Strategic Framework - Environmental Sustainability
Context – Prioritising Action on Climate Change
Climate change is now recognised as the greatest threat to human
societies and life on earth and the greatest challenge facing those
in power at all levels: international, national, regional and
local.
This priority is reflected in, for example, the government’s
sustainable development strategy, ‘Securing the Future’, the
government’s energy white paper and the local government white
paper.
The emerging Regional Spatial Strategy similarly highlights the
importance of tackling climate change and will set a number of key
targets for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions across
the region.
It has been recognised that Bath & North East Somerset’s
work on environmental sustainability, which is very strong in the
area of domestic waste management, needs to be further developed to
tackle climate change and the shift that that requires to a low
carbon economy.
In December 2005, the Council declared its commitment to taking
action on climate change by signing the Nottingham Declaration on
Climate Change. Amongst other things, we are now committed to
developing plans ‘with our partners and local communities to
progressively address the causes and impacts of climate change’,
within two years – by December 2007. This includes a
commitment to achieving ‘a significant reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions from our own authority’s operations’. This means
putting sustainable energy at the heart of what we do at every
level.
In June 2005 the Local Government Association (LGA) published a
document called ‘Leading the way: how local authorities can meet
the challenge of climate change’. One of the key points it
makes is that tackling this issue cannot be done through piecemeal
action, but through ‘coordinated interventions’, a ‘council-wide
strategy’ and by using ‘a variety of management tools to deliver
it’.
The LGA also point out that taking action on climate change ‘can
lead to multiple benefits for local authorities and their
communities: improvements in health, community cohesion and quality
of life.’ To say nothing, of course, of the fact that using
energy and resources more efficiently will also help local
authorities to meet efficiency objectives relevant to the Gershon
agenda, the national sustainable procurement drive, the new CPA
requirements and the local need to create organisational
headroom.
What the Council can do
First and foremost, the Council needs to lead by example,
through getting its own house in order. Then, through service
delivery, infrastructure development and community leadership, it
needs to be facilitating action within the wider community.
Making action on climate change the key focus for our work means
doing everything we can to reduce fossil fuel energy consumption in
order to reduce carbon emissions, but it doesn’t mean that we only
need to work on ‘energy’.
Reducing Carbon emissions requires action across all four of the
following areas: Transport, food, buildings
& waste. It is obvious that energy is being used in
our buildings to provide heat, light and electrical power and in
transport to power vehicles. It is less obvious, perhaps,
that the production, processing and distribution of food take a
massive amount of energy, for example in ‘food miles’. The
production of waste is also a waste of the energy that produced
those things in the first place and the transportation energy
used. So, the Council’s existing Zero Waste strategy should
be seen as a key aspect of tackling climate change, as should
recent projects to shift to more local food sourcing for school
meals.
Putting climate change and sustainable energy at the heart of
the Council’s work on environmental sustainability provides a clear
focus and assists prioritisation for a potentially unwieldy
issue. But, because the use of energy permeates most of what
we do, it requires taking action very widely.
Setting Targets
In signing the Nottingham Declaration, the Council has made a
commitment to contributing towards the delivery of the UK climate
change programme. This has a long-term target of reducing CO2
emissions by 60% by 2050 over 1990 levels with real progress by
2020, and, until recently, had a short-term target of a 20%
reduction by 2010. This last figure has recently been reduced
to 15% -18% as the Government review revealed that there was little
chance of meeting this target. The Climate Change Bill is
expected to make the 60% target statutory.
The Council and the wider Local Strategic Partnership has a
ready-made target of a minimum 10% cut over current levels by 2009,
as a result of the Treasury funded LSP Energy Project
(06-09). This is a minimum target.
In addition, the Council has recently appointed an Energy
Manager who will be working with the Sustainability Manager to
develop a corporate energy action plan, which will recommend
achievable annual energy efficiency and CO2 reduction targets for
the Councils’ operational buildings.
The Planning, Transportation, Economy & Sustainability
Overview & Scrutiny Panel’s review of climate change (April –
October 2006) has recommended that the Council support the 60% by
2050 CO2 cut and develop performance indicators to monitor
implementation of this Strategic Framework, amongst other detailed
recommendations.
