Case studies

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.

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.

Lancashire County Council have invested in Low Carbon Street Lighting, through the county wide conversion of 152,000 streetlights to energy saving LEDs.

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.

Essex County Council led on this three-year, ERDF-funded project with nine other project partners across the France (Channel) England (FCE) region. BLUEPRINT will continue to help local authorities in England and France to connect the circular economy to sustainable and inclusive growth. The project created a toolkit for local authorities to use to transition to a circular economy, developed a circular economy training programme and engaged residents and businesses in circular economy practices.

SLDC, along with the University of Manchester, ran a competition for pupils of primary and secondary schools to design a poster about the climate emergency for bin lorries, to motivate communities to take action on climate change.