The Green Masterplan is a multi-year programme running until 2050 to ensure that we meet the national carbon reduction targets.
In the first phase the following initial projects will be developed:
- Reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent – our Carbon Management Plan outlines a series of projects to be delivered up to 2023, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5,700 tonnes.
- LED streetlights – a project is already underway to install low energy LED lamps in streetlights around the county. The project is funded through the Salix Fund and will reduce carbon emissions, electricity costs and maintenance costs. It is expected to be completed by 2024.
- Heat decarbonisation plan – delivering low carbon heat to our buildings will be a key part of achieving the zero carbon target. We will look to develop projects to take advantage of several funding opportunities to install these systems.
- Assessment of buildings for solar panels – the cost of solar panels is falling rapidly and could soon provide electricity at a very low cost. Each of the council's buildings will be systematically assessed for the suitability to install additional solar panels.
- Creating a sustainability decision-making tool – a simple checklist of considerations to ensure that sustainability is taken into account in major decisions.
- Electric vehicles – we will look for opportunities to use demonstration electric vehicles to better understand issues around their operation in a large rural county.
- Smarter Working – we've developed a smarter working programme to take advantage of improvements in digital connectivity. This will lead to the more effective use of buildings and reductions in business mileage. The energy savings generated from the programme will be monitored and recorded.
- Climate Change Risk Assessment – the national risk assessment on climate change is being updated for 2022. We will update our own risk assessment alongside the national programme and look at climate change adaptation and resilience.