Policy paper

The Planning Inspectorate Environmental Policy

Updated 5 December 2024

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-planning-inspectorate-environmental-policy/the-planning-inspectorate-environmental-policy

This Environmental Policy has been developed using the Greening Government Commitments, 25-year Environment Plan and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework.

Understanding the impact our organisation has on the environment is key to our ability to improve our environmental performance in terms of resource utilisation, recycling, and reduction of pollution, waste and emissions.

We will understand our environmental impacts and we will seek to reduce and remove them through better management of our resources, and by delivering our strategic commitment to sustainable working practices.

1. We will achieve this by:

1.1 Reducing our emissions

  • we will work to reduce the carbon impact of our activities
  • we will work to reduce the environmental impact of our organisation’s activities and adopt more sustainable methods of service delivery

1.2 Effectively managing our waste

  • we will ensure that the decisions we take, relevant to our overall service delivery method, are with conscious effort to reduce our environmental impact including waste generation
  • we will take actions to develop and increase the environmental awareness of our staff in order to help them make more environmentally responsible decisions

1.3 Applying environmentally responsible and aware procurement methods

  • we will take actions to support the reduction in impact from the organisation’s use of physical space improving the environmental performance of our offices and the way we use them
  • we will take actions to ensure that environmental impacts are a meaningful consideration influencing our procurement decisions

1.4 Being open and transparent about our environmental performance

  • we will take action to actively measure and understand the environmental impact that the organisation has through the way we undertake our work
  • we will report the environmental impact that our organisation has in an open and transparent way

This Environmental Policy is an important element to the Planning Inspectorate’s environmental management system and will positively influence the activities and behaviours of the whole organisation.

We will review the Environmental Policy annually to ensure that its commitments and ambition remain aligned with relevant strategic and organisational objectives.

Back to top