Essex

Environmental Accreditation for First Essex depots

Green is the colour this week, for First Essex.

Former Wales International and British Lion Scott Quinnell helped to award First depots Clacton and Colchester with the prestigious environmental ISO 14001 accreditation.

The six-foot-five former rugby union player was in town to present City & Guilds level 2 NVQ in Cleaning and Support Services certificated to two members of staff -- Julie Doherty and Hazel Freeman. We are one of the first companies in the region to offer this skills for life qualification, recognising the hard work of our vehicle quality operatives and giving them formal recognition for their achievements.

Mr Quinnell joined First Essex MD, Bob Dorr, in presenting certificates to the North Essex depots.

Steve Hartman received the credential on behalf of Clacton, while Paul St.Claire received his on behalf of Colchester.

Mr Hartman said: "I am very pleased to receive the accreditation and acknowledge the hard work of everybody at the depots to make it possible.

"I would also like to thank Pete Meadows and Alvin Parker for their ongoing support in getting us up to where we needed to be to meet the standard required.'

Under First's ISO 14001 obligations, the Essex operator aims to be recycling a quarter of all rubbish generated - across all its depots and bus stations.

First says it is committed to achieving the standard across all of its depots by April this year, and is improving recycling facilities. Capacity has already been increased - as well as plastic cups, cans and paper, bins are now in place to recycle mobile phones, PDAs, inkjet cartridges and even toner cartridges.

Research shows that recycling one glass bottle produces enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes, and recycling one tin can produces enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.

As well as recycling, motion-sensors have been placed in toilet cubicles - saving an average of 128 hours of unnecessary lighting and reducing electricity consumption by 10%.

ISO 14001 specifies the requirements for the company's environmental management system and applies to those environmental aspects over which it has control and can be expected to have an influence.

And it's not just in the depots that it's easy being green - it's on the buses, too. MD for First Essex, Bob Dorr, said First is dedicated to providing a quality, reliable and a safe local bus service to its customers, and is aware of the commitment to providing a bus service which recognises the impacts on the environment.

Elsewhere in the county, buses will be better matched to demand in an effort to reduce unnecessary fuel and labour costs. By running larger vehicles with a small reduction in frequency, the routes can maintain the same number of seats per hour - but with less waste.