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• Calor and Green Flag Award announce new partnership

• Date:

  9th September 2003

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Local authorities and contractors up and down the country have an added incentive to enhance their environmental credentials and aim for a national award, with the launch of a new partnership announced today (Tuesday 9th September) by presenter John Craven.

Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas - LPG - has become the first commercial sponsor of the Green Flag Awards, the benchmark for clean, attractive and accessible parks and public spaces in England and Wales.

The sponsorship deal sees Calor provide guidance on the use of lower emissions grounds care equipment and alternative fuels as part of Green Flag’s guidance notes to local authorities bidding to achieve the recognised standard in public spaces.

The partnership was launched by John Craven at a special event held at Holland Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is itself Green Flag accredited and operates LPG powered grounds care equipment.

Calor’s Andrew Ford said that the partnership was a natural one as recent tests had proven the environmental advantages of running powered equipment on LPG.  “This is an area where local authorities and their contractors can make an immediate impact on local air quality,” he said.  “We’re very pleased to link up with Green Flag and to play our part in supporting the drive to enhance the attractiveness and accessibility of parks and green spaces.

“We have an established track record of such long term partnerships,” he added, “for example the Village of the Year Award scheme.  This is an area where local authorities can take relatively easy steps to gain impressive results.”

The news of the partnership is timely, given the announcement last month of an additional £89 million from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to improve public parks and open spaces.

Green Flag chief executive Martin Bacon said that the organisation, whose awards are administered by The Civic Trust under the aegis of CABE Space, had energy conservation as part of its judging criteria and that the link up therefore made good sense.  “It was crucial that any commercial sponsor had good environmental credentials and I’m pleased to say that Calor met that requirement,” he added.

“I would congratulate those who have achieved the Green Flag Award, encourage those who have yet to meet the standard, and welcome new entries for next year,” he said.  “ We are revising our guidance manual to help park managers achieve the award and are launching a dedicated web site to encourage best practice.”

BBC environmental journalist John Craven opened the event and pointed out that such partnerships represented a real step forward in delivering best quality public spaces.  In addition, Cllr Christopher Buckmaster, the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, welcomed guests to the event.

Recent research carried out by Calor demonstrated that local authorities, many of whom have declared Air Quality Management Areas, could see an immediate and significant impact on local air quality by running their grounds care equipment on cleaner fuels such as LPG.  Yet, many continue to operate diesel or petrol powered equipment which, in addition to cost and bulk storage implications, emit substantially higher levels of priority pollutants such as particulate matter (PM10) and oxides of Nitrogen (NOx).

The Green Flag Award Scheme has developed from an embryonic idea to a successful quality standard that celebrates the best parks and green spaces across England and Wales.  Our initial 7 winners in 1996 has now become 182 and we are pleased that many park managers, even if they have not entered so far have it in their plans to do so in future years.  We are also pleased to be working with CABE Space, the new organization set up to deliver the government’s green agenda, and whose new Director, Julie Thrift, is here today.  Funding from CABE Space, coupled with that from Calor Gas and other sponsors will enable us to make great strides this year.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS Further information on the Green Flag Awards scheme can be viewed at http://www.civictrust.org.uk and on cleaner LPG powered grounds care equipment at http://www.calor.co.uk.