcing
- We will seek to utilise our expertise to positively influence event planning by other organisations.
Target: Adopt an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policy by 2025
- We will explore the environmental impacts of the main products and materials we purchase, so that opportunities to better manage the impacts of our supply chains can be identified.
- We will adopt an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy to ensure consistent application of environmental principles in our purchasing.
Target: Share and environmental guide for staff
- We will encourage and facilitate energy efficient working practices in the home offices of our staff.
- We will continue to prioritise energy performance in the choice of business premises utilised.
Target: Reduce emissions by at least 4% per year
- We will prioritise the use of travel alternatives such as video/phone conferencing.
- We will employ a principled approach to our business travel, avoiding unnecessary travel, and utilising public transport.
- We will facilitate access to low carbon vehicles for our staff.
Target: TBC
- We will continue to implement our working with organisations policy
- We will continue our due diligence practices when accepting donations (see finance policy)
- We will ensure that funds are awarded to projects that have positive outcomes for the environment through the development of evidence-based processes
- We will encourage development and sharing of environmental management systems among organisations we work with, accept funding from, and award grants to.
Governance and engagement
We have developed a detailed action plan to ensure delivery of the objectives and targets above. Responsibility for each action within that action plan has been assigned to an appropriate person. Timescales for delivering each action have also been assigned and these will be kept under review.
We are committed to reviewing and updating progress against our action plan on a quarterly basis.
Meeting these objectives will depend upon the actions of all of our people: staff, board members, volunteers and associates. All people will be made aware of our environmental objectives, targets and actions, as well as any related policies or procedures, through training and events for existing people and the staff handbook and induction process for new people.
In order to secure the wider objectives set out in this environmental policy, we have appointed a sustainability lead from within the senior management team who has specific responsibility for environmental sustainability.
We will also seek to routinely identify any training needed to facilitate delivery of this policy and to meet them wherever this is feasible.
Our Environmental Management System
This environmental policy and our environmental action plan, alongside any other related policies, procedures and monitoring comprise our Environmental Management System (EMS). Our EMS is certified by Green Small Business. Our certification is maintained through an annual review of our action plan carried out independently by Green Small Business.
