A study released yesterday (July 27) by the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) urges ministers to implement tough new policy measures by setting a framework of resource efficiency indicators and benchmarks for each industrial sector.

Other measures under Driving resource efficiency for a competitive Britain call for the Environment Agency to prioritise resource efficiency under the Industrial Emissions Directive and publish a regular report on the gains achieved, and for a reporting mechanism to be established, similar to that for carbon.

The EIC would also like to see a mandatory requirement for all future public private partnerships and projects to meet high resource efficiency standards.

Commenting on the report’s recommendations, EIC chairman Adrian Wilkes said the Government’s agenda on resource efficiency was “falling well short” through a lack of co-ordinated policy and legislative drivers.

“This is undermining policies aimed at tackling key environmental challenges such as climate change, whilst damaging the UK’s international competitiveness in a world facing rising prices for all raw materials,” he said.

The Government has already come under attack for its Resource Action Plan published earlier this year. In May a leading reprocessor said the plan didn’t go far enough in terms of safeguarding the future of scarce and valuable materials.

Maxine Perella

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