Nottingham City Council’s pioneering initiatives to transform the city into the UK’s most energy self-sufficient city were recognised at last night’s Regen Green Energy Awards.
The prestigious Green Energy Awards honour organisations who have shown innovation, dedication and creative ingenuity enabling the transformation to clean, smart and flexible energy. The City Council won the most proactive public sector organisation award.
The council has a long history of green energy innovations from setting up its low carbon district heating network in the 1970s – which uses the city’s waste to heat 5,000 homes in St Ann’s – to launching and delivering on its 2020 Sustainable Energy Strategy for the city.
Like all large organisations, local authorities are high energy consumers and account for a substantial part of a city’s energy usage. Nottingham City Council has been leading by example and has developed a sustainable approach to its operations. The City Council has developed and delivered a programme of work to generate green energy where they can and to install the latest technology to reduce their energy usage. Since 2005 the council has reduced CO2 emissions from its operations by 31%.
The council has also developed programmes to tackle both fuel poverty and CO2 emissions arising from the city’s housing stock. In partnership with Nottingham City Homes the council has delivered its Greener HousiNG external wall insulation programme reducing both emissions and energy bills for over 7,000 of the city’s hard-to-heat and most polluting homes. Their domestic solar programme, has enabled 4,000 households to become green energy producers and to benefit from free and green electricity.
Nottingham green’s energy journey will continue at pace, with the council’s leader Cllr Jon Collins this year signing the UK100 pledge to commit the city to 100% green energy by 2050.
The City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability, Councillor Dave Liversidge, said: “The public sector is making a real contribution to the decarbonisation of the UK’s energy sector; to be named as a leader here is a great recognition for the council.
“We are showing that it is possible to support the green agenda while still offering viable services. Many of our energy projects are also generating a substantial income for the council and helping to protect frontline services as well as making great strides in reducing the city’s carbon footprint.”
As well decarbonising their own operations Nottingham City Council supports other local authorities and businesses to help realise their own renewable energy ambitions. Project support and delivery of green energy infrastructure schemes, forms part of the Council’s commercial strategy, generating income for the council as well as ensuring green energy solutions are feasible for a variety of organisations.