In 2006, Plymouth City Council decided to calculate its carbon footprint and then reduce it. Three years later it had engaged partners and businesses throughout the area and won an award. But best of all, the council found itself well placed to prepare for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Jackie Young, Plymouth's Sustainable Development Coordinator tells us how.
Our initial solution for cutting carbon was the Carbon Trust’s Local Authority Carbon Management (LACM) programme. This has had far-reaching implications:
for tackling carbon accounting our use of natural resources reporting the new climate change indicators engaging local businesses in reducing their carbon footprint. Key learning for other councils
Establishing your carbon footprint and taking action to reduce it is not as difficult as it looks. There is a lot of help out there.
The commitment and direction you’ll need must come from the top.
Your senior management will probably need to understand the financial implications more than the environmental implications – but both are important.
Engage your finance, legal and internal audit teams early on – they can really help with embedding the ideas and actions you’ll need to take.
Build on initial findings – don’t worry if data is missing first time round. Use this to fill in the gaps next time round.
Take simple steps – the quick-win projects don’t have to be big or expensive.
Background to the council
Plymouth City Council is one of the biggest unitary authorities in the southwest. It provides services to 250,000 people and all year-round visitors, from over 500 premises and with the help of 12,000 members of staff.
Despite its size, the city has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the UK. We want to keep it that way. With the support of key commitments from both the council and the local strategic partnership (LSP), the council’s carbon footprint was initially agreed in 2007. Through the use of increasingly accurate data, it has been the basis for increasingly proactive corporate action.
Who was involved
The council’s sustainable development coordinator was tasked, by senior management, with establishing a way of calculating, and then reducing, the corporate carbon footprint.
Having secured the help of the Carbon Trust, through its LACM Programme, a formal project board was established to monitor progress. This included:
the director of development the portfolio holder for the environment key staff from finance, housing, property services and corporate performance.In due course a portfolio of 26 active projects, managed by 13 managers across the council, was established and published.
A broader, city-wide approach to carbon management – and the achievement of NI 186, was initiated by the council in late 2008. Plymouth 186 – a low carbon network for the city – is now supported by:
the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group leading LSP partners from the community and public sectors.Increasingly, the data required to accurately calculate the council’s and the city’s carbon footprint is provided by performance management officers from across the council. Contractors, such as TEAM Energy Ltd, monitor energy and fuel use.
The Carbon Trust and, more recently, the Energy Savings Trust and Westcountry Energy Action all continue to provide essential support and advice.
The problems and how we tackled them
Establishing our carbon footprint
The Carbon Trust helped to scope out and identify the significant sources to include in our footprint calculations. Initially, we looked at:
gas and electricity fuel use our business and commuter footprint streetlighting, including signals et cetera. We later included school energy use and, for 2007/08, have added in water, fuel card use and heating oils.
Identifying gaps is now easier as we can identify responsible managers. Our baseline footprint (2006/07) included responsibilities for waste and commuting and was agreed at 121,737 tonnes of CO2.
We have now split this down to show what our operational footprint is for buildings and travel. This was approximately 48,000 tonnes of CO2 in 07/08.
Preparing for the Carbon Reduction Commitment
Qualifying
We worked with TEAM Energy Ltd and one other supplier to identify which meters we should be using to determine qualification and the amount of electricity used in 08/09.
More advice and the CRC User Guide – on the website of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
What you’ll pay
We have used assessments of our footprint in 2007/08 and 08/09 to predict what our footprint will be by 2010/11. From this you can calculate the potential CRC costs at £12 a tonne of CO2 and the actual calculation (in 2011) will be much easier and more accurate.
Embedding the idea
We have established a formal reporting mechanism that informs senior management, Councillors, Scrutiny and the public of the action we’ve taken and the implications of reducing carbon emissions. Understanding the process is the key to success here.
Building a portfolio of active projects
We have completed our first year with 26 active projects. Key savings include:
638 tonnes of CO2 by reviewing school-boiler efficiency and developing a multi-million pound investment programme for replacements 15,602 tonnes of CO2 by reorganising the way we collect recyclables 17.5 tonnes of CO2 by introducing a pilot trade waste scheme 26.8 tonnes of CO2 by replacing footpath lighting with low-energy, white lights – improving perceptions of safety at the same time 16,414 tonnes of CO2 through our Home Energy Efficiency programme 293 tonnes of CO2 by promoting green travel passes and car sharing 352 tonnes of CO2 by introducing carbon-management guidelines to school caretakers 74 tonnes of CO2 by installing pool-filter covers at two leisure pools.Extending the action to local partners
Through a new Low Carbon Network (Plymouth 186), our goal is to reduce our per-capita carbon footprint from 5.8 tonnes of CO2 per person to 5.0 tonnes of CO2 by per person by 2011. This would be a 13.8 per cent reduction. This commitment is in our local area agreement (LAA). A reduction of 650 tonnes of CO2 per organisation would be enough to meet our citywide targets
It would also save money and energy and boosting the local economy.
Outcomes and impact
Our carbon footprint has been established and refined for greater accuracy.
26 projects with a value of approximately £350,000 in 2008/09 have contributed to savings of 35,212 tonnes of CO2 tonnes of CO2 – with an approximate value of £92,000 accrued to date.
Twenty projects will continue in to 2009/10 and a further 15 have been added.
Only one project, the carbon manager’s post, needed ‘new’ money – all the rest was found in existing budgets.
We are now in a position to plan for energy and carbon savings estimated at just over £4,000,000 in a five-year carbon budget.
In a single year we have almost met our five-year target of a 20 per cent reduction by 2013 so the council will need to review its original target.
The significance of reducing our carbon footprint – and its associated cost benefits – has been adopted as a priority in the council’s Corporate Plan 2009/2012.
What could we have done better?
We could have spent more time researching the data already held by the council. This would have provided a more accurate baseline for our work and a better idea of potential cost savings.
We could have held more scoping meetings with performance managers – using their knowledge to identify gaps.
It would have been useful to have checked and rechecked the data we were given – just to ensure all the sites were covered accurately. We found that some billing data can take up to six months to register.
We could have explained how waste and commuting have an impact on the overall footprint and the difference they make to the overall footprint. Looking back, we should have separated these out from the buildings and transport footprint.
Next steps
We have identified sufficient savings to justify the appointment of a carbon manager. We are looking at creating a small team to manage future carbon-accounting projects, training and the delivery of the LACM Programme.
We are setting out an action plan to embed carbon management as a corporate priority by 2011.
We are going to progressively train budget managers and decision makers and introduce a requirement to account for change in pounds and tonnes of CO2.
We are launching a city-wide low-carbon network to encourage partner organisations to do the same.
Further information
Jackie Young
Sustainable Development Coordinator
telephone: 01752 304220
email:
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