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Sustainability Reporting - Turning Principles into Practice

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service –

A Case Study

Steven Flather - Head of Finance

Who are we (Who) ? What is Sustainability (What) ? How did Mid and West Wales get here (Why) ? How and What to Report Types of Data PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS AND MORE PROBLEMS Solutions

Offsets Summary

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Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue ServiceMid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service

Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Powys and Neath Port Talbot.

Serves about 4,500 square miles, almost 2/3rds of land mass of Wales.

Population served approx 870,000. HQ in Carmarthen. Rural and agricultural and urban and

Industrial and tourist area and coastline and LNG.

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Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue ServiceMid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service

2011/12 Net Revenue Budget £43.7 million (A 1.6% reduction from 2010/11 budget)

25 Councillors Approx 1,300 employees:

700 part time Uniformed400 full time Uniformed200 support and Control

What is Sustainability

Sustainable development – meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development 1987).

NO SPECIFIC MENTION OF ENVIRONMENT Three equal pillars : Economic, Social and

Environmental, plus Governance and Ethics. Need to be able to measure and report in a

meaningful way.

Sustainability (Social, Ethical and Economic) = Well being

All public sector activity could be seen as promoting well being

Reporting on well being or economic and social sustainability should be a fundamental requirement

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How Did We Get HereHow Did We Get Here

A corporate will to act in a sustainable way expressed by the Executive Board

Creation of Sustainability and the Environment Group Strategy Document produced in 2009 Department Heads with an interest in sustainability

empowered to participate in schemes on behalf of the Service reporting to the Group

Appointment of Sustainability Manager to coordinate and assist Department Heads (Particularly Risk and Finance)

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Corporate Risk Department - Green Dragon Environmental Standard, The Strategy, Coordinating, Advising, Data Collection, Transport and Travelling, Green Champions

Procurement Department – Sustainable Procurement Assessment Framework (level 3), Open Door Charter

Estates Department – Improving estate to include (where budgets allow) energy efficiency improvements, energy tariffs and metering, BREEAM ratings for new builds.

Finance Department – Integrated Reporting, A4s (Wales), Carbon Reduction Accounting (not in scope yet) 8

Where to Report

In an annually published report with a known publication date

In a report that undergoes an assurance process In a report that is common to all organisations In a report where the contents can be standardised

and regulated

Main Contender - The Annual Statement of Accounts

The Problems Begin! What to Collect?

Already a number of slightly differing reporting templates

The Treasury template only records environmental data

Need to standardise a minimum reporting level to ensure correct data collected and allow comparisons

Need to ensure that data to be reported on is collectable (no scope 3!)

Three Pillars – Economic, Social and Environmental, should also include Governance and Ethical issues.

If the Annual Statement of Accounts is the home of the integrated sustainability report - should

there be an accounting standard the Standard Setters, including FRAB and

CIPFA/LASAAC, be considering the issue the Accounting Bodies and LAAP be formulating a

preferred template A4S (Wales) have a role in promoting and advising

on a standard

Energy Problems

57 Fire stations, many of which are only a little more than garages and not used every day

Six County Command office complexes A major training complex with accommodation, fleet

workshop and stores at Earlswood Offices in Swansea HQ campus in Carmarthen Building new multi agency complex in Llandrindod

Wells and new station in the Amman Valley Major building works are being carried out in

Pontardawe

Large geographical spread makes collecting energy usage data difficult

Not always staff in buildings to collect data Started installing smart meters Appointed Green Champions who can help collect

data

Trying to reduce energy use Are working up energy usage budgets for each

County Command (not money budget because of impact of estimated meter readings/different tariffs)

Building inspections by Estates, Sustainability Manager and Green Champions

Greening buildings up – upgrading heating systems, trialling pv cells, insulation, water capture systems

New build in Llandrindod Wells is having a “brown” roof

Fuel Problems

122 “Red Fleet” vehicles 95 are “Pumps” similar to the photo (but newer) 3 are aerial appliances, which are much bigger than

the Pumps The rest are a mixture of rescue appliances and

Resilience appliances (Boats, Command Unit, HVPs, a Decontamination Unit etc)

Often driven to make progress not to be fuel efficient Typical fuel consumption for a pump when being

driven is 6 mpg, more fuel is used when pumping water

Typical fuel consumption for an ARP 2 to 3 mpg Asset Management Plan – update the fleet Review make up of fleet – some second pumps being

replaced by Rural Response Units

White fleet made up of 125 vehicles in a mixture of cars, vans, mini buses.

Replacement vehicles, where possible, are low emission vehicles

For all VehiclesFuel budgets delegated to County

Commanders/Department HeadsHold data for fuel purchased but not for

emissionsUnsure of data qualityIntroducing tracking system across the fleet

(primarily the white fleet)

Waste Problems

Try to recycle or sell as much as possible Do not currently have any system of measuring A lot of work to do in this area

Water Problems

Three types of water Water used in operations and training

Extracted from hydrants, rivers, lakes ………..Not measured or paid for, butEach pump carries 1,800 litres of waterAt max pumping pressure takes 6 minutes to

empty a pumping appliance Should this be reported?

Drinking water consumed on the fire ground by Fire Fighters

Should this be reported on

Other water – the same problems as energy with the same solutions

Other Reporting Items

Our People and Governance – we already hold data and report in other documents

Suppliers – a lot of work already done on using local SME’s and setting out sustainable procurement policies

Already record and report on compliments and complaints. Looking at ways of assessing service user’s satisfaction

SUSTAINABILITY PLUSES

All of the template measures are on consumption Public Sector promotes well being and improving

social and economic sustainability On emissions we invest to save Consume some finite resource and emit some carbon

dioxide in order to limit emissions from fires and improve social and economic well being

For example

Fire - Commercial

Fire - Commercial

Fire - Domestic

Fire - Grass

Road Traffic Collision

Road Traffic Collision

Flood

White Water Rescue and Rope Work

Community Risk Reduction – Chip Pan

Rapid response times have environmental costs Huge economic, social and environmental benefits Approx 10% of budget for Community risk reduction

There must be a way of including these benefits to show the true “sustainability worth” of the public sector

Nearing the End

Are in the very early stages of reporting More questions than answers Problems in data collection Need to set targets

But

We are committed to integrating a Sustainability report into the Statement of accounts

Approaching it in the same way as eating an elephant Hope to include a partial report in 2011/12 Accounts

using data we do have.

The Last Slide …….The Last Slide ……. Not a summary – but a final plea for the future

There are three equal pillars to sustainability: Economic, Social and Environmental supported by ethics and good governance

Can all the interested parties agree on one common minimum sensible report content?

We need to consider how to report on benefits as well as consumption

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