Everyone needs to take responsibility for the
environment – and that includes us!
Climate change mitigation
- The Environment Thematic Group (ETG) of the
West Lancashire Local Strategic Partnership, is actively working to
implement the ETG action plan and work towards delivery of the
Sustainable Community Strategy. Find out more about the
ETG's priorities (external link).
- We are also members of the Lancashire Climate
Change Partnership and are committed to helping implement the
Lancashire Climate Change Strategy (external link) and
achieving its vision of a ‘low carbon and well adapted Lancashire
by 2020’. The strategy aims to reduce CO2 emissions in Lancashire
by at least 30% by 2020.
Climate change adaption
We recognise the importance of adapting to the effects of
climate change. As part of this process we are working in
partnership with Lancashire County Council to identify
services and public sector organisations likely to be affected.
We've undertaken a Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) to
identify the vulnerabilities of our services to climate change and
assess future risks associated with different weather events. We
are now progressing this work and carrying out comprehensive risk
assessments to identify priority risks and determine the most
appropriate adaptation responses.
We also…
- Encourage our staff to car share
- We have a dedicated team of Energy Champions working to reduce
our environmental impact
- Run a corporate environmental campaign called ‘Climate Wise
West Lancashire’ to remind staff to be energy and resource
efficient
- Have plastic, can, glass and paper recycling bins in
offices
Carbon Footprinting
The Council monitors and records the carbon
footprint of our operations on an annual basis against the
2006/2007 baseline identified in our Climate Change Strategy.
Our carbon footprint is calculated in line
with guidance published by the Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC), guidance on how to measure and report your carbon
footprint. This guidance is applicable to all organisations
and can be viewed by visiting the
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affair (external
link) website.
The footprint includes greenhouse gas
emissions associated with gas and electricity consumption in our
corporate and community buildings, our fleet fuel consumption and
the mileage workers do in their own vehicles on the Council’s
behalf.
Since 2006/07 the Council has reduced our
electricity consumption by 19%. Gas consumption has been
reduced 20% on the baseline. Overall we have reduced our emissions
18% on the baseline and are committed to working hard to meet our
25% target reduction by 2020.
The table below illustrates our progress so far and provides
emissions data in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
(CO2e) covering all greenhouse gas emissions.
|
West Lancashire
Corporate Carbon Footprint
|
|
GHG emission data
for period 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012
|
|
|
Tonnes of
CO2e
|
|
|
2011/12
|
2010/11 |
2009/10
|
Base year
2006/07
|
|
Scope 1
|
1732
|
1911 |
1874
|
2015
|
|
Scope 2
|
1005
|
1003 |
1041
|
1263
|
|
Scope 3
|
97
|
113 |
123
|
157
|
|
Total gross emissions
|
2834
|
3027 |
3038
|
3435
|
|
Carbon offsets*
|
|
|
Green tariff
|
|
|
Total annual net
emissions
|
2834
|
3027 |
3038
|
3435
|
* To date the Council has installed 16KW of
solar PV renewable technology on our corporate buildings. The
electricity generated during 2011/12 has been accounted for,
generated at zero emissions, in Scope 1. As the electricity
has been used on site, contributions to the grid and carbon
offsetting has been negligible.
Contact us
For further information, please contact:
Tina Iball, Environmental Strategy Officer
Tel: 01695 585197
Email: christina.iball@westlancs.gov.uk
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