To mark World Environment Day today and to signal its support for a ‘green’ recovery from COVID-19 and the wider carbon net zero ambition, CIWM has signed up to the Pledge To Net Zero, an initiative set up to make the environmental services sector a leader in climate change action.
“The resources and waste sector, and the professionals working in it, have a huge part to play in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” says CIWM’s CEO Sarah Poulter.
“The sector has already cut its own emissions significantly and through the conservation of resources and the recovery of value from waste materials it also has the capability to support the development of a cleaner, low carbon economy at a much wider scale.
We are committed to demonstrating how we are taking action both within the organisation and through proactive engagement with our members to support progress towards net zero
“As the professional body for the sector, CIWM has long championed environmental protection, waste prevention and recycling, resource productivity and circular economic principles.
“We are committed to demonstrating how we are taking action both within the organisation and through proactive engagement with our members to support progress towards net zero.”
The Pledge to Net Zero initiative is led by Society for the Environment, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering and the Environmental Industries Commission, together with leading environmental consultancies WSP and AECOM. Signatories commit to the following three pledges:
- set and commit to deliver a greenhouse gas target in line with either a 1.5°C or well below 2°C climate change scenario – covering buildings and travel as a minimum;
- publicly report greenhouse gas emissions and progress against this target each year; and
- publish one piece of research or thought-leadership piece each year on practical steps to delivering an economy in line with climate science and in support of net zero carbon.
Under the Pledge, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) is due to set its first science-based target by 15 May 2021 but is already scoping out an interim target for reducing the impact of its own activities and collaborating with other sector organisations and stakeholders to understand and map how the sector can make the maximum contribution to a green recovery from COVID-19 and what policies, collaborative action and skills the sector needs to drive longer term progress toward net zero.