It’s Our World: Kirklees Council wins ‘gold’ Environment Agency award

KIRKLEES Council has won a top award for its efforts to reduce its carbon emissions.

And the authority has vowed to carry on the good work.

They will look at many examples of where energy costs can be reduced, such as street lighting, heating public buildings and use of water.

The council has been awarded the Gold Carbon Saver Standard (CSS) for its schemes aimed at reducing climate change by minimising its CO2 output.

The government’s Environment Agency awards the CSS to organisations which can prove how they have reduced their carbon emissions over three years.

To qualify organisations must show how they have measured, managed and reduced their carbon emissions and demonstrate their commitment to cutting them each year.

Winning the Gold CSS will help Kirklees improve its place on the Environment Agency’s pollution league tables which will be published in autumn.

Last year, Kirklees finished 168 out of approximately 2,000 organisations which use more than 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year.

The result was the best of all local authorities in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Kirklees Council leader Mehboob Khan said: “Kirklees Council has a long term goal to reduce carbon emissions from its own operations by 40% by 2020 from a 2005/6 baseline.

“The council is achieving results by addressing the key issues of energy use and fuel use including projects such as smart metering, energy efficient building refurbishments – such as the Walsh Building in Dewsbury – and upgraded street lighting.

“The estimated savings to the council by cutting carbon emissions were around £800,000 for 2010/11 plus 3% less CO2 emitted and this has come about by carefully managing the council’s buildings, fleet operations and street-lighting operations amongst others.

“We will continue to cut our emissions by using innovative measures.

“These will include things such as upgrading street lights, making buildings more energy efficient by using double glazing, insulation, heating controls, as well as water reduction measures such as push taps and urinal controls”.