The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management has more than achieved its pledge to make significant carbon emission cuts as part of the 10:10 campaign.

Although 10:10 aimed to persuade Britain to cut its emissions by 10% by 2010, organisations that had already been working on reducing emissions were asked to commit to a more realistic 3% target.

CIWEM was the first chartered professional body to have its Environmental Management Systems accredited to ISO14001 in 2008.

To meet the 10:10 target, an extensive environmental improvement programme was put in place, allowing CIWEM to achieve significant savings.

The main successes were a reduction in gas consumption by 25% from 2009 and electricity consumption by 11.3%. Water consumption fell 30%, paper consumption by 7.4% and air travel by 8.8%.

Now CIWEM is leading developing its new head office to achieve high BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes ratings.

CIWEM’s executive director Nick Reeves said: “For many years, minimising CIWEM’s environmental impacts has been priority commitment, so our achievement in cutting our emissions has exceeded all expectations. CIWEM is helping to send a signal to the Government that such emission cuts are attainable and worth pursuing.”

CIWEM is an independent professional body and a registered charity, set up to advance the science and practice of water and environmental management for a clean, green and sustainable world.