Herefordshire Council 2013/14 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions
Report
November 2014
Executive Summary
Herefordshire Council is committed to a six year 30% carbon reduction
target against its 2008/09 baseline. The above target has been adopted in
line with its corporate objective of creating and maintaining a successful
economy that embraces new ways of responding to changing resource
pressures.
Our carbon footprint in 2013/14 was 21,380 tonnes CO2e, which has
been emitted from energy and fuel usage from our direct and indirect
operations. This equates to a 22% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
reduction against our 2008/09 baseline as well as cumulative value at
stake cost savings of £6.7 million
HC 2013/14 emissions have reduced by 11% compared to the previous
year of 2012/13. This can be attributed to a reduction in all areas apart
from academies and contractors assets (both Scope 3); the winter of
2012/13 was also slightly warmer than average, which consisted of 2,241
degree days.
The above summary graph of HC emissions from 2008 to 2014 shows that
overall HC is about 3% below its emissions reduction target for 2013/14.
Further emissions reductions are predicted in 2014/15 and work is ongoing to identify projects that will mitigate the impact of future severe
winters as well as attempting to influence staff behaviour and reduce
transport emissions.
This report supersedes previous GHG reports published by Herefordshire
Council and includes amended, more accurate data that is now available.
Report Background
We have followed the Government’s guidance on how to measure and
report greenhouse gas emissions, available from:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13309-ghg-guidance0909011.pdf
This report includes GHG data for 2008/09 to 2013/14 financial years
(from 1st April to 31st March).
This report presents a detailed look at Herefordshire Council’s greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions for the 2013/14 financial year as well as a projected
emissions scenario for 2014/15. The Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Department for Energy and Climate Change
(DECC) GHG conversion factors and guidance (2013) has been used in
developing our 2013/14 GHG statement.
Herefordshire Council’s GHG emissions have been presented as tonnes
gross CO2 equivalent (CO2e). This encompasses emissions from the
Council’s direct and indirect energy and fuel usage (including schools),
major contractors (e.g. FCC), Academies and business mileage. Figure 1
shows the main types of emissions under each scope in the guidance,
while Table 1 shows the business or operational areas that make up the
scopes of our carbon footprint.
Figure 1: Emissions Scope break down for reporting
Table 1: Scope of Herefordshire Council’s GHG emissions
Scope 1

Natural Gas use
in HC buildings
and Schools

Burning oil, gas
oil and LPG
consumed within
HC buildings and
Schools

Petrol and diesel
consumed for
fleet transport
purposes
Scope 2

Electricity use in
HC buildings,
schools and
street lighting
Scope 3

Business mileage

Energy and fossil
fuel use by major
contractors,
academies and
other service
delivery partners

Major
contractors/servi
ce delivery
partner fleet and
business mileage
Herefordshire Council’s GHG Baseline
Herefordshire Council’s 2008/09 GHG baseline was originally calculated
using the National Indicator 185 (NI 185) spread sheet; this data has
been updated to reflect changes in the CO2e emissions factors as per the
amended Defra Guidance (2013) and also to incorporate improved data
quality. Our updated baseline is 27,278 tonnes CO2e.
Target
In 2010 Herefordshire Council set itself the ambitious target to reduce its
GHG emissions by 30% by April 2015, as set out in the HC Carbon
Management Plan (2010-15). A copy of the plan is available here:
http://beta.herefordshire.gov.uk/media/1255775/Herefordshire_Carbon_
Management_Plan.pdf. This equates to around 1,364 tCO2e per annum
and 8,183 tCO2e in total.
Progress and analysis
Table 2: Herefordshire Council’s GHG Emissions (tCO2e) 2008 to
2014
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Scope 1
6,600
6,106
5,858
5,182
5,811
4998
Scope 2
8,214
7,101
7,363
7,041
6,925
5,800
Scope 3
12,465
12,677
11,859
10,749
11,205
10,582
Total GHG
Emissions
27,278
25,884
25,080
22,972
23,941
21,380
Cumulative N/A
Tonnage
reduction
1,394
2,197
4,306
3,337
5,897
Percentage N/A
Reduction
5.11%
8.06%
15.79%
12.23%
21.62%
Target
reduction
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
N/A
Our 2013/14 carbon footprint was 21,380 tonnesCO2e and as can be seen
above in Table 2 and below in Figure 2, emissions have reduced following
the increase last year. The 2013/14 outturn represents nearly a 22% GHG
emissions reduction against our 2008/09 baseline, which puts us just over
3% below the emissions reduction target for 2013/14.
Figure 2: Herefordshire Council Emissions 2008-13 by Scope
There was a decrease in all three scope emissions this year. There was a
significant decrease in Scope 2 emissions this year with a reduction in
electricity in schools, HC buildings and street lighting.
Breaking CO2 emissions down further, decreases were seen in the
following areas when compared to 2012/13 levels:













