Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report,

Transcription

1 Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, Introduction and Approach This report gives the annual summary of emissions of the greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from East Sussex County Council s (ESCC) estate and transport operations and follows the guidance laid down by the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on how we should measure and report on these emissions. 2.0 CO 2 Emissions Table 1 below presents a summary breakdown of CO 2 (t CO 2 e) emissions since 2008/09, for more information on what these figures include please see Section / / / / / /14 Scope 1 Emissions 14,184 14,627 11,346 12,709 13,657 13,191 Scope 2 Emissions 25,464 24,995 26,205 23,515 21,495 21,737 Scope 3 Emissions 2,567 2,645 2,594 2,517 2,300 2,131 TOTAL GROSS EMISSIONS 42,215 42,266 40,145 38,741 37,452 37,059 Table 1 ESCC CO 2 emissions summary between 2008/09 and 2013/14, in t CO 2 e. Scope 1 relates to emissions from activities directly owned or controlled by ESCC, which release emissions directly into the atmosphere, such as combustion of fossil fuels in heating and in owned transport. Scope 2 refers to those indirect emissions associated with purchased electricity, where CO 2 is released into the atmosphere at points of source which we do not own or control. Scope 3 emissions are other indirect emissions which are a consequence of our actions, but we do not own or control and are not included in scope 2, business travel in hired or personal vehicles for example. Chart 1 on the following page gives a more visual summary of the above figures. 1

2 ESCC CO2 Emissions 2008/09 to 2013/14 45, , , CO2 Emissions (t CO2e) 30, , , , Businesss Travel Purchased Electricity Owned Transport Light Oil, Kerosene and Propane Consumption Gas Consumption 10, , Reporting Year Chart 1 ESCC CO 2 emissions summary between 2008/09 and 2013/14, in t CO2e. 2

3 2.1 Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is in place to promote improvements in energy efficiency and so drive reductions in CO 2 emissions from large public and private organisations which, combined, are responsible for about 10% of national greenhouse gas emissions. As a large public sector organisation, ESCC has to buy credits for every tonne of carbon that we emit; however, following a change in the qualifying criteria, the 2013/14 reporting year is the last year that we have to participate. We have just purchased our credits for this final period, which totalled 28,883 credits at a cost of 346, Other and Supporting Information 3.1 Organisation Information For information on the services that ESCC provides and is responsible for delivering and how we are organised and managed, please refer to our website. 3.2 Reporting Period This report covers the period from 1 st April 2008 (as the start of our baseline year) to 31 st March 2014 (as the end of the most recent reporting year). 2008/09 was originally chosen as our base year as it was used for previous national indicator, NI Organisational Boundary We are defining our organisational boundary via the equity share approach. The reason for this is that, although we have 100% equity in the majority of our estate, there are some cases whereby we are not in full control of operations, for example those controlled by third party leisure companies, but still within buildings that we own. Adjustments have been made to these figures during the calculation phase, to take account of what portion we are responsible for. This is the same methodology we used in our CRC submission, so is viewed as a suitable approach here, also. 3.4 Geographical Boundary All of ESCC s operations are carried out within the UK. 3.5 Operational Boundary Table 2 on the following page shows what we have included and excluded from our reporting in 2013/14. We have used the 2013 conversion factors, published by DEFRA, available here. 3

4 Emissions Included (t CO2e) Explanation Scope 1 Gas Consumption 10,252 All natural gas used in ESCC buildings or those which we occupy to which ESCC is the counter party to the energy bill, including schools, properties closed and sold in and our portion of shared use. Light Oil, Kerosene and Propane Consumption 2,424 All light oil, kerosene and propane used in ESCC buildings or those which we occupy to which ESCC is the counter party to the energy bill, including schools, properties closed and sold in and our portion of shared use. Owned Transport 516 All core fleet owned and operated by ESCC. Process Emissions 0 Excluded as not applicable to ESCC activities. Fugitive Emissions 0 Excluded due to cost of data collection. Total Scope 1 13,191 Scope 2 Purchased Electricity 21,737 All purchased electricity used in ESCC buildings or those which we occupy to which ESCC is the counter party to the energy bill, including schools, properties closed and sold in and our portion of shared use. Including street lighting and traffic signals. Total Scope 2 21,737 Scope 3 Business Travel 2,131 All mileage claimed in private or leased vehicles, but excludes public transport and taxis, as below. Employee Commuting 0 Excluded due to lack of data accuracy. Waste Disposal 0 Excluded due to lack of data accuracy, though we will endeavour to try to include this in future editions of this report. Product in Use 0 Excluded due to cost of data collection. Supply Chain 0 Excluded due to cost of data collection and lack of data available from many vendors. Total Scope 3 2,131 GRAND TOTAL 37,059 Table 2 Operational scope for emissions reported in 2013/14. 4

