West Midlands Fire Service and the Environment “Everyone talks about the Weather, but does nothing about it.” Mark Twain By Sally Anne Chidwick

What We Are Doing Environmental Strategy & performance so far Champions & communication packs Meeting structure, Steering and Working Groups Adopting a “small actions” approach Undertaking research as part of our IRMP on mitigation and adaptation

What We Are Doing - Operations Assessing the impact of climate change Resource planning for a changing incident demand profile Examining ways of reducing environmental impact of incidents

What Kind of Culture? We want to create a positive environmental culture We want a workforce that is well informed about climate change We want our staff to be able to make globally responsible decisions and to change attitudes, behaviours and actions

Research – Key Findings Some people: –fail to understand the issue –think that they will not be affected directly –believe that they cannot effect any change because the problem is too big People are not necessarily motivated to act by: –threats to their long-term survival –concern for their children’s future –criticising behaviour that they consider normal in their home or family A traditional market-led approach is not necessarily appropriate Behavioural change is emotionally challenging - being “forced” to deal with difficult emotions can be totally counter-productive

Research Undertaken by DEFRA Some Current PerceptionsWhere We Want to Be People aren’t clear what causes climate change and don’t understand what needs to be done to tackle it People understand climate change and what is causing it People think that climate change won’t affect them personally People see the impact it may have on their lives People don’t include climate change as an important issue when making decisions People feel empowered and positive about tackling climate change Climate change is a depressing and negative issue People include climate change when making their decisions and embrace the positive changes that result

The Small Action Approach We ask a large number of people to do a few small things to start with Develop environmental awareness campaigns and supportive material The messages are kept simple and focus on what can be done Established working groups to look at key areas using volunteers who want to make a difference Env Steering Group Office Procedures Mileage Reduction Operations EstatesHR Champions Borough SHE meetings

The Small Action Approach We stress the environmental impact in the first instance – not savings We link climate change messages to desires/aspirations We link the agenda with other policies and strategies and programmes

The Role of the Champions Uses “people like me’’ to sell the message and to take action Use the opportunities to tap into “key moments of change” Identify and spread good practices through networking Use energy monitors to understand consumption Assist with identifying areas of notable practice

Understanding Where We Are Model for measuring CO2 emissions from fires (GMC) Carbon Trust Survey – potential to reduce energy consumption by 20% in some areas We used 27,042,391kWh of gas, electricity and oil between April 07 and March 08 - a cost of approximately £859,270 Diesel use was approximately £800,000 / yr We use on average 18,000 litres of fuel per week Total energy use to an estimated 36,717,423kWh - total carbon footprint of 10,024tCO2e/yr We consumed 3,000 bottles of water in 2007 We used 100,000 (27.5 tonnes) sheets of paper each year (2007) Cost of photocopying averaged £1,000 per month in HQ

What We Are Doing - Transport Car share\Travel Budi Scheme Cycle to work scheme Corporate travel scheme HQ cycle pool Community cycle team Remote working & Hot desking

What We Are Doing - Estates New Headquarters BREEAM Rating- reusing furniture at our other sites Green\Brown Roof Safeside includes environmental messages Developing an Asset Management Strategy for the rest of the WMFS Estate

What We Are Doing – Recycling Brigade wide recycling scheme – 80% of waste is recycled Recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, batteries, cans, metal, plastic chairs, printer cartridges Desk top recycle bins

What We Plan to Do Continue to develop performance measures and set targets Undertake more research on the impact of climate change on our operations Challenge the way we deliver prevention based work Work with our partners Recognise good performance Develop a national network