Council services
Are We Sustainable?
The Countryside Service is committed to maintaining and enhancing the countryside and it's rich diversity of species. Our work means that we are very much aware of the inter-relationships of living things and understand that our actions can have knock on effects both positive and negative. We are therefore conscious that whilst maintaining the local countryside we don't damage the wider environment. For example there is little point in fencing a meadow to restore the diversity of wildflowers if the wood used in the fencing destroys important woodland elsewhere.
As part of Wokingham Borough Council the Countryside Service has an environmental policy. We currently have a number of initiatives to try to help minimise our impact on the environment. We are also working on putting together a strategy that looks at the negative environmental aspects of our work and finds ways to minimise these impacts.
Our current initiatives include:
Sustainable transport
- We have a small fleet of bicycles, including a bike trailer, and encourage cycling on and between sites.
- Where possible we try and encourage people to use sustainable means of transport i.e. bicycle bus or walk, to visit our sites.
- We run a Health Walks scheme to promote healthy living and try to reduce dependence on the car as a means of transport.
- We manage our larger meadows by grazing which leads to a slight reduction in the amount of machinery/fuel used. The alternative form of management is a hay cut.
Wise use of energy
- We have a policy that any replacement light bulb purchased will be low energy ones.
- All computers are turned off when not in use.
Sustainable use of natural resources
- We try to build in environmental options into any new developments, for example in the recent refit of the toilets included low flush toilets, sensors to switch off lights when not in use and sprinkler taps, reducing the amount of water used.
Delivery and purchase of services and products
- All the office paper we purchase is recycled.
- All our printing, for example leaflets and events programme, is done on recycled paper.
- We use environmentally preferable alternatives where possible, e.g. washing up liquid, wood preservative and chainsaw oil.
Minimisation and safe disposal of waste
- We have paper and glass recycling facilities at some of our sites for the public to use.
- In line with whole council policy we reuse envelopes for internal mailings and recycle our office paper.
- We run a recycling competition for schools that visit the site and recycle their lunch box waste.
Enhancement of the Rural and Urban Environment
- Local residents are encouraged to participate in the work of the Countryside Service to aid the long term sustainability, for example Friends Groups. This also helps build and maintain local communities.
