How we plan to cut our Carbon Emissions

Stockton Council has a responsibility to assist Central Government in achieving its targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

carbon economy logo Following the publication of the Government's Climate Change Bill all local Authorities will be faced with increasing energy efficiency targets over the coming years. We hope that these energy saving measures will save around £4.2 million and 32,000 tonnes of CO₂ over the five years of the scheme, with savings continuing into the future, and in 2007 Stockton Council joined the Local Authority Carbon Management Programme (LACMP). The LACMP is a scheme run by The Carbon Trust to help Local Authorities reduce their emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂).

We have set ourselves a tough target of reducing our emissions by 25% by the year 2013. We want to lead in the fight against climate change, incorporating carbon management into every aspect of the Council's business and creating effective, innovative and bold solutions to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Council has already implemented the following CO₂ reduction measures:

Stockton is one of the few Boroughs in the country to have met its target for improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock, with improvements of 30% since 1996.

We have carried out school energy audits.
All but one of the old coal and oil powered boilers in schools and council buildings have been replaced with more efficient gas boilers.
Over 50% of Council fleet vehicles are now using bio-diesel.
A street light dimming experiment at Darlington Back Lane is currently being conducted; this involves dimming the street lighting in this area by 30% providing savings of between 25% and 35% on electricity usage.

A lot of work is going to be done to reach our challenging target of reducing our emissions by 25% by 2013 but there is a lot more that we would like to do:

ALL fleet vehicles running on 20% bio fuel (from sustainable source)
Energy awareness campaign
Staff travel plan implementation
Energy audits and actions on all Council buildings, including schools
Insulation of all feasible council buildings
Swimming pool covers for all leisure pools
Boiler replacement scheme
Installation of intelligent energy efficient lighting in appropriate council buildings
Eco and defensive driver training for all staff
School and admin buildings ICT switch off technology

Greenhouse gas emissions from local authority estate and operations

The following chart shows greenhouse gas emissions from local authority estate and operations in 2009-10 and 2010-11:

	2009/10	2010/11	Change
Gas	9,146,712	9,080,809	-0.7%
Fleet	2,447,366	2,380,252	-2.7%
Total Scope 1	11,594,078	11,461,061	-1.1%
Electricity	16,821,061	17,055,811	1.4%
Total Scope 2	16,821,061	17,055,811	1.4%
Business Mileage	898,123	624,846	-20.7%
Tees Active Ltd	2,378,150	1,885,727	-23.4%
Total Scope 3	3,276,273	2,510,573	-23.4%
Total Emissions	31,691,411	31,027,444	-2.1%

Scope 1: Emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting company; also known as direct emissions

Scope 2: Emissions that are a consequence of the operations of the reporting company, but occur from sources owned or controlled by another company, e.g. as a consequence of the import of electricity, heat, cooling or steam. Also known as indirect emissions

Scope 3: Emissions that are a consequence of all other activities which release emissions into the atmosphere as a consequence of your actions, which occur at sources which you do not own or control and which are not classed as scope 2 emissions. Also known as other indirect emissions