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Appendix C

 

 

 

 

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM LOCAL AUTHORITY OWN ESTATE AND OPERATIONS

 

 

 

JULY 2011

 

 

 

1.           Introduction

 

1.1    This is the first Green House Gas (GHG) emissions report from Maidstone Borough Council following the change to reporting requested by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in April 2011.

 

2.           Local Authority Information

 

2.2        Kent has a two tier council system and Kent County Council (KCC) covers the whole of Kent (except Medway) and Maidstone is one of the 12 district councils in Kent.

 

2.3        Maidstone Borough Council’s (MBC) office is located at Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME15 6JQ.

 

3.           Reporting Period

 

3.1    This report relates to the following reporting periods;

 

·           1st April 2009 to 31st March 2010; and,

·           1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011

 

4.           Approach

 

4.1    At the request of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) MBC has followed the Government’s ‘Guidance on how to measure and report you greenhouse gas emissions’ which was published by DECC and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in September 2009.

 

5.           Organisational Boundary

 

5.1    For the purposes of this report, MBC has included all the emissions sources which were previously included in its return to central Government. These sources were also all used (with the addition of water) when Maidstone Borough Council were part of the Local Authority Carbon Management Programme run by the Carbon Trust in 2010. This has been done in an attempt to make the new reporting method more meaningful and match more closely with the previously reported statistics, internal targets and Carbon Management Plan as a whole.

 

6.           Operational Scopes and GHG Emissions

 

6.1     Scope 1, 2 and significant Scope 3 emissions have been measured.

 

6.2    A summary of the GHG Emissions from 2009/10 and 2010/11 compared to the baseline from 2008/09 can be found in Table 1 below.

 

 

 

 

 

Table 1: Emissions Summary for 2009/10 and 2010/11

 

Emissions Summary

 

Year

2009/10 and 2010/11

 

 

 

 

Maidstone Borough Council - Carbon Footprint

GHG Emissions Data for Period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 and 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011

  

 

Tonnes CO2e

Tonnes CO2e

Base Line Year

2010/11

2009/10

2008/09

Scope 11

3,369

2,942

3,551

Scope 22

1,899

1,880

1,848

Scope 33

833

797

856

 

 

 

 

Outside of Scope (not included in gross emissions)4

34

9

7

 

Total Gross Emissions

6,101

5,619

6,255

 

Carbon Offsets / Green Tariff

0

0

0

 

Total Annual Net Emissions

6,101

5,619

6,255

 

 

 

 

1 Includes all natural gas use by Council owned buildings and those operated by the Council. Furthermore includes all emissions from owned or controlled vehicles including the Waste Collection Service and Park and Ride Service.

 

2 Includes the consumption of all purchased electricity associated with Council operations.

 

3 Includes all emissions associated with water supply, the transportation of purchased fuels (the Scope 3 emissions associated with Scope 1 emissions), employee business travel by non-owned means, electricity related activities (the Scope 3 emissions associated with the Scope 2 emissions) and the Scope 3 emissions associated with the Biomass Boiler

 

4 Accounts for the amount of CO2 emitted by the biomass when it is combusted, which will be equivalent to the CO2 absorbed in the growth of the biomass. This is not included in the Scopes as the CO2 would have been emitted anyway when the plants - from which the biomass is derived - decayed naturally at the end of their life.

 

 

6.3    A summary of the breakdown of emissions for both 2009/10 and 2010/11 can be found in Tables 2 and 3 below.

 

 

 

Table 2: Emissions Breakdown – 2009/10

 

 

Year

2009/10

 

GHG Emission 2009/10 tonnes CO2e

Scope 1

 

Fuel Consumption - Buildings

1,192

Owned / Controlled Transport

1,750

Total Scope 1

2,942

 

 

Scope 2

 

Purchased Electricity

1,880

Total Scope 2

1,880

 

 

Scope 3

 

Water Supply

7

Business Travel

94

Transport Emissions from Fuel Use

447

Transport Emissions from Biomass Boiler Use

0

Emissions associated production of Electricity

248

Total Scope 3

797

 

Table 3: Emissions Breakdown – 2010/11

 

Year

2010/11

 

GHG Emission 2010/11 tonnes CO2e

Scope 1

 

Fuel Consumption - Buildings

1,608

Owned / Controlled Transport

1,762

Total Scope 1

3,369

 

 

Scope 2

 

Purchased Electricity

1,899

Total Scope 2

1,899

 

 

Scope 3

 

Water Supply

7

Business Travel

85

Transport Emissions from Fuel Use

490

Transport Emissions from Biomass Boiler Use

2

Emissions associated production of Electricity

250

Total Scope 3

833

7.           Change in Emissions

 

7.1    Between 2008/09 and 2009/10 it can be seen that the emissions reduced quite significantly. This was predominately due to the fact that Maidstone Leisure Centre was partially closed for refurbishment during a large part of 2009/10 and was operating a much reduced service. Significant reductions were also seen in the emissions from the waste collection service and the Maidstone Borough Council Services fleet.

 

7.2    However, between 2009/10 and 2010/11, the emissions increased. Although in some cases this was expected, for example with a return to normal service at the Maidstone Leisure Centre, the total increase was higher than expected. Large increases in the emissions related to fuel usage at some of the main buildings including Maidstone House, The Hazlitt Arts Centre and Vinters Park Crematorium were the predominant cause of this increase. It is thought that the severe winter experienced had a significant impact on the fuel usage at a number of the buildings which caused the increase in GHG emissions seen. The reasons for the increase are currently being investigated.

 

8.           Baseline Year

 

8.1    The baseline year is 2008/09. This was used as it aligns with the baseline for the Council’s Carbon Management Plan; 2008/09 represents a year of full building usage and the data collected for that year is deemed to be more robust than for previous years.

 

9.           Targets

 

9.1    As stated in the Carbon Management Plan, the Council’s target is to reduce our CO2e emissions from its activities by 20% from a 2008/09 baseline by March 2015. The MBC Carbon Management Plan outlines how it intends to both reduce carbon emissions by 20% over the prescribed period but also embed carbon management across the whole organisation.

 

9.2    These targets were calculated based on different methodology to that used to calculate the GHG Emissions in this report. These targets have been superimposed onto this methodology and the Council’s progress against its internal targets is shown in both Table 4 and Graph 1 below.

 

Table 4: Comparison with Targets

 

Year

Target GHG Emissions

Actual Gross GHG Emissions

2008/09

6,255

6,255

2009/10

6,026

5,619

2010/11

5,806

6,101

 

 

 

 

 

Graph 1: Progress against Targets

 

 

9.3    The emissions in 2009/10 were 6.76% below the designated target for that year. However, the increase in emissions experienced in 2010/11 means that the Council was 5.08% over the stipulated target for that year. The reasons for the increase are currently being established with a view to identifying actions that will help to achieve the reduction in future years.