APPENDIX 1

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2001/02

Summary

This report reviews the implementation of the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy and related initiatives, setting out the initial achievements during 2001/02.

SECTION 1 Introduction

The majority of the County Council's services seek to achieve at least one facet of environmental, economic or social well-being. The key purpose of the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy is to ensure each of the County Council's services embraces all of these objectives, providing effective, joined up services. The strategy's corporate action plan set out a challenging first year programme to mainstream sustainable development thinking across all County Council activities and services. One year on, it is now an appropriate time to review progress under the headings set out in the action plan and consider a new programme for further improvement during the coming year.

The values and achievements can continue to contribute towards real service improvements and can be integrated as a valuable part of the performance management regime.

SECTION 2 The County Council's Sustainable Development Policy Framework

The County Council's commitment to achieve sustainable development is explicitly set out in the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy which states:

"Hampshire County Council is committed to working towards achieving sustainable development by meeting the needs of the present without compromising the interests of future generations.

This strategy seeks to ensure that the Council undertakes its own activities in a sustainable way, thereby setting a good example to the rest of the community as a service provider, consumer and major employer.

The strategy will complement our role of working with the community to secure a sustainable Hampshire and support the other initiatives outlined in our corporate strategy. It will also feed into the community strategy to be developed in partnership with the district councils in 2001".

The commitment is implicit within other key policy documents, including:

· The Hampshire County Council Corporate Strategy;

· A Vision for Hampshire - A Hampshire Greenprint;

· The Corporate Urban Living Strategy;

· The Corporate Equalities Strategy;

· E-Government statement; and

· Crime and Disorder Partnership.

Each of these seek to recognise our sustainability impacts and make commitments to:

· improve performance;

· measure and report publicly on key aspects of environmental/sustainability performance; and

· set targets and report progress.

The amalgamation of these policies is driving improvement and innovation within and across the County Council's departments. Examples of new joint working initiatives established in 2001/02 include a cross-departmental officer groups looking at opportunities relating to office services, school grounds, natural resource management, sustainable construction and water use.

SECTION 3 Identify Key Sustainability Impacts

As a large organisation the County Council's services and business activities create significant sustainability impacts of their own, with major impacts on the social, economic and environmental well-being of the community.

The County Council provides direct services to over 300,000 people who are in receipt of education related and social care services. The outputs and outcomes from these services are felt by virtually everyone in Hampshire.

With over 2,500 properties the County Council has significant environmental impacts. It is a major consumer of office and construction products. Its annual bills for energy and water use totalled over £6.4 million in 1999/00. It bought energy, food, stationery and equipment costing over £60 million and disposed of over 2,400 tonnes of its own waste. Staff drove about 12.5 million miles in their own vehicles on County Council business in 1999/00, as well as some 8.5 million miles undertaken in the County Council's own service vehicles.

In addition to these corporate consumption issues, there are many distinctive features within individual services that have many different impacts on the wider environment. Services such as highway construction and maintenance use considerable amounts of aggregates and chemical materials with a similar level of outgoing waste. Schools and certain scientific services deal with hazardous materials that have to be safely stored, used and disposed of. The care services generate clinical waste and require laundry services.

The County Council's expenditure of over £1 billion obviously has a significant impact on the community through the procurement of goods and services and the multiplier effects arising from this spending and that of the County Council's employees.

SECTION 4 The County Council's Sustainability Management System

Responsibility for ensuring that sustainable development is being mainstreamed in the County Council's operations and services is shared by the Corporate Management Team, with the County Planning Officer acting as the key conduit of information. He oversees the work of a cross-departmental steering group. The steering group includes a representative from each of the main departments which in turn have overseen the preparation of department-focussed action plans. The steering group generally meets every six to eight weeks to review progress on the Corporate and Departmental Action Plans, promote new opportunities and identify means to overcome barriers.

Day to day promotion of the Sustainable Development agenda is managed and undertaken by the Environmental Challenge Team who also provides support to the steering group. The team deals with staff queries on sustainability opportunities and barriers, facilitates workshops (particularly as part of the Best Value programme), undertakes induction and other training courses and coordinates the assembly of sustainability performance data . It seeks to provide links between the activities of the broad range of working groups which are promoting sustainability in specific fields such as Natural Resource Management, Corporate Water Action Plan, Biodiversity Action Plan, etc. The team has also coordinated the establishment of cross-departmental working groups to look at issues of mutual interest. The first example of this is an Office Services Group which is sharing best practice tips and looking at ways to reduce costs, waste and duplication of resources between departments.

It is intended that progress on the implementation and development of the County Council's sustainability policies be reported at least annually to both the Corporate Management Team and the Cabinet.

