Winchester City Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019. The council is committed to becoming a carbon neutral local authority by 2024, and is aiming for the wider district to be carbon neutral by 2030.

The Visit Winchester Team are committed to working towards this target to help the council achieve their goal, to see what the team are doing view the Sustainable Statement below.

Winchester Visitor Information Centre Sustainability Statement

Winchester Visitor Information Centre is working hard to meet the City Council’s objective of being Carbon Neutral by 2024.

Background

In June 2019, the council declared a Climate Emergency which included an intention to publish a carbon reduction strategy within 6 months. The Carbon Neutrality Action Plan (CNAP) was developed to fulfil this pledge. It was published in December 2019 and adopted in January 2020.

The Carbon Neutrality Action Plan sets the council the very stretching target of reducing carbon emissions from its own activities to reach carbon neutrality by 2024 - and sets the same ambitious goal for the wider Winchester district by 2030.

What we’re doing

Some of the steps the Visitor Information Centre has taken to help reduce our carbon emissions include:

• Members of the team have undergone Carbon Literacy Training

• All maps, trails and guides produced are carbon captured and printed on recycled paper

• We have a think before we print ethos and always aim to email documents to customers where possible

• We advise customers to take a photo on their mobile of timetables, posters and fact sheets

• We separate our rubbish for recycling and any food waste gets composted

• We have a free water dispenser in the centre where visitors are welcome to fill up their re-usable water bottle

• We order as much of our stock/consumables from local suppliers

• We aim to place one order a year to those companies located further afield to reduce the amount of deliveries required

• We re-use any packaging sent with deliveries to package items for customers

• We only use paper bags and sell a number of souvenir tote bags that are reusable and made in the UK

• We ask customers if they would like a receipt for their purchase to save on wastage

• Many of the displays in the centre are handmade and are re-used in different formats

• Over 50% of our permanent members of staff walk to work and others use public transport or use the park & ride when driving

• We avoid unnecessary travel by making use of online meetings and when needing to travel we use public transport if possible or car share

As a visitor to our city you can help us too….

• Travel to the city using public transport, we have excellent rail and bus links – take a look at our getting here page -

• If you need to drive please use one of our excellent park and ride car parks – buses run every 15 minutes into the city and drop you close to many of our attractions -

• Take a look at our website – www.visitwinchester.co.uk before you arrive and plan where you would like to visit. All of our walking trails and maps can be downloaded for free

• Shop local – the city is bustling with local makers and independent retailers – take a look here -

• Only take what you need – if picking up free leaflets in the visitor centre please only take the ones that are of interest to you to avoid wastage