Lincolnshire County Council leadership
We have established an environment programme board that oversees the strategic direction for council activity and is accountable for reporting on our carbon emissions.
The sustainability team takes on the coordinating and reporting role at the council and will advise services about how they can respond to climate change impacts and bring their service activities to zero-carbon emissions.
Key parts of the organisational scope of the Green Masterplan will be led by separate delivery groups. These will include but are not limited to, the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, the corporate transformation programme board, corporate property services, IMT and HR.
At a Lincolnshire local authority level, with all district councils and the county council coordinating the effort, the council leaders and chief executives group will provide the strategic overview. They have supported the recommendation to re-establish a countywide sustainability officers group.
This group will bring together the range of ambition and action happening across the county and find ways to work together to share workloads and financial contributions as much as possible.
There are already many delivery groups that have membership from variety of public sector partners. These continue to be a crucial way to deliver the ambitions of the Green Masterplan, including Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership, Central Lincolnshire Planning Group, Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Flood Risk and Water Management Partnership.
Street lighting upgrade
In 2018, Lincolnshire County Council started a six-year programme to replace over 25,000 old street lights with LED lights.
LED lights are hugely more efficient as not only does it reduce carbon emissions but also gives a better quality of light, requires less servicing and has a much longer life span.
It is expected that this project will save taxpayers over £407,000 and 1,057 tonnes of carbon.
As part of our carbon management plan, over the coming months and years we will be replacing all our streetlights with LED lights.
Low carbon Lincoln Castle
In September 2020, Lincoln Castle started working with local company Delta-Simons to explore ways to become a low carbon visitor attraction by 2030.
This involves understanding where their biggest environmental impacts are and some of the ways these could be addressed. Conversations with staff, volunteers and visitors hope to unearth some innovative ideas that can help with the transition to net-zero over time.
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.
Communities at work
Plastic Free Communities
Plastic Free Communities are popping up all over Lincolnshire. Currently there is a Plastic Free group in Caistor, Keelby, Lincoln, Horncastle, Mablethorpe, Sutton on Sea, Skegness, Grantham, Barrowby, Sleaford, Boston, Spalding and Stamford.
This is part of a campaign organised by Surfers Against Sewage that aims to eliminate single-use plastic from our communities and stop the tap of plastic ending up in rivers and seas.
The campaign works with businesses, community groups and householders to educate and offer more sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic locally. The groups are run by local leaders who are proud to volunteer in their communities to make a positive difference in their area.
If every community can act in a similar way, then globally we can make a huge impact.
Mint Lane Cafe
Mint Lane Café is a community kitchen that supports Lincoln residents with affordable hot lunches that have been made from supermarket surplus stock.
They offer friendship through food and encourage customers to sit and chat with new people while they enjoy a home cooked lunch.
This community run project supports food waste by preventing edible food from becoming discarded and community wellbeing by providing a safe and friendly environment to have an affordable hot lunch four days a week.
They also have a small, but growing, shop selling dry, fresh and frozen products that customers can use at home. The University of Lincoln's agriculture campus supplies their fresh produce, and much of what is for sale in the shop is organic and plastic-free.
To find out more, visit the Mint Lane Cafe Facebook page and www.involvelincoln.org.uk.
Tree planting
In February 2020, a number of community groups planted over 2,000 trees at a former land fill site near Lincoln creating a new woodland for future generations.
If you are interested in getting involved or would like to find out more about grants available in your area visit: Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership, and Woodland Trust.