Our Carbon Footprint.
South Staffordshire Council’s Own Estate
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report 2013/14
Summary
Presented below is a summary of South Staffordshire Council’s carbon dioxide emissions
or equivalents, recorded as tonnes of CO2 equivalents (tCO2e). This is 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, produced by the
Councils own estate and operations for the financial year, 2013/14. This is our Carbon
Footprint.
In the last year we have reduced our emissions by 19% from 2010/11
The Council are committed to reducing our emissions from our own estate
by setting a target to lower our emissions by 20%, from a 2010/11
baseline, over 5 years.
(This target does however include emissions from other operations not
reported in our greenhouse gas emissions report below but does not
include any outsourced operations which are included in this report.)
Figure 1: Summary of Council emissions in 2013/14
Scope 1
(Direct emissions)
Energy use causing direct
GHG emissions from
company owned vehicles
and gas usage
Scope 2
(Energy indirect)
Energy use causing
indirect emissions from
energy imports –
electricity usage
Scope 3
(other indirect)
Other indirect emissions
from employee travel,
outsourcing of operations
and off site waste
disposal
Total emissions
Increase/Savings
from previous year
2013/2014
Emissions
2012/2013
Emissions
2011/2012
Emissions
2010/2011
Emissions
(Baseline)
2009/2010
Emissions
DECC
NI185
224 tCO2e
= 11%
saving
253 tCO2e
= 8%
increase
235 tCO2e
= 7%
saving
252 tCO2e
= 3%
increase
245 tCO2
293 tCO2e
= 24%
saving
385 tCO2e
= 1%
increase
382 tCO2e
= 11%
saving
427 tCO2e
= 18%
increase
361 tCO2
= 7%
saving
50 tCO2e
= 4%
increase
926 tCO2e
= 1%
saving
937 tCO2e
= 7%
saving
1,009 tCO2e
= 10%
increase
917 tCO2
= 3%
increase
1,363 tCO2e
= 13%
saving
1,564 tCO2e
= 1%
increase
1,554 tCO2e
= 8%
saving
1,688 tCO2e
= 11%
increase
1,523 tCO2
Percentage carbon
emissions
increase/decrease
from 2010/2011
baseline
19%
reduction
in CO2e
emissions
Baseline
1. Company Information
South Staffordshire Council, Council Offices, Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, Staffordshire.
WV8 1PX.
2.
Reporting Period
1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.
3.
Change in Emissions from the last accounting period.
In 2013/2014 our total carbon emissions has decreased over the last year by
13% and from our baseline by 19%.
The decrease in emissions for 2013/14 from the previous year can be partly
attributed to a decrease in heating fuel usage both in electricity and gas due to
the drop in energy usage required for heating and cooling the building. However
it should be made clear that the savings can’t be attributed just to the weather
differences as in 2013/14 there was a drop in days requiring extra energy usage
by 14% due to the temperature, which has resulted in an overall carbon saving
of 13%. However in 2012/13 there was an increase in days by 27% which only
resulted in an increase in emissions of 1%.
Scope 1 overall emissions have decreased by 11%. This is mainly due to a decrease of
22% in natural gas usage at the Council Offices resulting from a drop in the length of cold
weather over the winter months in 2013/14 where the average yearly temperature was
2oC more than in 2012/13. This will have caused a decrease in heating demand fuelled by
gas. Also the valves and flanges in the main offices boiler house have been insulated.
In comparison emissions from the fuel consumption of our owned vehicles increased by
13% from the last financial year mainly as a result of an increase in the use of the hiab
needed to remove flytipping across the district. This is also due to the increased periods of
heavy rainfall in 2013/14 which caused soil runoff from local fields onto the highway as a
result of localised flooding resulting in extra usage of the road sweepers, together with the
red diesel used in the donkey engines.
Scope 2 overall emissions has significantly reduced from the previous year with a 24%
decrease. The electricity usage across the Council Offices, depot and Baggeridge Country
Park has decreased similarly. A proportion of this could be due to an decrease in length of
cold weather over the winter months. There was a decrease of 14% in days where fuel
and power requirements were above the average for the building due to temperature
requirements for heating and cooling from the previous year. The extra savings can be
put down to the installation of LED lighting and some changes being made as a result of
the review of the out of hours energy usage.
Overall all Scope 1 and 2 emissions has reduced in the overall percentage of total
emissions by 2%.
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The Scope 3 overall emissions has remained similar to the previous year only increasing
slightly by 4%. Emissions from the outsourced waste/recycling vehicles has decreased by
10% from the previous year. This is due to the replacement of most of the fleet with
newer and more efficient and reliable vehicles from the beginning of November.
Emissions from business mileage and employees rail travel has decreased by 6%.
The calculation of some of the emissions data, including that from the waste collected for
landfill at the Council Offices, has been improved. Carbon emissions data has therefore
been altered accordingly for 2011/2012 and 2010/2011 to enable comparison for this
report. Therefore the emissions data from this report for 2011/2012 and 2010/2011 will
differ from the preceding GHG emissions reports.