Strategic Framework
This Strategic Framework is designed to provide a simple
description of the key actions that the Council needs to be taking,
over time, in the four major areas outlined above, where energy is
used. It is, in a nutshell, the framework for the development
of a Council-wide sustainability action plan, with the need to act
on climate change at its heart.
The Strategic Framework has two parts: internal and
external. Internal covers the basic action the Council needs
to take to get its own house in order. External covers action that
will enable wider action on climate in the district, by our
partners and others in the community.
The tables below show the framework for internal and external
action within the four key areas of energy use explained above:
Buildings, Transport, Waste and Food. For each of these,
specific actions are suggested, some of which are already happening
or in development. This is intended as a guide or starting
point. Good practice already exists and this will be shared
across the Council. As development takes place, it may be
that better ideas emerge from services about how to reduce energy
consumption and carbon emissions from the Council’s operations.
Internal Strategic Framework:
|
Buildings |
Transport |
Waste |
Food |
|
Corporate Energy Action Plan -specific energy targets by
building and/or department/service) supported by Treasury funded
LSP Energy Project – behavioural change programme 06-09 – 10%
minimum cut in energy consumption in buildings |
Staff Travel Plan – further implementation
(linked to WorkSMART) – incentivising more sustainable transport
behaviour |
Continue to develop in-house recycling scheme and paper
use minimisation scheme |
Corporate catering – set targets for increasing purchase of
local & organic food (NB and Fair Trade, ref Council 2003
resolution) |
|
Sustainable Construction Policy – implementation by key services
(Major Projects, Property, Planning, Housing, Education)
|
Green Fleet plan – building on past action with development of
cleaner, low or zero carbon fuel strategy for Council
vehicles |
Service by service waste reduction targets: e.g. cutting use of
disposable products; water reduction targets; use of recycled
materials and products |
Service catering: exploit any remaining potential for
increasing provision of locally sourced and organic ingredients
(building on high existing standards for school
meals) |
|
Biomass Project – aim to find at least one Council building for
installation of wood burning heating boiler and develop
infrastructure to capture large local waste wood resource to
increase supply for carbon neutral heating |
|
|
|
A number of the above suggested actions would require
implementation by every department and service, i.e. those that
cover housekeeping issues like energy efficiency in the office and
recycling. Others are more service specific, such as the how
we manage our fleet of vehicles or catering services, for
example.
As a first step to incorporating environmental sustainability in
the performance management system, work is being undertaken to
support services in developing action plans in order to meet the
requirements of the Charter Mark accreditation process.
The Corporate Procurement Strategy is a key mechanism for
implementing environmental sustainability measures. A new
Sustainable Procurement Code was adopted as an appendix to the
Corporate Strategy in July 06. Implementation work is being
developed.
Strategic Framework – External:
|
Buildings |
Transport |
Waste |
Food |
|
LSP Energy Project – 06-09, energy efficiency and behavioural
change programme across all public and voluntary sector
organisations – 10% minimum energy reduction target |
Further development of transport plans, locally and in the
sub-region to facilitate modal shift from cars to reduce carbon
emissions. (NB Bath package of sub-regional LTP) |
Towards Zero Waste 2020, A Waste Strategy for Bath & North
East Somerset – targets for reduction of waste to landfill for 2005
- 2010 |
As part of the Council-funded Eco-schools project (run by
Envolve) build on the Food for Life work in schools on sustainable
food issues. |
|
An Exemplar Sustainable Building Project: Property Services,
Planning & Major Projects to identify/exploit opportunities for
sustainable construction (new build and refurbishment) and
sustainable community development (NB emerging RSS targets on
energy efficiency & renewable energy & sustainable
construction) |
LSP – All organisations to produce Sustainable Travel Plans –
continue support to school travel plan development (NB
Eco-schools project) |
Development of further waste minimisation projects in the
trade/business community, e.g. to reduce use of disposable
products; reduce packaging and other waste reduction or re-use
actions. |
Develop the Council’s role in supporting local food initiatives
in the area to increase the uptake of local food, public
accessibility, and public sector market access, e.g. through the
Bath Local Food (led by Envolve) group and support for Sustain’s
East Somerset project |
|
Planning to develop appropriate policy and guidance to
facilitate more sustainable buildings in the area and the
development of renewable energy projects |
|
Develop the Eco-teams concept in Bath and North East Somerset to
increase the number of communities participating in waste and
energy reduction schemes |
Develop role in sub-regional and regional local food
initiatives. |
|
Biomass heating project – designed to kick-start market for
biomass heating market through public sector installation,
provision of wood-chip store for waste wood from district (NB
potential LSP development opportunity)
|
|
|
|
|
Council to continue to tackle fuel poverty through HECA work and
projects that help vulnerable groups improve energy efficiency of
homes |
|
|
|
|
LSP – all organisations to develop Energy Action Plans to
deliver energy reduction targets |
|
|
|
|
Council to lead potential development of Energy Services Company
in partnership to create infrastructure for low carbon
economy |
|
|
|
At this stage of development, some of the above are ideas
intended to give a flavour of the sort of action you would expect
to see in a district-wide climate or sustainable energy action
plan. Others are already happening.
