Facts for inclusion on RDC Environmental Action Infographic March 2020 to April 21
Our direct emissions were 25% lower than our baseline year of 2019/20 – largely due to staff working from home during the pandemic, which also reduced emissions from staff commuting. From this terrible event we have adopted new ways of working that we will continue to explore to reduce our emissions.
Solar arrays on the Treasury Building and Bexhill Museum generated over 25 Megawatt Hours of electricity.
In September 2020 the Council published the Environment Strategy 2020 – 2030, pledging to become a Carbon neutral District by 2030.
The Climate Emergency was included as a priority objective in our Corporate Plan 2020 – 2027.
The Rother District Council housing company was established and will oversee the development of the Blackfriars site, were all 200 homes have been designed to be low-carbon dwellings, constructed to maximise the use of solar energy and renewable energy technologies. The development was named the UK’s best housing development (suburban and rural category) at Inside Housing’s 2021 Housing Development Awards.
The Climate Change Steering Group signed up to a Paperless Pledge, only receiving printed material if specifically required for health issues. All committees have since been invited to join the pledge.
Our Customer Services Team adopted digital image processing rather than photocopying, and we began using an electronic annual leave system. In the first 12 months these initiatives reduced annual paper use by 50,000 sheets of A4, 500 sheets of A3 and 250 sheets of card.
Where printing is required, settings were switched to black & white and double-sided by default to minimise ink and paper consumption.
An internal Digital Suggestion Box was created for our staff to make suggestions to improve anything the Council does, encouraging ideas that have environmental benefits.
A digital maintenance tracking system was developed, replacing a system which used triplicate paper copies of every report. The team can now view photos of an issue to identify what’s needed to fix it without travelling to the site first, and can pick up new reports without returning to the office, significantly reducing travel emissions.
