RSK ENSR funds unprecedented Chester City Council climate change initiativeOctoberLeading environmental consultancy RSK ENSR Group is donating £10,000 towards a pioneering Chester City Council initiative that will give each of its 160,000 citizens unique guidance on how to reduce carbon emissions. The scheme encourages residents to combat climate change by giving them free access to the CRed (Carbon Reduction) system, an innovative development engineered by climate change experts at the University of East Anglia. Chester City Council’s initiative, due to be launched on 12 October, will officially make the city the first in world to offer its inhabitants personalised guidelines for carbon reduction. “We decided to fund the project in response to our internal corporate responsibility survey, which highlighted staff concerns about climate change,” said RSK ENSR Chairman, Dr Alan Ryder. “We hope our funding will inspire other businesses to join forces with local communities to tackle this threat to our way of life.” CRed aims to build a community of partners that can decide, on an individual basis, how to cut carbon emissions and work toward the goal of a 60% reduction by 2025. The system functions as a personal trainer, encouraging and helping users to make pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, while highlighting the financial and environmental benefits of their actions. It also calculates the carbon reduction value of their pledges and can summarise the entire community’s emissions saving history. On 12 October, Chester residents will be able to sign up for the system and attend a special ‘going carbon neutral’ exhibition at Chester Town Hall. In an associated awareness-raising event to be held on the same day, local businesses and community leaders will be invited to an exclusive screening of Al Gore’s acclaimed documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The screening will be followed by a short conference outlining the social and business impacts of global warming, with guest speakers including representatives from industry and academic sectors, the University of Chester and the event’s main sponsor, RSK ENSR. One of the central features of conference will be a discussion focusing on the increased concern people are showing about climate change across the region. Symptomatic of this concern is the inspirational drive by Cheshire-based village Ashton Hayes to become England’s first carbon neutral community – a move that has inspired other communities to take similar ‘grass roots’ action. The widely publicised project – which counts RSK ENSR as one its key sponsors – has recently been awarded a £26,500 grant by the UK Department of Food and Rural Affairs. Note to editors
For any further information please contact Garry Charnock: Helsby-based RSK ENSR is one the UK’s fastest growing health, safety and environmental consultants. With 300 staff across 13 strategic locations in the UK, and with rapidly expanding operations in Europe, The Gulf and Caspian regions, RSK ENSR aims to provide its extensive range of environmental services on every client’s doorstep. RSK ENSR is one of the few environmental consultants worldwide to have achieved certification to the international standards ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management) and OHSAS 18001 (health and safety management). *The CRed community Carbon Reduction project is based in the East of England and currently focuses on Norfolk and Norwich. CRed is building a community of partners who are deciding how they want to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to meet a target of 60% reduction by 2025. Chester is to be the first city in the world to be offered this unique pathway of combating climate change. |
