Belfast City Council
Belfast City Council is an example of a local council making a stand for sustainable procurement. The Council has signed a Fairtrade Charter and been involved in promoting Belfast as a Fair-trade city. The Council's in-house caterer (City Hall & Cecil Ward Building) uses Fair-trade tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits in the Atrium staff restaurant and on trolley and function services. In addition, the organisation tries to encourage outside caterers to use Fair-trade beverages on large scale function events in the city hall.
In 1998 Belfast City Council created an Environmental Purchasing Policy to make sure that they can work with suppliers to ensure green purchasing. Suppliers are asked questions relating to their environmental performance and their answers are ranked against the answers supplied by their competitors.
Suppliers must be able to demonstrate that they are working towards the following:
- Responsibility for environmental management is allocated to a specific person
- Environmental policy in place
- Environmental audit completed
- Register of Environmental Regulations and Legislation in place
- Register of environmental effects in place
- Action plan to reduce environmental impacts
- Evidence of reduced environmental impacts
- Continuous environmental improvement
Banbridge District Council
Banbridge District Council supports many local recycling initiatives to encourage all householders throughout the District to recycle more. During Compost Awareness Week Banbridge District Council normally holds a compost giveaway day during which free bags of 'Rosey Lee' compost are available to anyone who visits a local Community Recycling Centre.
In March 2005, the Council ran its first ever NEEDabag campaign in partnership with many local retailers. As part of the campaign the Baglady visited all towns in the District to encourage shoppers to reuse their bags and shop assistants to ask customers if they really needed a bag. Banbridge District Council was one of ten local authorities in Northern Ireland who supported the NEEDabag campaign in partnership with the Environment and Heritage Service. This initiative proved very effective in reducing the number of plastic bags being handed out by local retailers. It also helped to change customer attitudes to adopting more environmentally friendly shopping practices.
Real Nappy Week is a national campaign run in June every year to promote the benefits of using real nappies and to increase awareness about how much better real nappies are for the planet, your baby's bottom and your purse. Each year during Real Nappy Week the Council teams up with Blooming Bottoms to offer parents the opportunity to try out a nappy laundry service on a one month free trial basis.
WEEE, which stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, is an EU Directive that aims to ensure all types of electrical household appliances are reused, recycled or disposed of in a more environmentally friendly way. Prior to its introduction, Banbridge District Council ran a six-month pilot scheme at Dromore Community Recycling Centre during which it collected all types of electrical household goods. The aim of this initiative was to identify the level of demand for this type of service. Some 30 tonnes of goods ranging from toasters to tumble dryers were collected. This initiative proved so successful, the Council has plans to expand it to all three local Community Recycling Centres.