UK Councils
Many UK councils have now acknowledged the scale and urgency of the climate crisis, and have either declared a Climate Emergency and/or put in place an Action Plan to tackle the problem locally.
According to CAPE, 327 of the UK’s 394 local councils have now declared a Climate Emergency. Alongside this, the majority of Councils now have an Action Plan in place, setting out what they intend to do in their local area in response to the crisis. That’s regardless of whether or not they have formally declared a Climate Emergency.
If the UK is to stand a chance of meeting its 2050 net-zero target, then we will need to address the climate crisis collectively. Every organisation, whether that’s in the public or private sector, will need to play a part. If you are an elected Councillor or a Council Officer, and your council has declared a Climate Emergency, implemented an Action Plan, or set a net-zero target, then so far, so good. But you will want to have a clear understanding of what it is that you actually need to achieve to deliver that Plan, or meet that target. Where best should your efforts be focused?
Amongst other things, you are going to need to know:
Or maybe you need to better understand:
The answers to these questions will depend on what your Plan or target covers. That could simply be emissions from your own council estate and operations – in other words, from council buildings and the services you run. Alternatively, that could be extended further, to include any emissions from services that are contracted out to external organisations that provide services on your behalf. Or maybe extend that even further still - what about your residents, and the impact their activities have on the climate? You will have at least some influence over each of these different approaches. In many cases, that will mean having control of some of the activities in your area that cause emissions.
More about tackling emissions from your council’s own estate and operations can be found here.
More about tackling emissions from the local authority area can be found here.
GreenGoals provides help and advice to councils, so please do get in touch. That could be with things such as:
GreenGoals can also support councils with their waste and recycling services. That could be with things such as:
More about waste and recycling can be found here.
Contact us if you would like a chat about how GreenGoals can help.
According to CAPE, 327 of the UK’s 394 local councils have now declared a Climate Emergency. Alongside this, the majority of Councils now have an Action Plan in place, setting out what they intend to do in their local area in response to the crisis. That’s regardless of whether or not they have formally declared a Climate Emergency.
If the UK is to stand a chance of meeting its 2050 net-zero target, then we will need to address the climate crisis collectively. Every organisation, whether that’s in the public or private sector, will need to play a part. If you are an elected Councillor or a Council Officer, and your council has declared a Climate Emergency, implemented an Action Plan, or set a net-zero target, then so far, so good. But you will want to have a clear understanding of what it is that you actually need to achieve to deliver that Plan, or meet that target. Where best should your efforts be focused?
Amongst other things, you are going to need to know:
- how can we measure our emissions? where are we starting from - what are our emissions now, and where are they coming from?
- what should we set as a target, and do we need interim targets on the way to that? and how will we know when we have reached net-zero?
Or maybe you need to better understand:
- which emission sources are my council responsible for?
- where are emissions arising in the council area?
- of these, where do we have an influence?
The answers to these questions will depend on what your Plan or target covers. That could simply be emissions from your own council estate and operations – in other words, from council buildings and the services you run. Alternatively, that could be extended further, to include any emissions from services that are contracted out to external organisations that provide services on your behalf. Or maybe extend that even further still - what about your residents, and the impact their activities have on the climate? You will have at least some influence over each of these different approaches. In many cases, that will mean having control of some of the activities in your area that cause emissions.
More about tackling emissions from your council’s own estate and operations can be found here.
More about tackling emissions from the local authority area can be found here.
GreenGoals provides help and advice to councils, so please do get in touch. That could be with things such as:
- establishing an emissions baseline, a target, and a pathway to that
- identifying all your emissions sources, and assessing the best courses of action to mitigate these, and what to prioritise
- evaluating the likely impact of national policy and interventions, and then establishing where local interventions will also be of benefit
- setting up processes for data collection
- creating bespoke monitoring reports to help you track progress
- providing advice and support to in-house teams, particularly with setting up systems for monitoring and reporting
- working with and training council officers to develop skills and knowledge, to improve the capability to manage work in-house
GreenGoals can also support councils with their waste and recycling services. That could be with things such as:
- analysing the likely impact on your services of changes to central Government policy
- improving you data collection and monitoring processes
- analysing recycling performance to see how that can be improved
- looking at data on waste composition and contamination rates to establish how that can be used to help increase recycling
- creating bespoke monitoring reports to help you track progress
More about waste and recycling can be found here.
Contact us if you would like a chat about how GreenGoals can help.
