Environmental Leader

 

Omagh District Council recognised as an environmental leader in the 13th Arena N.I. Environmental Benchmarking Survey.

At the end of last year, Omagh District Council was one of 250 organisations invited to take part in the 13th Arena N.I. Environmental Benchmarking Survey which is run on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency by Business in the Community’s ARENA Network. The Council was able to measure its environmental efforts against other local authorities and the leading private sector companies in Northern Ireland.

The Survey is a key driver for environmental management and improvement and is seen as a positive influencer to help organisations achieve a more sustainable way of doing business. The first part of the Survey relates to the way environmental issues are taken into account in the business strategy of an organisation and how these are integrated and managed in the everyday operations and decision making.  Next the survey measures environmental performance (accounting for 60% of the overall score) with a focus on energy, waste, travel, water and biodiversity.

The results have just been published and the Council has much to be proud of. With an overall percentage score of 79% compared with a Northern Ireland average of 68%, the organisation achieved 5th place out of 17 Northern Ireland local authorities entered this year and 37th overall out of a total of 128 organisations. Commenting on the achievement, Senior Environmental Health Officer, Dr Ian Leitch said that this is a very good result reflecting well on the Council’s efforts to meet its sustainable development obligations and it highlights the hard work of all of the staff.  Through activities like the generation of green electricity, the promotion of recycling, the provision of biodiversity training and good environmental management of all its facilities, the Council actively promotes its role as an environmental leader and this is reflected in its high ranking in this year’s survey.

12/01/12

The survey results can be viewed at www.arenani.org.uk