Bristol Zoo Gardens Vies For Top Environmental Award

A cutting edge project developed at Bristol Zoo Gardens has been short listed for an environmental excellence award.
 
The project, named SALOME after one of Bristol Zoo’s female gorillas, is an environmental accounting system which enables the zoo to calculate its carbon footprint.
 
Developed on behalf of Bristol Zoo by London-based environmental consultancy, CarbonPlan, the system was designed for the Zoo to measure and report its environmental impact.
 
The Zoo has now been short listed for an environmental excellence award by Europe's biggest environmental website, Edie (Environmental Data Interactive Exchange), for developing this project.
 
The awards were established last year to recognise the good work done by environmental consultancies as part of the wider efforts to reduce our global impact.
 
SALOME is one of the first environmental accounting strategy tools specifically designed for business. As a result of its implementation, Bristol Zoo has reduced its carbon footprint by 39.6 per cent since 2006, a reduction of 370 tonnes of carbon per year.
 
The Director of Bristol Zoo Gardens, Dr Jo Gipps, said: “This nomination is fantastic news for Bristol Zoo and for CarbonPlan, and demonstrates the Zoo’s commitment to environmental sustainability.”
 
SALOME has now been taken up by other businesses throughout the South West.
CarbonPlan has also worked with Bristol Zoo Gardens to develop a set of Sustainable Development Guidelines for its National Wildlife Conservation Park at Cribbs Causeway.
 
CarbonPlan’s director, Peter Taylor, added: “The Zoo was entered in the category of Green Corporate Initiatives - the most contested section with over 25 submissions, mostly from large commercial organisations. So to be short listed is therefore a major recognition of the work that has been done to develop and implement SALOME.”
 
He added: “The nomination highlighted that the Zoo also deserves the award for demonstrating that a species conservation charity can promote its core mission by active engagement with large commercial organisations. As a result it has been responsible for delivering significant environmental impact reductions in those businesses.”
 
The nomination comes just a few months after Bristol Zoo became the third zoo in the country to achieve the ISO14001 certification – the international standard for environmental management systems
 
The edie award winners will be announced at a gala dinner at London's Natural History Museum on November 13.
 
The project awards will be judged by Environment Agency chairman Chris Smith, chief executive of the Waste Resources Action Plan (WRAP) Liz Goodwin, director of the Building Research Executive (BRE) Peter Bonfield, Peter Stansby of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Tom Stephenson, head of applied sciences at Cranfield University.
 
For more information about the awards, visit the edie website at www.edie.net/awards.
 
Bristol Zoo Gardens
*         Bristol Zoo Gardens is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day. 
*         The Zoo is an Education and Conservation Charity and relies on the income from visitors to support its work. The Zoo is involved with over 100 co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species. 
*         It employs 140 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work. 
*         Bristol Zoo Gardens supports – through finance and skill sharing - over 10 projects in the UK and abroad that conserve and protect some of the world’s most endangered species.
*         Bristol Zoo Gardens is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums. 
 
CarbonPlan
*         CarbonPlan is an environmental consultancy which champions the case for One Planet Living.
*         It specialises in working with businesses to develop strategies and implement programmes designed to understand, measure and reduce the carbon and ecological impacts associated with both the built environment and day to day business activities.
 
Edie
*         Edie (Environmental Data Interactive Exchange) is an online resource for environmental professionals, researchers and those with an interest in green issues, bringing together practical information and in-depth, accessible news.
*         Officially Europe's biggest environmental website, Edie combines a directory of products and services from thousands of specialised companies with an online news service reporting on the latest environmental stories