CHELTENHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL
Annual report on greenhouse gas emissions
Financial year 2010/11
This is the second emissions report produced by Cheltenham Borough Council using DEFRA’s ‘Guidance on how to measure and report your greenhouse gas emissions’.
Background
We published a Climate Change Strategy in 2005 and have been implementing measures to try and reduce carbon emissions from our activities since then. A carbon reduction group was formed in 2008 to coordinate these activities and comprises officers from across the council.
Emissions results for 2010/11
GHG emissions data for period 1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011(Kilos CO2e)
2010/11 / 2009/10 / Base year 2005/6
Scope 1 / 3,337,792 / 3,304,866 / 3,644,520
Scope 2 / 1,771,385 / 1,890,072 / 1,912,897
Scope 3 / 61,896 / 58,145 / Not collected
TOTAL GROSS EMISSIONS / 5,171,073 / 5,253,083 / 5,557,417
Carbon offsets / 0 / 0 / 0
Green tariffs / 0 / 0 / 0
INTENSITY MEASUREMENT:
‘Tonnes of CO2e per £m net revenue budget’ / 310 / 318 / 391
Organisation information
Address: Cheltenham Borough Council, Municipal Offices, Promenade, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 9SA.
Cheltenham Borough Council is the local authority for the Cheltenham district of Gloucestershire. We employ 536 full time equivalent staff and Cheltenham Borough Homes employs approximately 150 (figures at March 2011).
Reporting period
1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011.
Organisational boundary
The council owns a diverse range of properties. Our large sites include:
· Municipal offices
· Depot
· Leisure centre
· Crematorium
· Art gallery & museum
· Town Hall
· Pittville Pump Rooms
A number of these buildings are listed. In addition, we own a range of smaller sites including toilets, pavilions, car parks, fountains and other miscellaneous sites. We also own a number of smaller properties; several of these are leased out. Where tenants receive their bills direct from the energy supplier these properties are not included in this report.
The council’s housing stock is managed by an Arms Length Management Company, Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH). Where CBH operations are housed in council buildings their energy consumption is included in this report; where operations are housed in other buildings it is not. Fuel consumption by the CBH fleet is also included, although the council has no direct control over the size, use or efficiency of the fleet. With the exception of gas consumption from sheltered housing units, which are counted as part of CBH figures, emissions from housing stock are excluded.
Operational scopes
We have measured our scope 1 and 2 emissions and some significant scope 3 emissions. The scope 3 emissions we currently measure relate to business travel.
GHG emissions 2010/11 (kilos CO2e) / GHG emissions 2009/10 (kilos CO2e) / Percentage change & any specific exclusions / 2005/6 baselineScope 1
Council gas / 1,769,250 / 1,759,676 / +0.5% / 1,974,598
Council fleet diesel / 1,004,263 / 986,930 / +1.75% / 1,023,237
Council fleet petrol / 58,637 / 72,871 / -19.5% / 84,583
Council fleet gas oil / 18,121 / 14,100 / +28.5% / 13,381
Council LPG / 0 / 0 / 834
Fugitive emissions / ? / ? / Data awaited / Not known
CBH gas / 388,784 / 361,633 / +7.5% / 431,207
CBH fleet diesel / 84,651 / 93,675 / -9.7% / 101,108
CBH fleet petrol / 594 / 253 / +134% / 14,118
CBH LPG / 0 / 0 / 439
CBH gas oil / 0 / 0 / 1,015
Recharged gas / 13,492 / 15,728 / -14.2% / Not known
TOTAL SCOPE 1 / 3,337,793 / 3,304,866 / 3,644,520
Scope 2
Council electricity / 1,671,155 / 1,800,554 / -7.2% / 1,860,614
CBH electricity / 40,531 / 43,394 / -6.6% / 52,283
Recharged electricity / 59,699 / 46,124 / +29.4% / Not known
TOTAL SCOPE 2 / 1,771,385 / 1,890,072 / 1,912,897
Significant scope 3 – council business travel
Mileage claims / 59,474 / 53,736 / +10.7% / Not collected
Rail travel / 2,422 / 4,409 / -45% / Not collected
TOTAL SCOPE 3 / 61,896 / 58,145
We have used the published DEFRA emissions factors for 2011 for all 2010/11 calculations.
Change in emissions
Our overall reported emissions have decreased by 1.6% compared with our emissions in 2009/10. If we exclude CBH and recharged energy use, over which the council has no direct control, the decrease is 2.3%.
Emissions from gas consumption over which the council has direct control have increased by 0.5%; this may be attributable to the particularly cold winter. Emissions from the council’s fleet have increased by 0.6%; however, during this period, the recycling collection service was expanded to include plastic and cardboard.
Emissions from electricity have fallen by 7.2%. The council signed up to the 10:10 campaign for 2010/11 and ran a staff awareness programme through the year. We also installed voltage optimisation at our recreation centre as a trial during the last quarter of the financial year, which delivered savings. We also continued to rationalise space at the Depot, leasing further space to a third party. We now have four third parties leasing space at our Depot. We have excluded emissions from three of these third parties from our figures (exception is Cheltenham Borough Homes) because, although the space is rented under an operational lease, these activities are entirely independent from the council.
Our business mileage has increased, but this figure depends on the number of mileage claims made each year and so should be treated with caution. It could be that employees who did not previously claim mileage are now doing so, or it could be the result of an increase in shared services. The electronic system for rail bookings was withdrawn part way through the year so figures for rail travel may not be complete.
Base year
Our base year is 2005/6 but it does not include business travel.
Targets
We have a target to reduce our (carbon) emissions by 30% from 2005/6 levels by 2015. This target does not include emissions from Cheltenham Borough Homes or recharged energy use. We have reduced GHG emissions from our own energy use by 10.3% and from our fleet by 3.7% against the baseline year. Overall, excluding business travel, our emissions are down by 8.8% (7.6% if business travel is included).
Intensity measurement
We have chosen ‘Tonnes of CO2e per £m net revenue budget’. The net revenue budget represents our total net budget requirement, which then needs to be financed by council tax and government grants. This is the metric recommended for use by public sector organisations participating in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme. (Cheltenham Borough Council is not a participant in this scheme.)
In 2010/11 we produced 310 tonnes of CO2e per £million net revenue budget compared with 318 in 2009/10 and 391 in 2005/6.
Carbon offsets
We have not purchased any carbon credits.
Green tariffs
We purchase ‘good quality CHP’ for all our sites. This is climate change levy exempt, but does not contribute to reducing our GHG emissions.
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