5 3.6 Our Goals Our target is to reduce CO 2 emissions by 3% per annum against the previous year s carbon footprint as reported under our CRC carbon footprint. The overall goal of this yearly target is a total reduction in emissions, from a baseline year of 2009/10, of 80% by 2050 to mirror the national target. Our goal is embedded in Principle 3 of our Corporate Property Asset Plan (available here) and contributes to one of the Council s four priorities: making best use of our resources. We do this through carrying out a number of efficiency improvements each year and promoting good energy housekeeping and awareness. 3.7 Alterations to Previous Figures This year we made an adjustment to previously reported CO 2 emissions from purchased electricity; this change was made based on the guidance given by DEFRA following an adjustment to the calculation method for the conversion factor for purchased grid electricity. This change included an adjustment to our base year figure. Also, this year we have included emissions from the traffic signal and street furniture portion of our unmetered street lighting supply; these have been retrospectively added into the figures for previous years, to make the overall data more accurate. This change didn t cause further adjustment to our base year, as these items were included at that time, but were then omitted from subsequent years based on guidance at that time. This year we have also added in our portion of energy consumption at joint use properties. Due to a lack of historic data we haven t retrospectively applied this consumption, but will report on it from now onwards. 3.8 Intensity Measurement As recommended by the Carbon Trust, we divide our total emissions by our annual net revenue expenditure to give a carbon intensity measurement for comparison between years and other public sector organisations. With a net expenditure of 379.6m and emissions of 37,059 t CO 2 e in 2013/14 our intensity measurement for 2013/14 is 97.6, meaning this is a decrease on 2012/13, when we recorded As this intensity measure is subject to changes in cost rather than consumption, ESCC will look to review this measure to decide whether or not a more appropriate benchmark could be used in future editions of this report. Table 3 on the following page shows how our carbon intensity has changed over the last few years; we have made some slight corrections to the figures previously published in relation to our carbon intensity, the most up to date ones are shown below. These include slight corrections to budget figures and adjustments to the emissions as explained in Section

6 2008/ / / / / /14 Emissions (t CO2e) 42,215 42,266 40,145 38,741 37,452 37,059 Net Revenue Budget ( m) Carbon Intensity Change on Previous Year n/a Change on Base Year n/a Table 3 Carbon intensity summary, 2008/09 to 2013/ Carbon Offsets We haven t purchased carbon offsets, as it is not part of our policy to reduce our emissions in this manner Green Tariffs Although our focus remains on absolute reductions in energy consumption and, therefore, CO 2 emissions, our British Gas Business non half-hourly electricity contract is 100% green, as is our EDF Energy half-hourly electricity contract. Unmetered street lighting is supplied by EDF Energy and has been on a 100% green tariff since 1 st April Just because we buy green electricity, it doesn t mean that any additional renewable electricity is generated in the system, but rather we are allocated a portion of the renewable energy that suppliers are required to provide, hence its inclusion in this report Renewable Generation Some of our sites benefit from onsite renewable generation, in the form of solar thermal, solar photovoltaic and biomass boilers for example and these will continue to play an increasing and important role in years to come to help us reduce our CO 2 emissions further Limitations We have automatic meters installed across much of our estate and so this should allow us to report with significant accuracy on our CO 2 emissions. Street lighting consumption is unmetered and the local distribution network allocates our usage based on the information we submit to them on our street lighting stock. At this time, we do not hold any information on combusted biofuel as the purchasing of the fuel is delegated to the site in question and so we lack sufficient data to report; however, we will endeavour to gather this information and report on it in Out of Scope emissions in future editions of this report. We have made the best efforts to report on our emissions using the data we have available at this time and, although we are fairly confident in the quality of the data that we hold, there will always be scope for further improvement and adjustment in years to come and we will continue to look to achieve this. In producing this year s reports, we have noted improvements we wish to make in future to allow us to report in a more accurate and consistent way and we will endeavour to put these in place for future editions of this report and will carry out a review of this document in the year ahead. 6