First Minister Jack McConnell MSP has praised North Lanarkshire Council for becoming the first local authority in Scotland to commit to reducing its impact on the global environment.

Mr McConnell made his remarks at Thornlie Primary in his home constituency of Wishaw, when he visited the school to see its efforts at encouraging environmental awareness and to be presented with North Lanarkshire Partnership's Global Footprint Reduction Report. The report measures the area's impact on the environment and outlines ways in which that impact can be reduced.

"North Lanarkshire Council is to be congratulated for being the first local authority in Scotland to commit to reducing its footprint," said the First Minister. "I hope this initiative will continue to make a real difference for many years to come.

"I'm also delighted to see the excellent work Thornlie Primary is involved in. This is just one of a number of schools in North Lanarkshire committed to making children and young people more environmentally award, and it is great to see the children so enthusiastic about the project."

WWF Scotland Director Richard Dixon also attended the presentation, along with North Lanarkshire Council Chief Executive Gavin Whitefield and Council Leader Councillor Jim McCabe.

Mr Dixon also praised the council, saying "Today North Lanarkshire Council is setting the standard for all Scottish local authorities, and for the rest of the UK, by using this report to inform its decisions about procurement, transport and new housing developments - and this is only the start.

"Planning, waste treatment, transport, procurement, education - these are all areas that will shape the way we live for years to come. WWF will continue working with North Lanarkshire Council, and with other local authorities, because governments at all levels have the power to help us all reduce the impact of such patterns of consumption."

North Lanarkshire presently has one of the lowest ecological footprints in Scotland - but it is still using more than its fair share of the planet's resources. An ecological footprint is calculated by measuring the amount of land and sea needed to provide the water, energy and food we need to support our lifestyles.

If all the earth's resources were shared equally, a fair share would be a footprint of about 2 global hectares per person. In North Lanarkshire it's about 5 global hectares.

The Global Footprint Reduction report documents North Lanarkshire's footprint in terms of the impact created by consumption of transport, waste, services, food, building and residential energy and shared resources such as the health service; and contains proposals on how that footprint could be reduced.

"If everyone in the world lived as we do in North Lanarkshire, we would need another two planets to support our lifestyles," said Council Leader Councillor Jim McCabe.

"This startling fact has moved North Lanarkshire Council, with North Lanarkshire Partnership, to work with WWF Scotland on reducing our environmental impact. Our reduction report outlines practical actions and policy changes we can take to ensure our communities live and work more sustainably.

"Combining individual actions, like the projects here at Thornlie Primary, with policy change should help to reduce our global impact, and ensure quality of life for our community now and in the future."

North Lanarkshire Council Chief Executive Gavin Whitefield says environmentally-aware policies and actions go hand-in-hand with economic development and a better quality of life.

"This report shows what we are doing to reduce our footprint through the types of houses we build, the food we buy and the transportation we make available," he said. "And this project has convinced me that we can and will do more.

"Global footprinting is the perfect tool with which to examine patterns of consumption and environmental awareness, and to formulate policies that benefit both people and the environment. It has the potential to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable way of life for us all."

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