Buckinghamshire County Council outperforms targets on CO2 emissions

LED street lights in Churchill Avenue, Aylesbury. (Image supplied by Buckinghamshire County Council)

Buckinghamshire County Council has outperformed it targets on CO2 emissions with an impressive 41% reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide produced in 2018/19 compared with the baseline set in 2009/10.

Successful carbon reduction projects across Buckinghamshire County Council’s services and infrastructure have resulted in a significantly better outcome than the 30% national voluntary reduction target set by the UK Government in its Clean Growth Strategy.

The Clean Growth Strategy set a voluntary target introduced by the government for the wider public and higher education sectors in England. The aims of this target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across these sectors by 30% by 2020 to 2021, compared to a 2009 to 2010 baseline.

The figures exceed the County Council’s own more ambitious target of 40%.

Carbon reduction initiatives across corporate buildings and in street lighting are among some of the County Councils most successful carbon reduction areas.

£4 million has been invested in roof-mounted solar panels, LED lights, boiler replacement and other measures since 2011. These projects have successfully led to cost savings of over £530K and saving over 2,700 tonnes CO2 per annum. Information about CO2 equivalents and how these are calculated can be found on the UK Government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting.

Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment at Buckinghamshire County Council, Bill Chapple OBE, said: ‘We’re all increasingly aware that climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face. Although there’s a long way still to go, it’s encouraging that we’ve managed to implement carbon reduction projects across our services and infrastructure that combine to meet our own ambitious greenhouse gas target – and exceed the national target by 10%. But we’re not complacent. As an authority, we’re committed to finding ways to keep reducing our carbon footprint.‘

A report detailing the carbon reduction success can be found on the Buckinghamshire County Council website at www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/environment/sustainability/corporate-performance-reporting.

*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire County Council.