What the Forestry Commission is doing

The measures required to tackle climate change cannot simply be decreed by government departments – they depend on the decisions and actions taken by us all as individual citizens doing our jobs and going about our daily lives. To meet the challenge we need to harness the efforts of all parts of society, and we need the participation of all people. The Forestry Commission is making a contribution to tackling climate change by sustainably managing the nation’s forests and woodlands, but as a large organisation we have our own environmental impact. We want to improve and demonstrate what can be done through best practice within our own organisation.

The forestry and wood products industry has the opportunity to generate some of its own energy needs, using renewable, carbon-neutral biomass. In fact, energy costs, energy supply and climate change are intricately linked to the future of the forest products industry. In addition to renewable energy we can also think about the potential of using renewable products based on wood for building and other uses. We hope that our new policy of using wood for buildings such as visitor centres and offices, with great attention paid to sustainable use of resources, will generate wider enthusiasm and encourage organisations and individuals to follow suit.

The Forestry Commission is a large organisation of people – foresters, administrators, scientists, engineers, wildlife rangers, people in grey suits going to meetings, and more – and the way that we work has an impact on the environment. Each of us must play a part in facing the challenges of climate change – and each of us must try and reduce our impact on the environment by improving our working practices. Within the Forestry Commission staff at all levels are already pressing ahead with improvements, and many of these will be formalised into our developing corporate sustainability policy, 'Greenerways'.

We have put together some case studies to show areas of best practice, and we hope to expand these so that our experiences can be shared across the organisation and beyond.