There are some ideas that could cut across all four of the key
action areas, such as working with schools to achieve Eco-schools
accreditation or developing the Eco-Teams type community engagement
initiatives across the district.
Relationship to Local Area Agreement
The sustainability theme of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) will
focus on the nationally defined outcomes within the Safer &
Stronger Communities block of ‘Tackling climate change through
reduced greenhouse gas emissions’ and ‘Reduced waste to landfill
and increased recycling’.
The work within the Strategic Framework above is relevant to
both these LAA headings. The sub-headings under which action
is being developed in the LAA mirror those in this Strategic
Framework. Projects under those sub-headings include the LSP
energy project (‘Our Big Energy Challenge’); a possible community
based Eco-teams project to support delivery of key waste recycling
and energy targets; local food projects; and further potential
energy projects to build on the existing LSP energy project, such
as increasing the uptake of biomass heating.
Relationship to the Future for Bath Vision (and beyond)
The Council’s environmental sustainability agenda and priorities
need to be embedded in the Future for Bath Vision during the
detailed development phase. Key issues that have been
identified are:
- that we want Bath to be an exemplar sustainable city;
- that, given the priority of tackling climate change, this means
taking the lead on sustainable energy and the development of a low
carbon economy in the same way that we have on recycling;
- that the development of an Energy Services Company, led by the
Council in partnership with the RDA and relevant commercial sector,
to facilitate the financing of sustainable energy infrastructure in
the district and make it easier for householders and businesses to
install or to gain access to more sustainable energy sources;
- that we want to encourage more local sourcing and production of
materials and food and thus help to diversify the economic base and
stimulate the rural economy;
- that we want to develop a sustainable transport, movement and
access strategy for Bath and the district;
- that a fresh and more sustainable approach to the area’s
tourism offer needs to be developed;
- that we need to develop local skills to help us to deliver all
of this, such as skills in sustainable construction methods, energy
efficiency measures and renewable energy systems
installation;-
- that we need to produce a clear definition of what a
‘sustainable community’ means in Bath & North East
Somerset.
Delivery
The Environmental Sustainability Framework Strategy described in
this paper is intended as a guiding framework. It is intended
that it will form the basis of work to develop actions that need to
be taken by all services to be incorporated in the Council’s
performance management systems, e.g. the balanced scorecard.
It is also intended that the detailed plans will be developed by
services through the service planning process. The Framework
will be used to work with services to identify areas for action and
negotiate service specific targets that contribute to the various
action plans outlined above. This approach is intended to
ensure that the action plans and targets are embedded in service
plans and monitored by corporate systems and that the Council’s
sustainability action plan is created by all parts of the Council,
guided and supported by the corporate sustainability team.
N.B. This strategy is designed to reduce carbon emissions,
in order to stabilise atmospheric carbon and prevent catastrophic
run-away climate change. This is known as mitigation
strategy. Local government also has a responsibility to
develop plans and take action to adapt to the unavoidable climate
change that has started and will take place no matter how fast
carbon emissions are brought under control. This inevitable
climate change is due to the time-lag between the emission of
carbon to the atmosphere and its impact on the climate. This
is called an adaptation strategy, which will need to be developed
separately. It includes issues like flood defence; changing
planting regimes; flash flooding; planning for hotter, drier
summers and colder, wetter winters in buildings and the public
realm.
