MOST SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION – LOCAL AUTHORITY
Suffolk County Council WINNER
environmental and economic challenges facing us today. The programme of works being carried out is aimed at improving energy efficiency in our buildings and expanding the use of renewable technologies across the county.
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ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN EXISTING BUILDINGS
The energy consumed in public sector buildings across Suffolk costs in excess of £10m each year and has a resultant annual carbon footprint which exceeds 50,000 tonnes. Of this approximately 60% is attributable to schools, with large secondary schools accounting for the majority of that share. Suffolk County Council is committed to working across the public sector estate in Suffolk to improve energy efficiency and achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions; an objective which forms a substantial component within the Suffolk – Greenest County aspiration.
In order to facilitate this work, Suffolk County Council has developed a number of schemes which will provide the necessary capital to deliver energy efficiency improvement projects for schools where future energy savings are used as the method of capital repayment. We believe this innovative type of approach to funding energy efficiency work in schools will be fundamental to ensuring carbon reduction targets can still be met within the current economic climate.
Basic schemes are available to deploy energy efficient lighting and significant improvements in heating services. The first wave of these schemes began in summer 2010 and the work on order to date will deliver around 415 tonnes of CO2
tonnes of CO2
savings per annum. A further 500 savings are predicted by
the end of the first wave in March 2011. As well as making improvements to the actual buildings, a key component of the project is to ensure effective communications with schools to help them
14| SUSTAINABLE FM AWARDS 2010 Energy efficient lighting installation taking place at schools across Suffolk
reduce energy even further, through addressing occupant behaviour and monitoring energy usage. Working with British Gas, we have been able to secure an energy monitor display for every school in Suffolk wishing to take part. Through working with ‘Eco-champions’ within schools we are hoping to be able to bring the issue of energy use to the fore and encourage everyone to work together to reduce carbon emissions.
These basic lighting and heating schemes typically have a payback period of around 5 years, making them an attractive option in terms of both cost and carbon abatement. Working closely with our local offices and contractors we have set a process in place to identify potential schemes, making energy efficiency part of
business as usual. In order to ensure CO2 savings can be tracked there has been continued cross working within Suffolk County Council departments involving Corporate Property, Energy and Procurement, and the Environmental team and this continues with all work on carbon reduction, including current work on the feasibility of large scale PV installations. Alongside the initial basic lighting and heating schemes, other schemes will be introduced to address efficiency of building fabric and the introduction of renewable technologies such as PV panels, solar hot water, wind turbines and biomass boilers.
RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGIES Suffolk County Council already has a successful track record with PV, solar and wind turbine installations and in particular with biomass installations. Feasibility work
is currently being carried out into implementing large scale renewable installations, utilising the Feed in tariff and Renewable heat incentive.
Suffolk County Council recently won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy for their work in installing biomass in Suffolk schools and helping to set up a
Suffolk pupils on a visit to see the wood chipping process at Bentwaters Park; and below, checking the moisture content in the logs prior to chipping
uffolk County Council is driving forward carbon reduction in buildings, both new and existing, seeking out innovative, sustainable solutions to the
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