23/03/2005 - The Environment
Agency is proposing to target its main efforts
to improve environmental performance in the
small business sector in 2005-2007 on agricultural
and construction businesses.
Initially, the Agency will target key geographical
areas of the country, likely to be the south
East and East Anglia for construction - due
to the scale of planned growth in communities
in the Thames Gateway and elsewhere - and
the South West for agriculture. Proposals
were set out for the Board of the Environment
Agency today as it held the latest of its
regular open meetings in Exeter.
Awareness-raising and practical self-help
information are seen by the Environment Agency
as key tools for influencing the behaviour
of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs),
but the very disparate nature of small firms
makes them very hard to reach and influence
effectively in a practical way.
Now the Agency has developed a new IT tool
SeLECT to help it identify big impact sectors
which will bring the greatest environmental
return on its efforts. Measuring sector size
and potential environmental risk, SeLECT put
small agricultural and construction businesses
at the top of the list of sectors where concentrated
and focused efforts could bring most improvement.
Both are traditionally business sectors
with significant environmental impact at
all scales of operation - particularly as
the source of high numbers of pollution incidents
- but both are also characterised by high
numbers of SMEs. Some 130,000 of all 160,000
farms in England and Wales are small, and
there are around 180,000 small construction
and demoltion businesses. Around 55% of all
construction and demolition work in England
and Wales is carried out by firms employing
fewer than 114 people.
Existing successful initiatives for small
businesses will continue to get a high level
of Environment Agency support alongside the
proposed targeted approach.
Netregs, which provides easily accessible
online environmental guidance tailored for
dozens of different small business sectors,
for example, is a key tool for the Environment
Agency and its co-funding partners in Welsh
Assembly Government, the Scottish Environmental
Protection Agency and Northern Ireland's Environment
and Heritage Service.
The Oil Care Campaign, another multi-regulator
partnership designed to promote environmentally
safe oil storage and handling, will also continue
to be widely promoted, particularly in light
of Oil Storage Regulations and the Waste Incineration
Directive being implemented this year.
Individually, small businesses may not have
a large environmental footprint but, because
they are so numerous, their cumulative impact
can be significant. An Environment Agency
survey in 2003 showed that the UK's 3.7m strong
SME sector was responsible for 60% of all
commerical and industrial waste generated.
Many small businesses want to improve their
environmental performance but research has
also shown that 70-75% of SMEs are not aware
of their environmental obligations.
The Board of the Environment Agency meets
around six times a year at different locations
around England and Wales. Board meetings are
open to members of the public to observe.
Each meeting begins with an open session where
members of the public can put questions to
Agency Chairman Sir John Harman, Chief Executive
Barbara Young and member of the Board.
The full Agenda and Board papers from today's
meeting are available on the Environment Agency
website link where details of all Environment
Agency Board meetings can also be found.
