Strategies
As a council we have shown our commitment to climate change by signing the Nottingham Declaration (see link below); this pledges our commitment to meeting the government's emissions targets and developing our own actions towards combating climate change.
In 2007 we produced a Climate Change Strategy to begin our campaign focusing on the climate change agenda. We will be looking to refresh this document during 2012/2013.
Our sustainable communities strategy (see link below), sets a target to reduce our borough’s emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.
Plans and Practical action
During 2010/2011 we completed the Carbon Trust local authority management programme. This gave us 10 months of support from the Carbon Trust to develop a robust plan to tackle our emissions. During this programme we set an aspirational target of reducing our emissions by 40% of 2009 / 2010 levels by April 2015.
Following on from this in 2011/2012 we completed the Carbon Trusts schools programme. Schools are an important area for us as they make up 40% of our carbon footprint. The programme allowed us to develop a focused work plan to help us to help schools to reduce their energy bills.
The main projects we are working on currently include:
- Salix loans– we received a £250k sum from Salix which was matched by the council making an investment fund of £500k for carbon reduction projects. The main part of this money has been spent on street lighting including projects such as changing illuminated bollards to solar power. The payback from these projects will be just five years.
- Capital Funding – we have capital funding for invest to save projects. Many potential projects are outlined in our carbon management plan.
- Delivering our Low Carbon Schools Programme - we work with a number of schools each year to look at their energy bills and how they can be reduced.
- Eco-reps - we have volunteers in many different departments of the council who encourage colleagues to be green and champion energy reduction in our buildings
- Renewable energy – we are looking into the feasibility of renewable energy across our estate