Already the council has taken steps to improve the energy efficiency of some of its buildings, using renewable energy (installing solar PV onto the tennis court roof of the St Johns sport centre), however the council understands that it needs to do more.
The council will focus first on improving their own operations and reducing their carbon footprint to reach the target of achieving net-zero by 2030.
Between 2018-2019 the council’s total carbon emissions came to 3473.4 tonnes of carbon (tCO2e), which is a 43% reduction in emissions produced in 2013-2014. This is a significant improvement, but progress will continue towards being carbon neutral by 2030.
To achieve this, target emissions from our own operations must significantly reduce year on year, following the ‘blue’ pathway in the graph below. The ‘red’ pathway shows the councils emissions produced under a ‘Business as usual’ scenario, i.e. if no changes were made at all:
What do we mean by our own operations?
Some amazing examples of putting this into practice are the changes being made to The Amelia building:
The 90 solar panels being installed will reduce the carbon footprint of the building by 12 tons of carbon annually during their 30-year life span – that’s an equivalent saving of 1,584 diesel car return journeys across the borough between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Cranbrook.
Buried beneath the buildings is a rainwater harvesting tank, holding 15,000 litres of water (that’s enough for 200 baths!) this will be used within the building to reduce mains water consumption.
A net gain in biodiversity will be achieved through the inclusion of the bird and bat boxes and an even an insect hotel.
The LED lighting throughout the building will make best use of power both day and night and contribute to lowering costs and the carbon footprint of the building.
