Qualityworld

Peak performance

The Peak District Environmental Quality Mark (EQM) brands products and services that help to protect the National Park. Faith Johnson, EQM project officer, explains the benefits of the scheme

Established in 2003, the Peak District Environmental Quality Mark (EQM) is an environmental certification scheme for products and services that help conserve and enhance the Peak District National Park. The scheme is the first of its type to be set up in England.

EQM is designed for rural micro-businesses of one or two employees. The aim is to provide a scheme that provides measurable environmental and conservation benefits as well as being accessible to smaller businesses.

There are currently 77 EQM awards held across four business sectors: farming, food and drink, arts and crafts, and holiday accommodation. The scheme is proving popular and 22 new applicants successfully achieved the award in 2007, despite the limited promotional activity of the scheme. Of course, this is a tiny proportion of Peak District businesses - there are around 2,500 businesses in the national park that fall into the current four EQM award categories and many more in the wider Peak District area - but the growth of the scheme is currently limited by available resource to process new award applications.

'What makes the EQM unique is that it sets out to deliver conservation benefits to a national park and encourages collaboration between rural business sectors'

There are, of course, a number of environmental standards such as ISO 14001 and Acorn. What makes the EQM unique is that it sets out to deliver conservation benefits to a national park and encourages collaboration between rural business sectors. There are a number of local product branding schemes, such as Made in Cumbria and the Pembrokeshire Produce Mark, but few that have specific environmental criteria.

Those that do, tend to apply to one specific sector or product type. For example, Little Acorn is an environmental self-assessment tool for New Forest tourism accommodation and the South Downs Lamb and Limestone Country Beef projects both have conservation grazing criteria, but the label only applies to meat products. So the EQM was developed to fill a gap, for a place-based, cross-sectoral environmental accreditation scheme.

It is the combination of four different elements that makes EQM unique:

a pioneering approach - EQM was designed so it could be adopted in other areas, particularly other protected areas such as national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty
about a special place - award-holding businesses help to conserve the characteristic environmental features of the Peak District National Park such as wildflower meadows and drystone walls, as well as delivering the general environmental benefits of an environmental management system
forging links between sectors - all the different links in the chain, from the farmer to the consumer, work together to offer products and services that are connected to good management of the protected landscape
environmental standards - only businesses that can demonstrate high standards of environmental management, specifically through compliance with the EQM standards, can qualify for the award. The EQM is legally protected as a certification mark registered with the Intellectual Property Office

How does the EQM work?

The EQM was developed following careful research and consideration of national and international environmental schemes and existing studies in this area. Work commissioned by the Countryside Agency exploring the applicability of foreign product labelling schemes to the UK (Countryside and Community Research Unit and Coventry University, 2001) was taken into particular account.

The EQM standards

Four equivalent EQM Standards were developed in 2001 and 2002, for the farming, food, crafts and holiday accommodation sectors. These were designed to fit together with other environmental schemes, such as the national sustainable tourism standard for holiday accommodation that was then at a draft stage (it was never launched), or agri-environment schemes available to farms at that time, such as Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Area agreements.

All of the EQM standards require businesses to meet three criteria:

compliance with relevant environmental legislation
high general standards of environmental management
direct or indirect action to conserve the particular environmental qualities of the Peak District National Park.

It is this last point which is central to EQM and sets it apart from other schemes.

The EQM farming standard involves delivering environmental benefits to the Peak District National Park through land management. It focuses on special and characteristic Peak District landscape features and wildlife habitats, such as drystone walls, traditional stone buildings, lead mining heritage, hay meadows, limestone dales and moorland.

