Climate change

We are committed to leading the fight against climate change. We are working with residents, businesses, and partners to reduce emissions and protect our environment. Our goal is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050

Explore our strategy, actions, and how you can get involved.

Our actions so far

We are already taking important steps to reduce our carbon emissions. We have:

• delivered a comprehensive carbon audit to identify our sources of emissions and priority areas for decarbonisation
• developed heat decarbonisation plans for a number of our largest buildings
• installed renewable energy and low carbon heating installations including PV systems and air source heat pumps on a number of assets
• replaced 100% of the council’s street lighting stock with high-efficiency LED units
• carried out over £2.4m of new housing retrofit activity to reduce emissions from domestic dwellings
• secured funding to prepare us for a large scale PV system installation project on our vehicle depot
• collaborated with the Institute for Community Studies, voluntary and community sector organisations, and residents to explore what a just transition to net zero might look like
• amended our constitution to require all committee and council decisions to take account of climate change
• become the 63rd local authority in the UK to report to CDP
• ensured parking permits are enforced in our staff car parks, for example at the Civic Centre underground car park
• have taken steps to cut down on plastic waste. Catering services within the Civic Centre serves drinks in porcelain cups and glasses, while the disposable cups provided at water dispensers are made from plant-based bioplastics. We have also taken steps to reducing overall plastic packaging used for food served for events and meetings