Cleaner, Greener, and More Prosperous
With carbon reduction in the public sector being seen as both a moral and a business efficiency
imperative, Schneider Electric has helped Northamptonshire County Council achieve some
outstanding results in carbon reduction.
The Council takes a leadership role to help meet key challenges in addressing national climate
change and low carbon agendas, and towards its corporate objective for a ‘cleaner, greener, more
prosperous’ county.
They have initiated effective relationships with numerous public, private and non-profit sector partners
to secure their programme of engagement with stakeholders for the delivery of energy, carbon and
cost savings. Central to this is a systematic approach to provide all Council customers with access to
meaningful data, useful and usable information, support and financing.
Schneider Electric was asked by the Council to look at helping them with carbon management and
accounting. The remit was to look into three areas: maintenance of the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS);
administration of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC EES); and
improving energy efficiency in key Council buildings.
A Schneider Electric team conducted an audit of site information in the Council’s property portfolio.
They carried out a CRC EES Best Practice Review followed by a successful registration process for
the Council with the scheme, and then took control of all on-going scheme requirements on their
behalf. This data exercise enabled an in-depth analysis of the portfolio, the cumulative effect of which
lead to Schneider Electric assisting the Council to achieve the CTS.
Schneider Electric supported Northamptonshire throughout their CTS re-certification enabling them to
prove their continuous reduction of emissions and leading to them being re-certified after a further
reduction in carbon footprint by 8.3%. This is their second CTS certification.
Initially Northamptonshire was one of the 36 Councils that obtained CTS certification in 2010, and
became one of only 11 local authorities to successfully achieve recertification. Since then a team from
Schneider Electric has conducted energy audits of the Council’s major sites to assess energy
consumed and its use, with a view to improving efficiency at these sites.
Northamptonshire is the first local authority in the UK to help another (Northampton Borough Council)
achieve CTS certification.
Improved knowledge of Northamptonshire County Council’s property portfolio has:
 Improved energy efficiency;
 Improved CRC league table positioning;
 Reduced carbon footprint energy surveys undertaken on behalf of the Council to actively
reduce energy/carbon at a site level.
Other specific areas of carbon reduction work by the Council include:
Schools
Delivery of energy efficiency measures across the authority’s entire building stock has been achieved
through the effective management of their ‘invest to save’ Salix Recycling Fund. Salix Finance
recently commended the Council for its management of one of their top performing funds following a
rolling programme that has given access to surveys, monies and energy efficiency technology in over
190 schools.
The Council has joined European partners in the NWE INTERREG funded ZECOS project, to
introduce renewable energy technologies across their building stock and launched the UK’s first
carbon trading scheme exclusively for schools. The scheme has helped further reduce carbon
emissions, and significant energy and cost savings.
Communities
Helping members of the public reduce their energy consumption, including receipt of Department of
Health funding addressing fuel poverty through the Green Apple Award-winning initiative in
partnership with Northampton Borough Council.
The Council has also invested in a number of renewable energy demonstration projects, including the
operation of two electric vehicles and 11 solar PV installations on public buildings. The latter are
providing Feed-In Tariffs for use by Friends Groups of libraries.
Corporate Work
The Council has delivered energy and carbon management support and services to public sector
partners, including carbon management programmes, energy efficiency fund management and
strategic guidance on funding applications, including their work with Northampton Borough Council.
The Shared Enterprise Empowering Delivery (SEED) Project is a partnership project researching best
practice for organisations to improve sustainability. Co-funded by the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE) and The University of Northampton, the project aims to identify how
public and private organisations can improve sustainability efficiently by working together, and in ways
that save and generate money.
Through their innovative approach to energy and carbon management, they have achieved a £247k
budget surplus for the financial year 2011/12, demonstrating potential to become a viable commercial
enterprise. Steps are underway to transform the Energy and Carbon Management Team into an
energy services company (ESCo), and consolidate these highly successful energy efficiency
partnerships in order to establish a permanent revenue stream for the authority.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the level of
service offered to us by Schneider Electric.
They continue to provide us with a fullymanaged system to monitor, target, forecast
and audit our emissions, which has been
instrumental in our achieving double-digit CO2
reductions year after year, despite being the
biggest growth county in the UK.
“Schneider Electric expertise and knowledge
mean they aren’t reliant on us to deliver data
we can trust. Not only does this prove
extremely cost effective for the Council, but
also enables us to manage our assets in line
with our corporate objective towards a cleaner,
greener Northamptonshire.”
- Dr Darren Perry, Head of Energy & Carbon Management, Northamptonshire County Council