The EQM food and drink, arts and crafts, and tourist accommodation standards focus on delivering conservation benefits to the Peak District National Park, but also involve good general environmental practice including:

purchasing products from EQM farms or farms in the National Park in agri-environment (conservation) schemes
use of locally grown and locally made products and services
use of environmentally friendly products
efficient use of energy and water; minimisation of waste
provision of environmental information

Although participating businesses are required to comply with the standards, the EQM Standards are not protected in the same way as British or international standards. Instead, during the development of the EQM scheme, the decision was taken to legally protect the logo as a certification mark registered with the Intellectual Property Office (previously the Patent Office). This was to ensure that the logo could only be used by those businesses that had been through the certification process. EQM therefore operates more similarly to the Soil Association's organic standard rather than, for example, ISO 14001.

The EQM regulations

A certification mark indicates that a product is of a certain quality or has certain characteristics and its characteristics are defined by an associated set of regulations governing the use of the certification mark. The regulations governing the use of the EQM define:

the Peak District National Park as proprietor of, and the certifying body for, the Peak District EQM
the goods and services which the EQM can apply to
the characteristics to be certified by the mark, specifically that the goods and services 'contribute to the conservation and enhancement of the Peak District National Park protected landscape and also minimise negative impacts on the wider environment'
the processes for application, assessment, renewal, enforcement and appeal

EQM benefits

The philosophy of the EQM sets out to tap into the growing ethical consumerism market in the UK, which was worth £32.3bn in 2007, according to the Co-operative Bank. But EQM offers a new message: it tells consumers that a product or service is not simply local, but that it plays a part in conserving the special landscape and environment of the Peak District National Park.

It is often assumed that buying local is automatically good for the environment. However, at a local level modern farming methods can lead to the loss of precious habitats and landscape features. In the Peak District, features such as wildflower meadows, drystone walls and lead mining heritage are what makes the national park unique. In the present difficult rural economic climate they are fragile - a luxury that farmers may increasingly be unable to afford to maintain. EQM is a new way to deliver genuinely sustainable consumerism by investing in the habitats and landscape features that make the Peak District special. The EQM certification mark has three key objectives:

to encourage businesses to develop products and services that maximise environmental benefits to the Peak District and minimise adverse environmental effects
to create a marketing edge for participating businesses, distinguishing their products or services from those of their competitors
to encourage the collaborative marketing of related products and services, for example in tourism and food promotions

Linking these objectives is central to the scheme. If a business meets the requirements of the EQM standards, it is delivering real conservation benefits to the national park. This can then be used as the unique selling point for the business. The award scheme also provides opportunities for a network of businesses from different sectors that share common business philosophies to work together (see case studies).

Similar schemes

EQM was originally developed as a pilot project for the Countryside Agency, which was exploring rolling out the idea in other national parks and protected areas. However, the Countryside Agency was disestablished in 2006, when it was merged with English Nature and parts of the Rural Development Service to form Natural England.

Following an unfavourable budget settlement from Defra, Natural England has been forced to make hard choices. Developing 'conservation brands' is not part of the organisation's statutory work and therefore it has chosen not to fund EQM for the foreseeable future.

However, other areas in the UK and across Europe are interested in the scheme. In the absence of funding, the cost of setting up a similar scheme may prove a disincentive in the UK. Nonetheless, the Peak District National Park Authority will work hard to drive down the costs of running the EQM so others can adopt the model more readily.

What next?

The project has so far demonstrated that the idea of an environmental quality mark can work well in practice. An independent evaluation in 2006 to assess the impact of the scheme, carried out by economic development and management consultancy SQW, concluded that 'EQM is becoming an effective and efficient vehicle for delivering the remit and objectives of the Peak District National Park Authority.'

EQM has also given recognition to businesses which are making special efforts to care for the environment of the Peak District. For them, environmental conservation has become part of their businesses and is not something imposed by regulation. But the EQM project is still learning from experience and developing the best approach to making the scheme a real success.

