Your Conservative-run county council believes in ACTION not words on the Environment
The Declaration of a climate emergency was, for us, a clear statement of intent to reduce our CO2e emissions and to do our part in cleaning up our own services as well as influencing the businesses that we work with.
Lead Member for the Environment, Nick Bennett, says:
For my part, I will bring my experience of working with many local authorities in the UK and Europe to offer value where I can, to our own and others' plans, to tackle one of the greatest challenges that we face, and one which will be a lasting challenge for generations to come
Conservative-run East Sussex have...
- Committed the County Council to a net zero carbon footprint by 2050
- Set an ambitious target of 13% per annum county council emissions reductions
- Allocated in excess of £6 million over the last year to address Climate Change
- Put solar panels on our own buildings
- Introduced clean energy to power LED street furniture, lights and public buildings
- Replaced oil burning boilers with heat pumps in some of our oldest schools
- Delivered household waste recycling generation, powering 25,000 homes
- Actively recycled and composted 103,000 tonnes of green waste per annum
- Supported local renewable electricity generation projects
- Delivered walking and cycling infrastructure
- Promoted wildflower verges schemes
Our recent £6 million initiative to decarbonise the county council's estate has already identified £3.8 million in projects which we estimate in 2022/23 will deliver a further reduction of about 305 tonnes of CO2e, or around 3% of our total, scope 1 and 2 emissions. These projects include: 12 solar PV schemes delivered this year that will reduce emissions by around 185 tonnes CO2e; low energy lighting schemes in 3 schools during 2022/23 delivering an estimated 70 tonne CO2e reduction; and heat pumps and building fabric improvements in Ninfield and Herstmonceux schools which will reduce emissions by around 50 tonnes CO2e.
CARING FOR AND ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENT
We work with the Environment Agency, utility companies, land managers and planners as we rollout our Environment Plan to improve air and water quality, reduce carbon emissions, and move away from fossil fuels as we already have with our street lighting and all our buildings’ energy.
Your Conservative-run county council will...
- Continue to reduce our annual carbon emissions until we achieve net-zero, aiming to complete this by 2050 if not before
- Model our emissions to identify schemes that will deliver the best carbon and costs savings to the council
- Seek out the most effective ways to protect our County's environment and ecology
- Work with local partners to find more ways to reduce food waste and to recycle waste
- Use our procurement process to encourage lower emissions and waste among our partners and suppliers
- Coordinate and support the rollout of electric vehicles in our own fleet
- Further support the growth of local renewable electricity generation, such as solar and offshore wind
- Deliver more walking and cycling infrastructure schemes
- Use our government Bus Service Improvement Programme funds to support more bus services and greater local connectivity
- Continue to promote a High Speed Rail connection to Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne, as a critical part of improving our local economy's decarbonised transport infrastructure
- Work as the lead authority on Transport for the South East to plan and support the rollout of electric vehicle infrastructure
- Collaborate with District and Borough authorities to promote a joined up local EV charging plan
- Work with Universities and other local authorities via the Net-zero Innovation Programme to find the most effective ways to reduce emissions
- Engage with Southern Water to deliver the cleaner, more sustainable, water and sewage system that we all want to see, while alleviating water stress in the context of housing development
