PUMA - Environmental Management Programme in the Vienna City Administration

The project idea

Just like private companies, office buildings have a significant impact on the environment:

• Heating, lighting, lifts, computers and different machines require energy.
• Materials such as paper, cleaning agents, printer and photocopier toners and other office equipment are needed.
• Particularly the sanitary facilities use water and produce wastewater.
• Waste has to be disposed of (in particular paper and residual waste, but also hazardous substances such as old fluorescent tubes, batteries or residues of cleaning agents).
• Some buildings host different installations having a special impact on the environment such as workshops and print shops that use chemicals, filter harmful substances in the air or produce special wastewater.

Living up to its motto of being a model city in environmental terms, the City of Vienna has established an environmental management system. The system was initiated by the Vienna Ombuds-Office for Environmental Protection (WUA) and the Stadtbaudirektion (Executive Office for Urban Planning, Development and Construction), Section 2. The programme aims for the City of Vienna to be even more environmentally friendly in the fields mentioned above (energy consumption, waste management, procurement).

Current state of the programme

Led by the Vienna Ombuds-Office for Environmental Protection the PUMA programme was redesigned in the spring of 2005. Previously the project team had established environmental teams at the different locations of the Vienna City Administration. These teams do not exist anymore, instead the new core team assists the different municipal departments in autonomously implementing environmental management in their respective field.

After a first discussion with the head of department, a designated PUMA staff member draws up an environmental programme for the department including specific goals and measures. An analysis of the current situation is carried out at the beginning and serves as a basis for defining the most urgent need for action.

So far all of the 70 municipal departments have participated in the programme.

Aside from supporting the municipal departments in the first PUMA phase, the core team also runs its own PUMA intranet site with target-group specific advice. The intranet site is used for information and PR-work.

Realisation

Results

Learn more about the PUMA programme

PUMA Manual: 230 KB PDF

Contact

Mr Dominik Schreiber
Wiener Umweltanwaltschaft
Muthgasse 62
A-1190 Vienna
Austria
Phone: +43 1 379 79-88998
Fax: +43 1 379 79-99-88998
E-Mail: dominik.schreiber@wien.gv.at