Many new areas are being explored to develop EQM. These include:

developing methods to track the economic impact of EQM for businesses
introducing mentoring and training to encourage participants to use the EQM logo and their good environmental performance more strongly for business benefit
introducing a subscription fee once the economic benefits of the scheme have been demonstrated
undertaking 'carbon-footprinting' of EQM businesses and introducing targets to encourage overall reductions in carbon emissions
developing more award categories and increasing the range of products and services that can be certified
encouraging the roll-out of environmental quality brands to other national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty so that EQM becomes part of a wider family

The EQM project set out to encourage sustainable consumerism. Now the project is exploring whether the market can encourage and support production practices that make a positive contribution to sustainability, biodiversity and the natural beauty of a national park landscape. In essence, the EQM is an experiment to see whether public benefit can be paid for from the private purse. It will be a number of years yet before the results from the experiment are clear

Faith Johnson manages the Peak District Environmental Quality Mark, the UK's first 'place-based' environmental certification scheme. Her previous roles include environmental due diligence for property investment, environmental management working towards ISO 14001 certification for a small environmental engineering company and consultancy in the fields of reed bed technology and contaminated land.

Further information

A technical report on the development of the EQM is available. Full copies of the EQM standards and the regulations governing the use of the Peak District EQM are included in the technical report, as well as the procedures for initial assessment and ongoing compliance monitoring. www.peakdistrict.org/eqm

The independent evaluation of the EQM scheme by SQW will also shortly be available at www.peakdistrict.org/eqm

Case studies

All EQM businesses contribute to the conservation of the Peak District landscape, either directly, through how the business manages its land and buildings or indirectly, through collaboration with other businesses. For example, accommodation businesses source a proportion of their foods from EQM food producers, who in turn source from farmers managing their land in environmentally beneficial ways.

The food - JW Mettrick & Son, butcher in Glossop

This EQM-certified family butcher launched their High Peak Lamb brand in 2005. They require High Peak Lamb to be sourced only from EQM-certified farms, to secure a marketing edge. The farmers have established a good working relationship with the butcher and have been rewarded for their environmental performance through the market outlet for their lamb.

Holiday accommodation businesses wanting to achieve EQM are advised that a key element of their application will be their food procurement policy (in addition to energy, water and waste monitoring and purchasing review). Using High Peak Lamb could be one way they demonstrate a supply-chain link to the conservation of the national park. This in turn gains more sales for JW Mettrick & Son through participation in the EQM scheme. The butcher may also need new farm suppliers to meet increased demand for High Peak Lamb - farms that will need to be EQM-accredited. Thus, an EQM butcher is creating 'market demand' for farmers who deliver conservation benefits to the Peak District National Park.

The farm - the Watsons, Leacroft farm in Hope

The Watson family applied for EQM for their farm in order to sell their own EQM meat in their butcher's shop. To gain EQM for the farm, they have to maintain 50 per cent of their woodland in good conservation condition. In order to fully achieve this, they are considering entering into an agri-environment scheme with the Peak District National Park Authority to create wet woodland along their river banks. Wet woodland, usually dominated by alder, birches and willows, is an important habitat for wildlife and a priority for conservation under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The UK BAP is a plan implemented at a national, regional and local level to conserve and enhance important habitats and species.

The B&B - Sandra Oates of Cannon Croft B&B, Hathersage

Sandra Oates offers three sausages on her breakfast menu:

pork (from her local butcher Watson's Farm shop in Hope, but pigs from further afield in Derbyshire)
lamb and cranberry (with lamb from Watson's Farm shop's own farm Leacroft in Hope)
lamb and tomato (as above for lamb and cranberry)

She finds guests are interested in where the food comes from. She explains to guests at breakfast that the lamb in the sausages is from a farm in Hope that has achieved an award for conservation from the national park (EQM), but that pork sausages are not EQM because the Peak District climate and landscape is not well suited to pig farming. The pork is still the most popular sausage, but between 10 and 20 per cent of guests choose the 'conservation' lamb option.

Katy and Marshall Waller of EQM-certified Hill Billy Ice Cream, Wildboarclough