Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Bristol City Council makes ‘reckless’ £9m investment into clean energy firm

08.04.19: Bristol City Council is to put a further £9m into its loss-making energy firm in a decision criticised as “reckless” and a “staggering waste of public money.” The council has already invested £27m into Br...

Milton Keynes Council in £1.75m settlement with contractor after recycling waste contamination

05.04.19: Milton Keynes Council has agreed a £1.75m legal settlement with its waste management contractor following a historic row over the contamination of its recycling waste. This follows claims that up to 25% of the council’s recyclin...

Clean growth collaboration for north west launched by local government and business leaders

15.03.19: A collection of local government, university, and business leaders have joined forces to secure £500m of ‘game-changing’ investment into the future of clean growth in the north west of England. Made up of council leaders a...

Swindon's solar-powered recycling centre saves council cash

11.03.19: Steve Cains, head of power solutions at Public Power Solutions, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Swindon Borough Council, describes the benefits of its latest innovative use of solar energy: to power a recycling plant. Local authorities have...

The Future of Energy for the Northern Powerhouse at EvoNorth

04.03.19: Throughout all of the various topics discussed across the two days of EvoNorth, there were two overarching themes which consistently cropped up: Brexit and climate change, arguably the two most disruptive challenges facing the country right now....

Plastic packaging tax and weekly food collections in plans for government overhaul of national waste system

18.02.19: The government has launched plans to overhaul the country’s waste system, with packaging producers potentially being required to cover the full cost of dealing with their waste and also facing a new tax for plastic packaging. A series...

Tees Valley wins bid to bring hydrogen vehicles and fuelling stations to region

06.02.19: Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) has announced its £1.3m bid to bring innovative hydrogen vehicles and refuelling stations has been approved by the government. The region will benefit from a fleet of hydrogen technology cars and...

Cuts of £82m approved at Surrey County Council as plans to close children’s centres move forward

06.02.19: Surrey County Council has approved cuts of £82m in its budget plans for 2019-20 which will see 31 children centres across the county close. Councillors approved the budget yesterday as Surrey leader Tim Oliver declared that “not...

Nottingham council unveils 2028 target to become UK’s first carbon neutral city

24.01.19: Nottingham City Council has committed to becoming the first ‘net-zero carbon’ city in the UK after setting the ambitious target of 2028 to go carbon neutral. The announcement comes as the city met its energy strategy target goal...

Nottingham council to rollout ultra-low energy homes using Dutch model to half energy bills

08.01.19: Nottingham has become the first city council to pioneer the “Energiesprong” initiative which has upgraded the energy efficiency of thousands of homes in the Netherlands and will aim to cut UK tenants’ energy bills by half. ...

Fracking: divest to invest

07.01.19: Deirdre Duff, divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth, takes a look at local authorities’ role in fracking. The fossil fuel industry has five times more fossil fuels than we can use if we are to prevent climate chaos. Despite th...

Greater Manchester councils to ban fracking as Burnham makes ‘radical’ statement

07.01.19: Leaders of the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester have set out plans to ban the practice the fracking across the region. Greater Manchester will effectively stop companies from extracting underground shale gas in the region, althoug...

Going electric: rolling out an EV charging network

02.01.19: Bridget Rosewell OBE, commissioner at the National Infrastructure Commission, argues that local authorities should be required to prepare for the growing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) with a government-backed roll-out of a fully visible...

Leeds sets out plan to become one of world’s first zero-carbon energy economies

17.12.18: Leeds City Region is aiming to become one of the world’s first zero-carbon regions as it sets out a new energy strategy to meet the Paris Climate Agreement and provide a boost to the region’s economy. West Yorkshire Combined Aut...

Bristol City Council declares ‘climate emergency’ and backs total carbon neutrality by 2030

15.11.18: Bristol City Council has declared a “climate emergency” and has unanimously backed a commitment to make the city carbon neutral by 2030. In its latest Full Council meeting, Green councillor Carla Denyer put forward the motion to...