Our Vision
To become a more sustainable organisation, protect and enhance the health of our communities, the natural world, people and the future generations of Redbridge.
Why does Vision need a Sustainability Strategy
Vision has developed a Sustainability Strategy so it can play its part and ensuring a sustainable future for our world and everyone.
We want to have a positive impact on the Borough and its residents.
We will use our position within our local communities and with our local suppliers to tackle raising awareness of climate change.
Learn how Vision is going to tackle climate change in Redbridge:
Our responsibilities
Vision is responsible for improving the quality of life for residents and visitors to the borough. Vision is responsible for managing over 900 allotments, over 50 parks and open spaces and over 50 buildings, including leisure centres, libraries and cutural venues as well as delivering programmes of festivals, events and activities.
Key Actions
- Review our policies and working practices to ensure that environmental sustainability is central to our decision making
- Make a concerted effort to reduce energy use and reduce our carbon footprint, by introducing energy saving measures and encouraging behavior change
- Reduce our use of resources such as water, paper, plastic, food and equipment, and encourage reuse and recycling
- Support biodiversity and wildlife through increased monitoring and stewardship
- Ensure our facilities and services are accessible for everyone
As a registered charity Vision has limited resources available, especially when faced with the current escalations in energy costs. Despite this we are determined to do what we can and our ambition is to reach net zero1 by 2050 or before, in line with local, regional and national targets. We will seek to understand our impact on the environment and will look at our policies and working practices to ensure that these and the decisions that we take support the health of the planet, the people of Redbridge and also contribute to the local economy.
We will identify what needs to be done to make the biggest difference and will work to secure external funding to help deliver our strategic ambitions. We will focus on reducing our own carbon footprint as well as raising awareness of climate change issues. We will support our customers, suppliers and local communities to join with us on this sustainability journey, so that everyone can play a part in ensuring the success of this Strategy
Catherine Rowan
Vice Chair
Vision Redbridge Culture Leisure Board
To help mitigate the effects of climate change, our ambition is to reach net zero at least by 2050 in line with Government targets, however we recognise that we will not be able to achieve this without significant investment. We will make a concerted effort to seek external funding to support us in this journey to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company.
Despite having limited resources we are determined to take a holistic approach to becoming more environmentally sustainable and are committed to doing what we can to make a difference. This includes making sure that sustainability principles are at the heart of our decision making, reducing our use of resources, such as energy, water, paper and plastic as well as reducing our carbon footprint and managing our outdoor spaces for nature and wildlife.
In common with many other organisations we face considerable challenges by the very nature of our leisure and culture operations, not least that many of our buildings and infrastructure is ageing and some have special historic status.
Vision has already made some significant improvements to reduce energy use and reduce our carbon footprint. We have already saved almost 980 tonnes of dangerous greenhouse gasses from being emitted into the atmosphere every year, by switching the majority of our electricity supplies to green tariffs. We have begun to replace lighting with LED solutions, trialed rainwater harvesting and introduced a cycle to work scheme for our employees.
We are fortunate that we are able to support so many people in our communities to improve their health, learning and quality of life and that we are responsible for looking after Redbridge’s much cherished leisure facilities, libraries, cultural venues, parks and green spaces. We will ensure that our customers and communities are at the centre of our approach and we will enable them to join us on our sustainability journey.
Vision will measure and be held accountable for our progress in delivering our Sustainability Strategy and will publish this in our Annual Report.
What Vision Will Do
A chart tracking some of our priorities as we adapt our policies and practices to become more sustainable.
A diagram of a sustainability model that balances profit, planet and people.
Commitments
- Place our customers staff and communities at the centre of our approach
- Make sure that sustainability principles are considered in our decision making
- Improve rates of recycling and reuse
- Positively manage green spaces for nature and wildlife to protect and enhance our local environment
- Measure progress and the impact of our actions
- Reduce our carbon footprint by reducing:
- Energy use
- Use of resources
- Use of fossil fuels
- Waste
- Single use plastics
- Raise awareness and encourage behaviour change by:
- Ensuring our staff are aware of sustainability issues and their responsibilities
- Encouraging our customers, local communities and suppliers to support us in our sustainability journey
- Maximising the use of resources to their useful lifespan