Case studies

The Cambridge Canopy Project – part of the Interreg 2 Seas ‘Nature Smart Cities’ project – seeks to grow Cambridge’s urban forest, increasing tree canopy cover from 17% to 19% by the 2050s.

Swale Borough Council will now save more than 30 tonnes of carbon every year with a fleet of nine new electric vehicles.

Norwich City Council notably became the first UK council to run a public reverse public solar auction in 2015, with businesses competing to buy clean power generated by rooftop solar arrays on residential and commercial properties. To date, it has installed more than 4,500 kW of solar capacity across the area, enabling homeowners and businesspeople to benefit from low group purchase prices.

Rowan House, the Council’s office headquarters, is undergoing a holistic transformation to be more sustainable post COVID-19. Office space is being rationalised and rented to partners, the building is being retrofitted with low carbon heating and ventilation systems and the travel plan is being revised to promote sustainable travel to work and for meetings.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team and residents of the Lancaster West Estate (LWE) are co-designing and delivering a refurbishment programme that will transform it into a model 21st century estate that is carbon-neutral by 2030.

Colchester eCargo bike library aims to break down barriers to the use of electric cargo (eCargo) bikes for deliveries instead of cars or vans. The Council got funding for 25 eCargo bikes and five electric trailers. 13 were given to 10 local organisations including Colchester Hospital and a new eCargo bike delivery service. Six are available for short term loans for local organisations, and the rest used by Council staff such as those in Neighbourhood services.

The climate implications toolkit is a qualitative self-assessment tool to help all council officers assess and improve the alignment of their projects, procurements, commissioning, and services with Hammersmith and Fulham's climate and ecology strategy. It also supports report authors to draft the climate implications section on decision and procurement strategy reports.

Hampshire County Council are working in partnership to deliver community projects on climate change, have set up an expert forum to engage with community groups and launched residential projects that will support efforts in reducing Hampshire-wide carbon emissions.

Warwickshire County Council has committed to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 and is supporting its communities to do the same by 2050 at the very latest. To overcome barriers to action and to enable communities to deliver their own local solutions, the council created a £1 million fund Community Climate Change Fund called Green Shoots.

The London Borough of Sutton has adopted an ambitious Environment Strategy and Climate Emergency Response Plan. Supported by the council’s Transformation Programme, they are taking action to increase domestic retrofit, develop a zero carbon technical standards guide for all council led developments, and prevent the physical impacts of climate change through increasing access to green spaces.