Eco awards
As a community, Lyme Regis is working hard to reduce carbon emissions and demonstrate its commitment to tackling the climate crisis. We hope that leading by example will encourage others to consider what they can do personally to limit climate change. This commitment has been recognised with a number of awards.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
In June 2018, Lyme Regis became the first town in Dorset and the 24th in the country to gain ‘Plastic Free Communities’ status from Surfers Against Sewage. Led by Turn Lyme Green, the accolade recognises the community’s efforts to reduce the amount of single-use plastic items used in the town, the various events run locally, and how awareness is raised of caring for the environment.
The dedicated Plastic Free Lyme Regis website is a valuable resource, including tips on how you can get involved and take action, advice for businesses, and local case studies. Many Lyme Regis businesses have led by example and replaced three single-use plastic items with alternatives. These businesses are celebrated on the Surfers Against Sewage Business Award list.
Lyme Regis Town Council actively supports the Plastic Free Lyme Regis initiative and has awarded numerous grants to Turn Lyme Green to help them continue to extend public knowledge of environmental matters and maintain the plastic free status.
Carbon Literate Organisation Accreditation
Lyme Regis Town Council has ambitions to become a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) at Silver level. This achievement would recognise the council has an awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and we have the ability and motivation to reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisational basis.
The Carbon Literacy Project was recognised by the United Nations at the COP21 climate negotiations in 2015 as one of 100 ‘Transformative Actions Projects’ worldwide that could materially change the way we deal with climate change.
The majority of councillors and a senior staff member have undergone training and after demonstrating personal and group actions to reduce carbon impacts, they are accredited as Carbon Literate. This helps us meet the criteria for Silver accreditation.
When we have achieve the CLO accreditation, we will have a visible ‘badge’ to showcase our organisation as being committed to Carbon Literacy, that we have a number of people who are Carbon Literate, and we are committed to supporting our Carbon Literate people and maintain our low carbon culture. We can also use this status to better interact with the community.