Sustainable Working in the Voluntary Sector

Introduction

Sustainable Development is a way of living and working that aims to ensure that people today meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The Charities FM Group regularly looks at how charities can work towards incorporating the principles of sustainable development in their day-to-day activities, particularly in relation to the way they manage their facilities.

Our members are very interested in all aspects of sustainability, from energy conservation to ethical purchasing. We have found that many property managers in the voluntary sector want to work in a "greener" way, but sometimes don’t have the internal support or the tools to do so.

We agreed to draft a model policy for charities to adopt. We were aiming to produce a policy that sets out a commitment to the principles of sustainable development.

We hope that charities will adopt this policy at board-level, so that we can see voluntary sector organisations start making a public commitment to address the issue of sustainability in the way they manage their facilities.

This in turn will give Facilities Managers the encouragement and support they need to implement sustainable policies in their organisations.

The policy encourages charities to establish their own targets for achieving measurable progress towards working sustainably. This means that both large and small charities will be able to take things forward in a way that is appropriate for them.

The policy is also designed to encourage organsations to regularly review their targets and upgrade them so that they are continually improving their sustainable working.

Reading & Resources:

These items are designed to work as "ebooks" - this means that you should be able to open and easily read the pdf files on screen without having to print them out (although of course, you can print them if you want).

Sustainable Development: what's it got to do with me?
An Introduction for charity facilities managers & staff
Presentation by Annette McGill, Upkeep
(152k pdf file)

Sustainable Procurement for Charities
Presentation by Lucy Black, Save the Children
(146k pdf file)

The the model policy statement is here
SD Policy Draft2
(26k pdf file)