Display Energy Certificates
The purpose of Display Energy Certificates (DECs) is to raise public awareness of the
energy use at public buildings that have a floor area of over 10,000m2. DECs provide an
energy rating of the building from A to G, where A is very efficient and G is the least
efficient and are based on the amount of metered energy used by the building over a
period of 12 months. This assessment is done every July. The DEC is the Operational
Rating for a building, which is a measure of the energy used.
In July 2014 the Council Offices DEC rating increased to D(98) from E(126) in July 2013
(126 represents the comparative energy efficiency). This has increased from E(121) in
July 2012 and F(129) in July 2011. D(100) is the typical energy efficiency for this kind of
building.
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 available.
Currently the Council’s four Leisure Centres which are
managed and controlled by the district authority are not accounted for in this report as
they are not all separately metered and the buildings are owned by Staffordshire County
Council so emissions will be reported as part of their Carbon Footprint. However carbon
emissions from the Leisure Centres will be included in the Councils Local Indicator
reporting mechanism under our ‘Energy and Our Local Environment Framework, Cutting
Energy Wastage Plan, 2012 – 2017’.
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6.
Operational Scopes
Emission Sources
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
Tonnes CO2e
Emissions
2013/14
Tonnes CO2e
Emissions
2012/13
Tonnes CO2e
Emissions
2011/12
Tonnes CO2e
Emissions
2010/11
(Baseline)
Scope 1
Owned Transport
Gas Council
Building
Total
Scope 2
Electricity Depot
Electricity Council
Offices
Electricity
Baggeridge
Total
Scope 3
Business Mileage
Outsourced Waste
collection fleet
Waste & water
Total
Grand Total
88
78
90
107
175
253 = 15%
145
235 = 15%
145
252 = 15%
10.5
9
13
318.5
324
366
56
385 =25%
48
381 = 25%
48
427 = 25%
41
51
70
837
48
926 = 60%
1,564
830
56
937 = 60%
1,554
883
56
1,009 = 60%
1,688
137
224 = 16%
85
243
42
293 = 22%
39
756
50
845 = 62%
1,363
2010 onwards Source: SSC CMP baseline 20102011 v2 (slight adjustment to baseline data for waste emissions as above)
Defra ghg conversion factors 2010 http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/conversion-factors.htm)
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Figure 3: Calculations methods for each emissions source
Emissions Source
Scope 1
(Direct emissions)
Owned Transport,
Gas usage
Scope 2
(Energy indirect
emissions)
Buildings
Electricity Use
Scope 3
(Other indirect)
Business Mileage,
Waste & Water use
Scope 3
(Other indirect)
Outsourced waste
collection services
Data Collection Method
Owned transport includes fleet vehicles. Fuel use is recorded
individually. Also included are those vehicles hired for a particular
purpose.
This includes gas usage from the main Council Offices,
Wolverhampton Road, Codsall. Values on gas usage are taken
directly from the bills.
This includes electricity usage from the main Council Offices,
Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, the Council Depot, Lane Green
Road, Bilbrook and Baggeridge Country Park. Each is represented
individually. Currently the Leisure Centres are not accounted for
as they are not all separately metered and the buildings are
owned by Staffordshire County Council, so emissions will be
reported as part of their Carbon Footprint. Codsall Library’s usage
is also included as they are located in the Council building and
usage is not monitored separately, although this is a County
facility.
Values on electricity usage are taken directly from the bills.
Staff business travel mileage is from those trips recorded on
expenses. Information on rail warrants is also included.
Waste in this plan is that collected for landfill from the Council
Offices only as data is not available for other sources.
Water usage has been included from the Council Offices, Lane
Green Depot, Baggeridge Country Park and a small number of
public toilets where usage is taken directly from the bills.
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, kerbside
recycling and residual waste collection fleet vehicles fuel use is
recorded individually by the contractor. Also included are those
vehicles hired for a particular purpose.
The Council’s estate also includes several business units around the district. The energy
consumption from these buildings is not in our control so therefore has not been included
in this report at present.
Emissions data was calculated using the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Emissions Baseline Tool
for public sector organisations. A version containing the latest carbon conversion factors
was used to calculate these emissions. All of the above data can be inputted into the Tool
which automatically generates a CO2e result.
7.
Base Year
Data for 2009/2010 is from statistics released by DECC in July 2010. (Provisional
Statistics collected under National Indicator 185). To increase accuracy of the data a
decision was made to recalculate the Council’s baseline data using the financial year
2010/2011.
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8.
Targets
To help achieve the government’s target of reducing GHG emissions by 80% by 2050,
from a 1990 baseline, the Council have set an interim target of reducing our emissions
from our own estate by 20%, from a 2010/2011 baseline, over 5 years. This 20%
reduction target also includes emissions from the Council’s managed Leisure Centres
which is not included in the Council’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is because even
though the Leisure Centres are in our control they have shared usage and are located in
Staffordshire County Council buildings GHG emissions reports. To ensure against
duplication of these reported emissions we have not reported on these.
9.
Carbon Offsetting
South Staffordshire Council presently focuses on an absolute reduction in carbon
emissions rather than offsetting.
10.
Contacts and Review
Jackie Smith, Director of Environmental Services is responsible for the achievement of the
above target.
Please contact:
Amanda Munro
Environmental Services
South Staffordshire Council
01902 696315
a.munro@sstaffs.gov.uk
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