Derbyshire County Council have published this month the County’s Climate Change Charter. This document is currently undergoing a process of consultaton.

You have until 5th November 2014 to make known a wish to be involved in the County’s Climate Change Charter processes, or to make comments on the document as it stands today.

You can view, print or download a copy of the Climate Change Charter here…

The document and the aligned processes are set to enable the County to define actions and priorities for tackling climate change. Identifying constituent contributors to climate change and developing an Action Plan to tackle the issues are a key part of the process.

The Climate Change Charter processes are also designed to give communities and Council partners “a point of reference for climate change action“.  You can find more information about the Charter on this DCC web page.

You can also discover how to contact Alison Wheeldon at the Council, who is co-ordinating the responses to consultation activity.

Ethical, social and community business – does climate change matter?

Yes it does. Attention to climate change by our local authority, businesses, community groups and individuals is all part of a collective effort to preserve resources, the quality of those resources and their continued availability for the foreseeable future.

Rural enterprise, or any community business which seeks to establish new employment or training for young people, whatever the setting, should be particularly attentive to the issue.

When creating jobs, which are more sustainable when linked to energy efficiency, resource consumption reduction and recycling, for example, helps create habits of prudence and conservation that individuals take with them to other organisations and also helps transfer their new found awarenesses to family and home life too.

A Community Interest Company should also have a Climate Change/Sustainability agenda and policy too. It makes the business proposition to interested partners more attractive. It enables the company to have an effective ‘triple bottom line’ approach to an ethical business proposition and, ultimately, makes project funders aware and interested in the wider delivery of both the business and the social outcome  hoping to be achieved.

Action on climate change is a win-win proposition for a local authority, the competent and efficient social business and the individual and their family too, we think.

Trees matter – play your part here…