Working in partnership
Developing water catchments' resilience
As the climate changes we are facing some considerable challenges in managing water. We can have too much of it during flooding events or not enough during times of drought.
The resilience project is a partnership between Lincolnshire County Council, Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board and the Environment Agency. It is designed to support 20 businesses to reduce their risk of flooding as well as improve the conservation status of some of our fenland habitats.
Ultimately by better understanding water distribution we should reduce the need to move water around.
Moving water around is both costly and has a high carbon footprint, so the less we need to do it the better for the environment.
Recycling
In 2019 the County Council, together with Boston Borough Council, North Kesteven District Council and South Holland District Council, introduced a separate paper and card collection from over 7,500 homes in the county.
The paper collected goes direct to a local processor in Norfolk and reprocessed into paper for newspapers.
Not only does this project reduce lorry miles and subsequent carbon emissions, it creates a product which can be reused multiple times.
From the 12 months trial, we found 96 percent of residents actively took part and put their separate bins or bags out with a quality level of over 98 percent. In total, 444 tonnes were collected; the equivalent of 1.35kg per household per week.
This is set to be rolled out across the county starting Spring 2021.
Sustainability Officers Working Group
In March 2020, Lincolnshire's council leaders approved the formation of a Lincolnshire wide sustainability officers working group.
Sustainability representatives from each council are now meeting regularly to share information and identify areas of collaboration which should save money, time and effort.
The group is currently reviewing Lincolnshire wide carbon data and looking at ways to reduce emissions.