How County Council cut carbon emissions by 74%

The county council’s operational carbon emissions have reduced by 74.6%, when compared to the national 1990 baseline.

Operational carbon emissions include running our buildings, our vehicle fleet, and our fuel and energy usage. In real terms, we’ve cut our carbon emissions from over 55,000 tonnes per year, to around 14,000 tonnes per year.

The drastic reduction has been down to various factors, including changes to the way we work, such as:

• updating heating systems and upgrading insulation across our buildings;
• installing energy efficient LED lighting in our buildings, and in street lights and traffic lights;
• installing roof-mounted solar panels on our buildings;
• improving the quality of household recycling and managing waste more effectively;
• re-using materials in road-building;
• switching to electric vehicles for our fleet where appropriate;
• embedding carbon management policies in our decision-making;
• ‘smarter working’ policies that reduce unnecessary staff travel, use our properties more efficiently, and reduce energy consumption.

Our Carbon Management Plan outlines how we cut our carbon emissions, and we are now onto the fourth iteration of this plan, which sets out how we will continue this good work.

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Cllr Colin Davie, executive councillor for environment at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We’re ahead of the government’s own targets when it comes to reducing our impact on the environment. And we’ve done that through consistent leadership and early interventions that have allowed us to reduce our carbon footprint without negatively impacting our services.

“We’re also leading the way for other organisations and businesses in Lincolnshire, by supporting the low-carbon economy and demonstrating  innovative and creative solutions to reducing carbon emissions.

“Crucially, these changes come with reduced costs for the council – lower energy bills, less transport costs, less water usage – and we’re not putting an extra burden on our residents for green policies.”

Cllr Martin Hill OBE, leader of Lincolnshire County Council, added: “We’ve made huge positive strides already in the way we operate as a council, to make us more energy efficient and reduce costs. I’m looking forward to continuing that good work across our services to achieve net zero by 2050.”

You can read more about Lincolnshire County Council’s Green Masterplan and Carbon Management Plans at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/greenmasterplan.