Sustainability

Flitwick Town Council recognise that The Rufus Centre’s operations have an effect on the local and global environment. We are committed to minimising this impact and achieving the highest standard of environmental best practise preventing pollution and minimising the impact of our operations in order to protect the environment.

We are members of the Green Business Network and attend meetings and seminars to improve our knowledge, obtain information and to research ways of reducing our costs. We will continuously strive to implement effective recycling and sustainability schemes including continuously working to improve the energy efficiency of our building.

We encourage customers, staff, tenants and contractors to adopt responsible standards.

Environmental initiatives:

Energy

We note our energy usage monthly, review quarterly and act on any findings
Fridges, kettles and microwaves in tea points have been replaced with energy efficient models
Lights are not switched on in the meeting rooms until the first person arrives
Lighting has been changed to low energy in the Moorfield Room, Lodgefield room, Denel Wing Stairwell, Ruxox Stairwell and any future lighting will be low energy
All rooms have natural daylight and we encourage users to keep lights off when possible
Where practical all electronic equipment is turned off when not in use especially overnight
A timer was installed during May 2010 to switch off the external lighting overnight
Planned installation of energy efficient lighting where possible to all internal lighting during 2010
Main temperature controls on the heating have been turned down
Heating switches off one hour earlier on an evening
Fridges and freezer are turned off if not in use for any period of time

Water

All toilet cisterns have flow reduction units which reduces the amount of water used
All taps have push tops which release after a few seconds
Tap water only is supplied to all meetings
All water dispensers use filtered water taken from the mains
A 500 litre cold water storage tank has been de-commissioned, to reduce water storage

Waste and Recycling

Glasses are used for water not plastic cups
Current recycled waste includes: cardboard, glass, paper, ink cartridges, magazines, directories, plastic bottles, aluminium cans and drink sachets
When furniture or equipment is replaced, the outgoing items are offered to local organisations free of charge: included to date go pak tables to Flitwick Parish Church, go pak tables to Flitwick Village Hall, 3 OHP’s to local schools
Scrap paper is used for non essential printing such as draft papers and internal information
Where possible invoices are emailed to Rufus meetings clients
All cleaning products have been transferred to environmentally friendly where available
The newsletter to the tenants includes green issues
All tenants have recycling bins for paper in their office and a bin for other recyclables in the tea points

Transport

Use of suppliers based within a 50 mile radius in 07/08 was 50%, in 08/09 this increased to 65% and in 09/10 a figure of 74% was achieved.

Booking forms detail our Green Transport Policy and our website identifies local public transport options. We actively encourage staff and tenants to walk or use local transport.

For more environmental information visit: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/