Case studies

Langport Town Council, in partnership with neighbouring Huish Episcopi Parish Council, set up an online climate forum in the autumn of 2020, to engage and swap climate adaptation ideas with more than 20 other parish councils that share the fragile ecology of the Somerset Levels.

In 2020 South Somerset District Council (SSDC) signed up to the call out by the Department for Transport (DfT) asking for councils to take part in their e-scooter trial for 12 months.

The climate implications toolkit is a qualitative self-assessment tool to help all council officers assess and improve the alignment of their projects, procurements, commissioning, and services with Hammersmith and Fulham's climate and ecology strategy. It also supports report authors to draft the climate implications section on decision and procurement strategy reports.

The London Borough of Sutton has adopted an ambitious Environment Strategy and Climate Emergency Response Plan. Supported by the council’s Transformation Programme, they are taking action to increase domestic retrofit, develop a zero carbon technical standards guide for all council led developments, and prevent the physical impacts of climate change through increasing access to green spaces.

Waltham Forest Council retrofitted sheltered housing schemes by developing a solar-powered system that could generate and store enough electricity to power the lifts and LED lighting in communal areas, both day and night.

Leeds’ Fleet Replacement programme is designed to identify the lowest emission vehicle available when needing to be replaced. Where possible, this means electric vehicles (EVs) as the default option, however this requires appropriate charging point facilities to support this change. When vehicles are identified as suitable for EV replacement, details of their depot locations are mapped and collated and they’re then replaced, however this was not always straightforward as this case study by Leeds City Council and the Energy Saving Trust explains.

Leeds City Council and its network partners Vital Energi have delivered a £49 million network of insulated underground pipes, supplying 15,400 megawatt-hours of heating last year, helping to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by more than 2,000 tonnes. The heat and hot water used in the system is produced from non-recyclable waste at the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility (RERF), creating a reliable and affordable lower carbon alternative to traditional fossil fuel powered heating systems for connected buildings.

In order to raise awareness through the community of Leicester, the city council intend to use the Carbon Literacy Project as a way of accrediting university students and school staff to become carbon literate trainers who will deliver training to school students within the city.

Santander Cycles Leicester is a new public ebike share system for the city, owned by Leicester City Council, delivered by Ride On and supported by the Department for Transport and Santander UK. Leicester specific businesses also support the scheme as a socially inclusive, affordable, easy to use and zero emission option for active travel.

Leicestershire County Council is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The Council set up the Midlands Energy Performance Contract and appointed Veolia as delivery partner to deliver energy and carbon savings projects: roof solar PV installations, solar carports, LED lighting, controls upgrades, battery storage, EV charging