South Staffordshire Council’s Own Estate
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report 2010/11
Summary
Presented below is a summary of South Staffordshire Council’s carbon
dioxide emissions indicating the global warming potential of greenhouse
gas produced by the Councils own estate and operations for the financial
year, 2010/11.
Figure 1: Summary of Council emissions in 2010/11.
Scope 1
Owned
Transport
Scope 2
Own Buildings
energy use
Scope 3
Business travel
Outsourced
household
waste
collections
2010/2011
Emissions
2009/2010
Emissions
DECC Baseline
data
2008/2009
108 tonnes
CO2e¹ : 12%
increase pa
95 tCO2e : 4%
increase pa
91 tCO2e
523 tCO2e : 2%
increase pa
512 tCO2e :
4% saving pa
531 tCO2e
900 tCO2e : 3%
increase pa
869 tCO2e :
3% saving pa
893 tCO2e
1,475 tCO2e :
3% saving pa
1,515 tCO2e
Total emissions 1,531 tCO2e :
4% increase pa
1. Company Information
South Staffordshire Council, Council Offices, Wolverhampton Road,
Codsall, Staffordshire. WV8 1PX.
2.
Reporting Period
1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011.
3.
Change in Emissions
Due to the improved accuracy in the way we collect our energy emissions
data, the 2010/2011 emissions may not directly be comparable with the
2008/2009 baseline data and therefore the baseline statistics are to be
considered as a guide due to the change in how the emissions data is
calculated for 2010/2011.
Scope 1 emissions increase is due to the improvement in reporting of own
transport data with the inclusion of red diesel usage for the auxiliary
¹ Tonnes of CO2 equivalents (CO2e). A universal unit of measurement used to indicate the global warming potential
of greenhouse gas, expressed in terms of the global warming potential of one unit of carbon dioxide.
engine on the road sweeper for 2010/2011 emissions. The Council’s own
transport fuel usage, excluding red diesel, has actually decreased by 4%
from 2009/2010.
The increase in Scope 2 emissions can be partially attributed to a problem
with the Council Depot’s electricity time clock which resulted in a sharp
increase in usage in 2010/2011. This has now been addressed. The
Council Offices buildings energy use has actually been reduced by 2%
over the last year. This is not reflected in the CO2 emissions data due to
the change in how this data is calculated for 2010/2011 emissions.
The Scope 3 emissions increase between 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 is
probably due to a large amount of breakdowns of ageing waste collection
fleet and use of additional temporary hire vehicles resulting also in
temporary changes to collection routes. This has now been addressed by
the purchase of new vehicles. The decrease in emissions seen between
2008/2009 and 2090/2010 is due to the rerouting of some waste
collection routes for disposal.
4.
Approach
We have followed the Government’s guidance on how to measure and
report greenhouse gas emissions.
5.
Organisational Boundary
We have included everything we control, both financially and
organisationally where relevant data is obtainable.
6.
Operational Scopes
We have measured all relevant Scope 1 and 2 emissions, along with
significant Scope 3 emissions which we have data for (see Figure 2). A
method detailing how this data was collected is also given in Figure 3.
Figure 2: Emissions reported
Emissions Source
Owned Transport
Total Scope 1
Buildings: Depot
Buildings: Council
Offices
Total Scope 2
Business Mileage
Waste collection
² http://lanetwork.carbontrust.co.uk/
Tonnes CO2e
Emissions
2010/11
Scope
107.8
107.8
Scope
12.8
510.7
tCO2e
Emissions
2009/10
1
94.6
94.6
2
9.9
501.7
523.5
511.6
Significant Scope 3
69.7
85
830
784.2
tCO2e
Emissions
2008/09
91.5
91.5
13.4
517.3
530.7
81.7
811.1
fleet
Total Scope 3
Grand Total
899.7
1,531
869.2
1,475.4
892.8
1,515
Figure 3: Calculations methods for each emissions source
Emissions Source
Owned Transport
Buildings Energy
Use
Business Mileage
Outsourced waste
collection services.
Data Collection Method
Each of the fleet vehicles fuel use is recorded in a
spreadsheet individually. Also included are those
vehicles hired for a particular purpose.
This includes the main Council Offices,
Wolverhampton Road, Codsall and the Council
Depot, Lane Green Road, Bilbrook. Both are
represented individually. Currently the leisure
centres are not accounted for as they are not
separately metered. Codsall library is also included,
although this is a County facility.
Values on gas and electricity use for the Council
Offices building and Council Depot are taken directly
from the bills.
Staff business travel is from those trips recorded on
expenses. The use of public transport should also be
recorded, however not all of this is currently
recorded. Information on rail warrants is included.
As the Council has outsourced the
waste/recycling/composting collection service where
the Council has delegated the total arrangements in
relation to the function, these emissions are included
in Scope 3 emissions. The green waste and residual
waste collection fleet vehicles fuel use is recorded in
a spreadsheet individually by the contractor. Data
for the recycling collections is not available so the
green waste fleet data is used for this as it mirrors
these collections. Also included are those vehicles
hired for a particular purpose.
Emissions data were calculated using the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Emissions
Baseline Tool for public sector organisations. A new version containing
the latest carbon conversion factors was released in June 2011, and is
available from the Carbon Trust Local Authority Network² website. All of
the above data can be inputted into the Tool which automatically
generates a CO2e result.
7.
Base Year
Initially some baseline data was compiled for the LAA targets based on a
2005/6 baseline. This data is unreliable, and the decision was made not to
include them in our reporting scope. Therefore the baseline data used for
this report if for the financial year 2008/2009 released by DECC in July
2010. (Provisional Statistics collected under National Indicator 185 and
194).
² http://lanetwork.carbontrust.co.uk/
8.
Targets
Our overarching target is to reduce our GHG emissions by 80% by 2050,
from a 1990 baseline. We have also set an interim target of reducing our
emissions by 2% year on year.
Councillor Mrs Joan Williams, Cabinet Member Environmental Services and
Jackie Smith, Director of Environmental Services are responsible for the
achievement of the target.
9.
Carbon Offsetting
South Staffordshire Council presently focuses on an absolute reduction in
carbon emissions rather than offsetting.
² http://lanetwork.carbontrust.co.uk/