Press Release
FIVE BIFFA SITES AWARDED THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS’ BIODIVERSITY BENCHMARK
1 June 2006
Biffa Waste Services has become the first waste management company to demonstrate its commitment to biodiversity through obtaining the Biodiversity Benchmark for land management.
The pioneering Biodiversity Benchmark was re-launched on 26 January 2006 for organisations across the UK to assess the quality of their land management, improve their contribution to the environment and demonstrate their commitment to biodiversity. Similar to other standards for management systems, the Biodiversity Benchmark is composed of a set of detailed requirements which an organisation must be able to meet. In addition to being the first waste management company to achieve the Biodiversity Benchmark, Biffa is also the first organisation to be successfully assessed under the new criteria. The Biodiversity Benchmark has been awarded to the following sites:
Risley III, Warrington
Butchersfield, Warrington
Rixton, Warrington
Dosthill, Tamworth
Himley Wood, Dudley
All five sites are former landfill sites which Biffa is restoring for the benefit of the natural environment.
Biodiversity is the wealth of wildlife in the world around us, from wildflowers and insects to mammals and birds. Institutions that own or manage land have a substantial impact on the natural environment. For example, 81 companies own or manage 65,800 hectares of Sites of Specific Scientific Interest in England, 6 per cent of the total SSSI land in England (source English Nature December 2003).
The Wildlife Trusts has created the Biodiversity Benchmark to encourage organisations to manage their land for wildlife and is the first scheme to recognise continual biodiversity improvement of land. The Benchmark is flexible and adaptable, so that it can be applied to any organisation managing land, from businesses through to local authorities, service utilities, the NHS, developers and charities.
After a pilot phase, the Biodiversity Benchmark was re-launched in 2006. To celebrate the new criteria, the Requirements and Self-Assessment Questionnaire are free to download from the Biodiversity Benchmark website during 2006.
Stephanie Hilborne, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “To have achieved the Biodiversity Benchmark on five sites demonstrates the commitment of Biffa Waste Services and its staff to enhancing biodiversity. We hope that many more organisations will follow Biffa’s example and seek to publicly validate a commitment to the natural environment through the Biodiversity Benchmark.”
David Savory, Director - Technical & Environment explains Biffa’s long standing commitment to biodiversity: “At Biffa we take biodiversity very seriously. In 2002, we commenced surveying of all our landholdings to determine the range of plant and animal species, and habitats present. We recently completed this task and now have data on over 2500 hectares of land. From this data we have identified the key habitats and species that are present; including bluebells, skylarks, linnets, badgers and brown hares. We now manage a growing number of these sites in ways which enhance both the key habitats and biodiversity in general.
A key species, the brown hare, is present on much of our land. Modern farming techniques and changes to land use since the war led to a 75% fall in the population of this important species across Britain. With support from the Game Conservancy Trust and the Mammal Society, Defra has appointed Biffa species champion for the brown hare. We are now working with these organisations to achieve the Government's Biodiversity Action Plan target to double by 2010 the population of brown hares in Britain.
We were very pleased to be awarded Biodiversity Benchmark certificates for a number of our sites. This prestigious award, the first to be made by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts under the new more challenging benchmark requirements, has validated our corporate commitment to the enhancement of biodiversity and our wider corporate social responsibility agenda.”
More information on the Biodiversity Benchmark, including the Requirements and how to apply, can be found on www.biodiversitybenchmark.org