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Reducing Emissions from Local Authority Operations
The CLASP website has moved.
Please visit: www.claspinfo.org
The information below may be out of date
CO2 Reduction from Local Authority Operations
** Update April 2011**
DECC Request to all LAs re Emissions Reporting
Following consultation with authorities DECC is requesting Local Authorities to follow the same guidance that was published for organisations by DECC and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in September 2009. This guidance is available on the Defra website entitled "Guidance on how to measure and report your greenhouse gas emissions".
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/economy/business-efficiency/reporting/
DECC is requesting that each Local Authority publishes its own GHG report locally on its own website. This is to support the localism agenda by ensuring that local authorities are accountable to their local people for their greenhouse gas emissions.
DECC is requesting that each Local Authority publish its GHG report by the end of July 2011 for 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 data. (DECC originally requested that Local Authorities publish their GHG reports locally by the end of June, however, in response to requests received from Local Authorities who are subject to the CRC, this date has been moved to the end of July so that this aligns with the CRC data submission.)
To confirm the process, Minister for Climate Change, Gregory Barker wrote to Chief Executives of local councils in England on 13 April 2011. Click here to read the letter.
Whilst the requirement to report on NI 185 may have been removed,
the importance of reducing energy use in local authority estates
remains critical, with high potential for efficiency savings to be
made.
To help establish baselines you may find it helpful to refer to the 'provisional' estimates of the emissions from Local Authorities operations during financial year 2008/09 (based on the first year of NI 185 returns), that DECC released in July 20010, together with an estimate of the regional and England totals by energy type.
Baseline Year Headline results
The total measured emissions for all UK Local Authorities' operations is 8.3 MtCO2. This is about 1.6% of the UK Total Net CO2 emissions for calendar year 2008 (532.8 MtCO2). Of the 9 English regions the North West released the greatest emissions from Local Authority operations (1.22 MTCO2).
You can view the full breakdown, by Local Authority by clicking here
This is the first year that DECC have collected and published this data from Local Authorities and as such data should be used as a guide to emissions, recognising different systems of operation may have been in place in different local authorities. The data should not be taken as absolute and differences between local authorities, could result from data as well as operational issues.
Other Information Available On This Site
| Carbon Reduction Committment | |
Staff and Visitor Travel
Measuring and Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A DfT Guide to Work-Related Travel
This new guidance aims to help UK organisations calculate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from work-related travel. This includes staff travelling to and from work (the commute) and during the course of the working day (business travel). Work-related travel can be a significant source of emissions for many organisations, however it can also be a challenging area to report upon. This guidance provides a clear set of instructions on how to calculate work-related travel emissions and source data.
For more information: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/greenhousegasemissions/
When collecting baseline and monitoring data you may wish to
survey staff and visitor travel patterns. If so the
Department For Transport provides templates for
staff travel surveys and
visitor travel surveys.
In addition here are links to Travel Surveys used
by:
Staff Environmental Awareness
The Cheshire & Warrington Public Sector Carbon Management Group has produced an Eco-Reps Handbook as a collaborative project to engage staff on sustainability issues. The handbook has been specifically designed to be transferable to other organisations and areas. You can download the Handbook from here.
Green Energy At Work is an in-house initiative aimed at improving Cumbria County Council's (own) environmental performance, by addressing staff's behaviours and attitudes towards their responsibility to environmental issues and practical solutions. The initiative was started just over 2 years ago. See the full Case Study here.
A similar approach, taken by Swindon, is to
establish a network of individuals throughout the council who meet
regularly to promote and disseminate information. Read more in this
case
study from Swindon.
Manchester City Council have also set up a Green Champions Scheme that encourages council employees to act more sustainably at work and at home. They are given information on the little changes they can make to their everyday lives, and are encouraged to persuade other to live more sustainable. Any employee can join up to the scheme and do as much or as little as they choose. Click to read the case study.
Monitoring Energy Use
Manchester City Council have been working with their gas and electricity suppliers to formulate appropriate and cost effective proposals for introducing Automatic Meter Reading into Council buildings. These automatic systems are designed to enhance the Council's ability to meet their climate change targets through sensible and stringent use of gas and electricity. The direct effects of automatic systems are the ability to read consumption accurately, track changes of time and make predictions of future energy use. This increased understanding of energy consumption allows for more accurate procurement, minimising wastage and over-capacity. To find out more click here.
Carbon Reduction Commitment
Please click here to go the the CLASP Carbon Reduction Commitment page where you will find more information and a Local Authority CRC toolkit.
Grey Fleet Management
'Grey Fleet' refers to miles driven by employees in
their own vehicles whilst carrying out work related duties.
Effectively tackling grey fleet has environmental, health, safety and as financial benefits. A survey found that Grey Fleet vehicles have an average age of 6.7 years as compared to between 6 months for spot hire vehicles and 18 months for lease vehicles. Older vehicles are more polluting and have lower safety standards than their newer equivalents.
The Office of Government Commerce, working with a number of private and public sector organisations, has developed a toolkit which contains documents and templates including a sample business case, sample travel policy, a decision tree and Grey Fleet best practice.
To obtain the most recent copy of the toolkit please click here to send a ready-made email to the fleet team at OGC who will send out a copy to you.
How you can help
Everyone in the Northwest has an important part to play in tackling climate change. Click here to find out what your business, household, community or school can do to help.