Staff at East Midlands Airport (EMA) are being encouraged to think green during the airport's annual Big Green Week, which will run from 12 - 16 October. EMA is a member of the Footprints Business Network and is supporting the Big Switch Off campaign, which is running across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

The Big Green Week will see a wide variety of fun and interactive green-themed events, ranging from biker's breakfasts to tree planting, energy saving advice and a green roadshow.

North West Leicestershire District Council has just been notified that it has won a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice for its district-wide Green Footprints Challenge.

The Awards, which are co-ordinated by the Green Organisation, are now in their fifteenth year and are well established as one of the major environmental recognition schemes, both in the UK and internationally. The Green Organisation is dedicated to promoting positive environmental practice, and is supported by members and sponsors including the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and the Municipal Journal.

The Footprints team will be presented with their Green Apple Award at the House of Commons on 17^th November, when they will also be in with the chance to go forward to represent the UK in the European Business Awards for the Environment.

In 2008/9 residents of North West Leicestershire recycled 43% of their waste. During the last six years the district’s recycling rate has increased seven-fold from 6% to 43%. This is a fantastic achievement. Well done to the recyclers of North West Leicestershire!

Last year you recycled the same weight as:

• 10 million plastic pop bottles
• 9 million food tins
• 22 million newspapers
• 13 million jam jars
• 18 million cereal boxes
• 9,500 tonnes of compostable garden waste

You may be wondering why you are being asked to save water when it never seems to stop raining, but there are three very good reasons why we should aim to save water.

Everyone across North West Leicestershire is invited to take on the Waterwise Challenge. Families, businesses and groups are all being encouraged to think about the water they use - and often waste. Find out how you can save water, energy and money.

The following local businesses/organisations have signed up to run staff awareness campaigns:

• Best Western Yew Lodge Hotel, Kegworth
• Code Green Ltd
• DHL Aviation (UK) Ltd
• East Midlands Airport
• Fisher German LLP, Ashby
• Let's Go Local
• Midland Quarry Products
• North West Leicestershire District Council

We will also be giving away free save-a-flush devices; this is a simple device that you add to your toilet cistern and it can save up to a litre of water per flush. They are being provided on a strictly first-come first-served basis and can be picked up from:

• Council Offices reception, Whitwick Road, Coalville
• Hermitage Leisure Centre reception, Whitwick
• Hood Park Leisure Centre reception, Ashby

The Green Footprints Challenge has been shortlisted for an award for Environmental Excellence by Europe’s biggest environmental website, Edie. Details will appear on Edie's website shortly.

The Green Footprints Challenge is up against four other shortlisted projects from across the country in the Local Government Initiative category. Winners will be announced at the Edie Awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London in November. The Edie Awards recognise top performers and innovative environmental practice across a range of industries. Previous winners have included big names such as Wolseley, Mitsubishi Electric, Coca Cola and Jonathon Porritt.

Edie is one of only seven award programmes in the United Kingdom with RSA accreditation, meaning winners are eligible to enter the prestigious European Business Awards for the Environment run by the European Commission.

British Waterways has set up a hotline for members of the public to report abandoned supermarket trolleys, after figures showed it spends £150,000 a year recovering them from rivers and canals.

Sightings can be reported on 01923 201120 or online at www.britishwaterways.co.uk/trolley. The hotline will help British Waterways build a league table to identify the most responsible retailers. The winner will receive a Golden Trolley Award, while the worst offender will get the Off Your Trolley award.

Local families, youth and community groups, schools and businesses joined civic guests for the first ever Footprints Awards ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Hotel, Castle Donington, on Friday 8 May.

The winning entries in each category are:

Businesses Award sponsored by the Hilton Hotel, Castle Donington

• Winner - East Midlands Airport, Castle Donington

Children & Young People Award sponsored by Stephenson College

• Winner - Bozzy Road Crew, Castle Donington

Families Award sponsored by the National Forest Company

• Winner - The Lackenby Family, Whitwick

Individuals Award sponsored by Groundwork Leicester & Leicestershire

• Winner - Janet Stevenson, Thringstone

Partnerships and Community Groups Award sponsored by Aggregate Industries

• Winner - Friends of Thringstone

Winners were presented with awards designed by Lucy McDowell, who won a challenge run amongst students at Stephenson College to design and produce an award that reflected the ‘green’ Footprints message.

Local residents have given North West Leicestershire District Council’s free green cone scheme the thumbs up, with 142 applications received within the first three days of the promotion.

The scheme has proved so popular that it was extended to provide free cones to the first 150 callers, with all units now allocated. However, further green cones are still available to purchase at the heavily discounted price of £7.50 through Leicestershire County Council and the Leicestershire Waste Partnership. For further information please click on the title link.

Clare Hickling joined staff at North West Leicestershire District Council during Green Driving Week to pick up some top tips for greener driving. Clare thoroughly enjoyed her 50 minute individual session with the instructor and managed to increase her fuel efficiency by 25%. Click on the link to find out more.

The sessions were delivered by the Energy Saving Trust, who also provided short advice sessions on green drivingto staff and the public throughout the day.

TRAID Recycling Heroes in North West Leicestershire enabled the clothes recycling charity TRAID to commit half a million pounds to fight global poverty in 2009, the charity’s tenth year.

TRAID Clothes Recycling Banks in North West Leicestershire hosted by community groups, small businesses, councils and schools collected 27791kgs of the local community’s unwanted clothes and shoes in 2008.

TRAID’s Chief Executive Maria Chenoweth-Casey said,

“Each bank directly helped TRAID to divert over 3,000 tonnes of textiles from UK landfill sites in 2008 to protect the environment and raise vital funds to fight global poverty and hunger. It would not be possible without the support of TRAID’s Recycling Heroes helping us to provide more facilities to boost clothes recycling in local communities and prevent the current 1.2 million tonnes of textiles going to landfill in the UK every year.”

In 2009, TRAID’s clothes recycling and environmental activities has enabled the charity to support organic cotton farming in Benin, improving the livelihoods of women embroidery workers in Delhi, and establishing food security and clean water in rural Kenya.