Agenda item

QUESTION BY MR D REED TO CLLR C CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER FOR COMMUNITIES AND RURAL AFFAIRS

“I wanted to ask what major changes have occurred since the adoption of the Sustainable Risk Assessment (SRA) template that contribute to alleviating the climate emergency?” 

 

Minutes:

“I wanted to ask what major changes have occurred since the adoption of the Sustainable Risk Assessment (SRA) template that contribute to alleviating the climate emergency?”

Response by Councillor Cefin Campbell, Executive Board Member for Communities and Rural Affairs:-

“This is a really important question for us in Carmarthenshire where we are known as a food producing county.  The Sustainable Risk Assessment tool is used to identify and capture sustainable gains on procurement exercise valued above £25,000, ultimately allowing the Council to make better buying decisions in relation to sustainability. This is a Welsh Government template and covers a number of areas which help contribute to the Council’s Net Zero Carbon Plan.  The Risk Assessment includes:-

·       decreasing transport impacts;

·       minimising packaging and waste;

·       using sustainably-sourced materials;

·       protecting green spaces and biodiversity;

·       decreasing use of toxic chemicals, solvents and ozone-depleting substances;

·       reducing the need for energy & using energy more efficiently;

·       as mentioned in the response to a previous question, adapting procurement regulations to source more locally produced food and drink products is a priority for us because we are already engaging with public sector bodies in Carmarthenshire about developing a programme for sourcing more food and drink locally which is going to reduce obviously the food miles and also supporting the sustainability of local businesses as well.

So specific sustainable projects are underway to further support this agenda in Carmarthenshire, for example the Council is working with WRAP under a Welsh Government programme to promote the use of recycled content and re-use in the public sector through procurement.

Welsh Government are in the final stages of rolling-out a ‘Decarbonisation Dashboard’ as part of the Atamis programme (the Welsh Government appointed spend analytics portal).  This will be available in March of this year and it is designed to provide a high-level picture of an organisation’s carbon emissions linked to procurement expenditure with contractors, suppliers or service providers and this will give us a base line, a starting point for our decarbonisation action planning. We are really looking forward to having this dashboard programme from the Welsh Government.”

Mr Reed asked the following supplementary question:-

“There is quite a lot of information for me to process there.  Is there any tangible examples that you can give that the SRA have used within Carmarthen within the food industry?”

Councillor Campbell responded as follows:-

“I can’t specifically now give you examples but what I can tell you as a Local Authority you will know that we have become single use plastic free.  We have also become a paperless County Council as well.  But in terms of actual food, the procurement of food has always been in terms of, we have been constrained by European regulations and I suppose one small benefit of leaving the European Union is that these regulations are now going to be possibly relaxed which will allow us to procure more food locally.  We haven’t been able to do that as far as we have wanted in the past but certainly it gives us an opportunity now and we are engaging as I mentioned with public bodies in Carmarthenshire to actively look at procuring more food, drink and services as well locally in Carmarthenshire to support the business community and to keep the pound in Carmarthenshire.  That circular pound is so important to us moving forward.”

 

 

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