Other operational assets (45%)
Leisure Centres (22%)
Town Halls and associated assets (22%)
Council Offices (15%)
School transport (15%)
Contractors Fleet (15%)
Street lighting (13%)
Community and Recreation Centres (11%)
Schools (10%)
Libraries, Museums and Courtyard (10%)
Business miles (10%)
Residential homes (3%)
Council fleet (1%)
Emissions increases were seen in the following areas (both Scope 3):
 Academies (26%)
 Contractors Assets (16%)
Figure 3: Midlands region degree day frequency 2008 to 2014
The degree day frequency in 2013/14 was only slightly less than the
average degree day frequency. Degree days are a product of the deficit
between the air temperature outside a building and a designated base
temperature (normally 15.5°C) combined with the number of days for
which heating is required, for more information visit
http://vesma.com/ddd/whatthey.htm.
Emissions Breakdown
Figure 4: HC GHG Emissions Percentage breakdown 2013/14
Figure 4 shows that the largest percentage of Herefordshire Council’s
emissions comes from Schools (19%), followed by 15% from Academies,
14% from Contractor’s fleet, 13% from Leisure Centres and 8% from
street lighting. This also highlights that a significant percentage of HC
emissions fall outside of the direct control of the authority i.e. in Scope 3,
which accounts for nearly 50% of total emissions. Emissions from the
seven largest areas over the last five years can be seen in Figure 5; this
shows that although emissions have broadly reduced between 2008 and
2014 there is one area (Academies) where they have increased in
2013/14 from 2012/13 levels.
Figure 5: Total GHG Emissions from the top seven emissions areas
2008-14
Cost of Carbon and Value at Stake
The Carbon Trust baseline tool has been used to calculate the cost of
carbon and the associated value at stake; Table 3 shows a breakdown of
business as usual costs as well as the estimated costs associated with
emissions and the savings and potential savings compared to the baseline
and the business as usual data. This latter figure is defined as the value
at stake.
Table 3: Herefordshire Council Estimated Emissions Costs and
Savings
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Business as
Usual Cost
£6.95m
£7.12m
£7.29m
£7.46m
£7.64m
£7.83m
Energy Costs
£3.52m
£3.44m
£3.39m
£3.11m
£3.17m
£2.91m
Transport
Costs
£3.43m
£3.24m
£2.99m
£2.74m
£2.8m
£2.37m
Total cost to
£6.95m
Herefordshire
Council
£6.68m
£6.38m
£5.85m
£5.97m
£5.28m
Financial VAS
Saving
£0
£457k
£906k
£1.4m
£1.8m
£2.2m
Cumulative
Value at Stake
Cost Saving
N/A
£457k
£1.36m
£2.71m
£4.5m
£6.7m
It can be seen in Table 3 that cumulative value at stake savings have
been made of £6.7 million to date and it is estimated that if Herefordshire
Council achieves its 30% emissions target a total of £9.4 million would be
achieved overall by April 2015. Figure 6 below provides a visual
representation of this.
Figure 6: Herefordshire Council Financial Value at Stake
Carbon Management Action Plan (CMAP) Progress and Future
projections
Table 4: CMAP Identified GHG emissions (tCO2e) savings 2013-16
by project type
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Halo Energy
68.29
17.49
Efficiency
Schools
16.09
Renewables
HC Renewables
11.00
7.90
545.00
Community
21.73
38.00
Renewables
School Route
Rationalisation
HC Energy
11.00
54.30
Efficiency
(Property)
Contractor Fleet 9.37
0.17
Improvements
HC Fleet
19.30
Improvements
HC Property
39.10
36.50
Rationalisation
Schools Energy
80.00
320.00
320.00
Programme
LED Street
400.00
266.00
861.00
Lighting
Using the projected savings from the CMAP in Table 4, future GHG
savings can be projected as per Figure 5. The 2013/14 projection has also
been weather adjusted using the last 5 years degree day data and
therefore as can be seen in Figure 5 if the predicted savings from the
CMAP are realised and winter temperatures return to a more normal level
then GHG emissions are projected to be better than the target level by
April 2014.
Figure 5: Herefordshire Council GHG Emissions 2008-2015 including
projected data from CMAP
Further emissions reductions are predicted in 2014/15 that will meet the
30% target by 2015 however work is on-going to identify further projects
that will mitigate the impact of future severe winters, for example
exploring renewable heating options, particularly in areas that are off the
gas grid. Influencing staff behaviour is also an area that we are keen to
focus on, as it is estimated that savings of 10% alone could be made in
many of our Scope 1 stationary emission (building) areas. There is also
scope for enhanced focus on transport emissions from business and
contractor fleet mileage.
Extended Target 2015-2020
Table 5: Cumulative projected savings from CMAP 2013 to 2016
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
Projected
Cumulative
reduction
(tCO2e)
5,897
6,612
8,448
Projected
Cumulative
%
reduction
21.62%
24.24%
30.97%
As can be seen in Table 5 the projected savings from the CMAP up to
2016 is c31%. It is therefore recommended that Herefordshire Council
adopt a target reduction of 40% by 2020, this well exceeds the County
and national targets of a 34% reduction by 2020 from 1990 levels.