SECTION 5 Reporting on Sustainability Performance and Indicators

The publication of the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy set out a number of activities for the County Council to undertake and performance areas to investigate during 2001/02. Principally these feature in the Corporate Action Plan and the Energy and Resource Use sections.

Corporate Action Plan 2001/02

This plan set out 13 specific actions which needed to be progressed corporately or by certain departments on behalf of the County Council. Full details of the actions achieved on issues relating to management, monitoring, financial regulations and training are set out in Appendix 1. It will be noted that nearly all actions have been achieved in full. Work on uncompleted actions is continuing and will be carried forward into the action plan for 2002/03.

Energy and Resource Targets

The Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy set out an ambitious set of short and medium term targets for the County Council to reduce its use of fuel and water and to improve waste recycling. Monitoring of these targets has been initiated by establishing a robust database of all indicators. It is hoped that this can be completed by mid 2002.

Achieving the energy reduction targets is being progressed mainly through the departmental action plans to achieve good housekeeping. Renewal of energy efficient fittings and appliances such as lights and IT monitors is continuing on a replacement basis. This programme will be reinvigorated by the requirements of the new Best Value Performance Indicator 180 which will require the County Council to report on the energy consumption and efficiency of all its major buildings.

For the longer term, the Environment Grouping and the Property, Business and Regulatory Services Department are examining how to facilitate and encourage the purchase and generation of additional green/renewable energy supplies, including the County Council's own sources such as Energy from Waste incinerators, landfill gas and forestry waste. This forms part of the Natural Resource Management initiative.

Best Value Reviews 2001/02

In line with the recommendations of the Action Plan, the majority of the Best Value reviews undertaken during 2001/02 set aside time specifically to consider the service's implications for sustainable development. The Environmental Challenge Team assisted the review teams to identify opportunities through using the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy as a checklist. Consideration of each service in relation to the strategy's 12 themes helped identify opportunities for service improvement and better integration with some of the County Council's other policies and initiatives.

Sustainability related improvements incorporated into the Best Value outcome reports from the recent reviews include:

· E-government measures that can reduce the overall level of travel required to deliver or access services;

· providing information on access to more environmentally friendly products and services;

· improving the range of consultations and means to provide better customer focus and feedback;

· better linkages and integration with other County Council services that can complement and enhance existing delivery methods and service standards;

· developing a `triple bottom line' framework to assess better the long-term and externalised financial implications; and

· measures to improve efficiency and reduce waste in the use of natural resources.

Measures to improve sustainability considerations in the Year 3 reviews have also been explored and are currently being developed through the County Council's involvement in an Improvement and Development Agency/Local Government Association Pathfinder project examining best practice in integrating sustainable development into Best Value.

Departmental Action Plans

A key objective of the strategy is to raise staff awareness of sustainability and how it relates to different work areas by encouraging joint working between departments. To achieve this, sustainable development has to become woven into every-day reality and be planned and relevant to each field of work. Teams were set up and over 700 ideas resulted from their work and consultation with staff. Some £25,000 was made available from the Climate Change levy rebate and potential projects were identified as part of each department's prioritised list of actions. To make the strategy useful to staff on a daily basis, the strategy's 12 themes are to be used as a 'sustainability check list' at project appraisal stage.

SECTION 6 Report Targets for Improvement

The progress made during the first year of the strategy has contributed to an impressive start. But this is only the beginning and there is clearly much more to do to improve the County Council's sustainability credentials and fulfil its aim to set a good example to the rest of Hampshire's community.

An inter Hampshire local authority officers' network, the Hampshire Sustainability Coordinators Network, has developed a benchmarking framework to compare current practice on 12 types of activity under three headings: people, systems and working with stakeholders. For each criterion, the launch and implementation of the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy have led to improvements in these areas. Detailed scoring for the current year and further improvements in these scores will be targeted by the Sustainable Development Steering Group during 2002/03.

SECTION 7 Supply Chain Issues

The County Council is keen to ensure that suppliers of products and services are also acting to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and maintain acceptable standards of ethical care for all living things.

This policy is firmly advocated by the County Council's main buyers at County Supplies who identify the products and services which serve the needs of the customer and avoid harming the environment. These specialist buyers keep abreast of research and development into environmental issues and purchase goods and services in the light of that knowledge and with the guidance of User Advisory Panels. They take care to ensure that products which have particular environmental characteristics are appropriately identified in the catalogues.

SECTION 8 Contact Point for Feedback on Report

Hampshire County Council is keen to improve its sustainability performance and would be pleased to receive suggestions from its customers, suppliers, stakeholders and partners on this report and on ways in which it can be improved.

All comments should be sent to:

Peter Brown

Environmental Challenge Team

Hampshire County Council

The Castle

Winchester

SO23 8UD

[email protected]

Further information is also available on our web-site at: www.hants.gov.uk/sustainable/

Implementation of Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy Action Plan 2001/02