Our emissions
Contents
Emissions monitoring
We worked with the Carbon Trust to calculate our emissions in 2018/19. This is the base we will be working from to reduce our emissions to aim to be carbon neutral by 2030. These reports give greater detail on the breakdown of these emissions.
Council operational emissions report (PDF, 1.42MB)
Emissions modelling and indirect emissions report (PDF, 1.65MB)
The table below sets out the council’s emissions since the baseline year of 2018/19. This table will be updated annually to show our progress in reducing our emissions. We report on our emissions in terms of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
(tCO2e). All emissions have varying impacts on climate change (known as their global warming potential), but for simplicity, we equilibrate and report on our emissions in the terms of if they were all CO2 (as this is the predominant emission).
Find out more about global warming potential and carbon dioxide equivalent.
|
Emission source |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
2021/22 |
2022/23 |
2023/24 |
|
Scope 1 |
||||||
|
Gas consumption – tonnes of CO2e |
2884 |
2874 |
2334.54 |
2446.71 |
2674.86 |
2472.53 |
|
Petrol and diesel consumption – fleet - tonnes of CO2e |
1387.9 |
1384.65 |
1456.58 |
1490.30 |
1346.19 |
1292.9 |
|
Refrigerant gases - tonnes of CO2e |
Not measured |
Not measured |
Not measured |
Not measured |
23.46 |
22.31 |
|
Scope 2 |
||||||
|
Electricity consumption* - tonnes of CO2e |
1229.45 |
895.05 |
829.61 |
924.02 |
837.72 |
905.99 |
|
Scope 3 |
||||||
|
Electricity (Transmission and distribution losses) - tonnes of CO2e |
104.81 |
75.99 |
72.92 |
83.38 |
76.63 |
78.38 |
|
Working from Home - tonnes of CO2e |
Not measured |
Not measured |
304.19 |
267.39 |
233.18 |
171.87 |
|
Staff commuting - tonnes of CO2e |
369.50 |
363.20 |
30.78 |
44.70 |
41.62 |
55.33 |
|
Staff business travel - tonnes of CO2e |
49.80 |
50.90 |
23.12 |
22.00 |
26.66 |
18.79 |
|
Waste production - tonnes of CO2e |
43.40 |
90.94 |
113.46 |
377.62 |
254.63 |
343.98 |
|
Water consumption - tonnes of CO2e |
127.40 |
93.50 |
68.87 |
39.30 |
32.32 |
17.75 |
|
Total emissions within the council’s carbon neutral target - tonnes of CO2e |
6196.26 |
5828.23 |
5234.09 |
5695.60 |
5547.28 |
5379.83 |
For more details on our greenhouse gas emission figures please click on the below reports:
Greenhouse Gas Report Financial Year 2023/24Greenhouse Gas Report Financial Year 2022/23
To see council emissions from past years, you can view the emissions archive.
Working from home
During 2020/21, many of our staff moved from mainly working in the office to working from home. We recognised that emissions associated with people working from home would not be captured under normal emissions reporting.
Instead, using a methodology developed by international climate consultancy EcoAct, we estimated emissions created by staff working from home and included these emissions in our reporting.
From 2020/21 onwards, the council will calculate its emissions associated with staff working from home as this becomes a bigger part of the way that staff work at the council.
Find out more about the council's emissions calculations for 2020/21
Working from home
During 2020/21, many of our staff moved from mainly working in the office to working from home. We recognised that emissions associated with people working from home would not be captured under normal emissions reporting.
Instead, using a methodology developed by international climate consultancy EcoAct, we estimated emissions created by staff working from home and included these emissions in our reporting.
Since 2020/21 we have estimated emissions associated with staff working from home annually and this forms part of our greenhouse gas reporting.
Page last reviewed: 9 August 2021