MOST SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION – LOCAL AUTHORITY
MVDC low carbon emissions
approach: • Reduce CO2
• Lead by example • Invest to save • Encourage best practice behaviour
working with our contractors to identify projects they can finance in order to spread the financial burden and encourage their commitment to our reduction target. In the first year of our Carbon Management Plan, we’ve achieved financial savings of over £45,000 by reducing the amount of energy used in our buildings. This is money that can better spent on providing and improving services to our residents.
WORKING WITH OUR PARTNERS For the last year we’ve been working in partnership with the Carbon Trust who have supported us in creating our low carbon vision and programme. Thanks to our close working relationship they have conducted energy audits of our major buildings and made recommendations we continue to implement. Our contractors are also major partners in achieving our carbon reduction target. From the start, we have sought their buy-in to our vision and involved them in identifying carbon reduction projects. In particular, Leisure Connection who run our Dorking Sports Centre have worked with us to install pool covers, variable speed drives and improve energy management, all of which will return excellent CO2
and financial
rewards. Together we have cut the energy consumption of our Dorking Sports Centre by 10% or 106 tonnes CO2
/year (that’s
equivalent to 26 Asian elephants!) and we have projects in the pipeline to reduce it further. Our waste collection contractors have also contributed to our carbon reduction plan by introducing more efficient vehicles and rerouting their collection rounds in order to reduce the fuel they consume.
EMBRACING INNOVATION AND TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS TO ACHIEVE OUR TARGET
Carbon reduction forms part of the decision-making and rationale behind many of our major projects and several of them have included technologies and solutions which will provide significant carbon reductions. Our IT team have replaced all the Council’s desk-top computers with thin client units which cut our electricity consumption from PC’s by 90%! This innovative project was presented to the Society of IT Management (SOCITM) at their conference on Green IT, recently featured on LocalGovTV and grabbed the attention of the Department of Education who are looking to follow suit. We have also completed a server virtualisation programme to reduce the number of servers we require to support our IT network, which is expected to
deliver a saving of 6.3 tonnes of CO2 /year.
Our Parks team have implemented our low carbon approach by installing a ground source heat pump in a new pavilion rather than a traditional fossil- fuelled heating system, while our Leisure team have integrated a Combined Heat and Power unit in our refurbished Leatherhead Leisure Centre. These projects are examples of how individuals and teams across the Council seek out and adopt new technologies that will cut our carbon footprint in the future. Our Carbon Management Team consists of staff from each of our Services who meet monthly to review progress on implementing our identified carbon reduction projects. Each team member is encouraged to bring new energy saving ideas to the group for consideration as well as to share our low carbon vision with their colleagues. They have been responsible for numerous carbon saving projects, including: voltage optimisation units; pool covers; variable speed drives; thin client computer technology; LED lights; motion sensors; multi- functional devices rather than individual printers; lower energy phones; and, improved air ventilation systems, along with many
other large and small projects. These ideas have been implemented or are under investigation.
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR As a result of our Carbon Management Programme, our carbon footprint has been on a downward trend for the last 18 months. In our first year we achieved a saving of 271 tonnes, that’s equivalent to 60 hot air balloons! This reduction was achieved mainly through winning the hearts and minds of our staff who’ve started to take ownership of our carbon footprint and made steps to reduce our energy use. This has ranged from office staff reminding each other to turn off their lights and computers when they leave in the evening to operational managers altering the settings on our heating and cooling systems to make them work more efficiently.
Our downward trend has steepened in our second year of implementation as a result of the investment we’ve made in our buildings and technology; we expect our carbon savings to be far greater in our second year than our first. For example, the electricity consumption in our entertainment venue has decreased by 37% since last year which represents a monthly saving of 6.8 tonnes of CO2
and
£3,800. In the first six months of 2011, we have saved 75 tonnes within this building alone compared to last year; that’s equivalent to taking 27 cars off the road for a year! This trend is repeated elsewhere in our building portfolio and we’re on track to achieve our 10:10 commitment for this year and continue towards our 35% reduction target by 2015. We have a strong track record on carbon reduction, a range of carbon reduction projects scheduled for the coming years and a team in place to ensure they happen. Together, we’ll reach our target and achieve our aim to lead residents and businesses by example to tackle climate change and reduce the carbon footprint of Mole Valley.
SUSTAINABLE FM AWARDS 2010
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