STTC Participant in the picture: City of Madrid’s year of sustainable tropical timber action
A wide range of projects are underway in Madrid as part of the city’s European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition Action Plan.
The multi-faceted initiative is targeting the range of citizens, from timber suppliers and procurers, to school students. It is also including everything from online informational campaigns, literature and presentations, to tropical timber posters and brochures.
On signing up to the plan, the Madrid City Council Municipal Consumption Institute said that it aligned with the Spanish capital’s long-term commitment to minimise environmental impact and encourage responsible consumption. It has been an accredited Fair Trade City since 2011 and was one of the first cities to back the STTC on its launch in 2013.
More recently, Madrid’s drive for sustainability has stepped up again.
“The city is facing a new era with a new municipal government even more involved in these matters,” said the council in its Action Plan proposal. “It has led to Madrid becoming an example for other Spanish cities thanks to its capacity to raise public awareness and develop new initiatives for responsible consumption.”
As part of its broader civic Sustainable Consumption Plan, running to 2019, Madrid has launched an open access sustainable consumption website with information and links. Under the STTC Action Plan this will now include a section on sustainable tropical timber procurement, with articles, brochures and a diary of Action Plan Events.
Another project is the creation of ‘good practice files’, detailing sustainable tropical timber procurement best practice, for inclusion on the municipal website www.madrid.es.
Educational sustainable consumption workshops will also take place in schools in the final term of the year, targeting children and teenagers from five to 16. Offered to 345 schools, these will cover the environmental benefits of using sustainable tropical timber and responsible consumption of timber more generally.
Madrid is also set to host the fourth national meeting of Fair Trade Cities on October 26, including a presentation on tropical timber sustainability issues by Iván Bermejo Barbier of responsible trade NGO Copade.
Moreover, the latter has collaborated with the city in producing a special brochure for dissemination at municipal events detailing STTC activities. This includes sections on the role of sustainable tropical timber application in helping meet Sustainable Development Goals and life cycle assessment research supported by the STTC.
A sustainable tropical timber bus shelter poster campaign will also run in November and tropical timber events are planned for Madrid’s ‘emblematic new public space’ dedicated to promoting ‘responsible consumption in a social economy’. This is set to open in January 2018.
