Wiltshire on track to be carbon neutral by 2030
A look at what Wiltshire Council is doing to become greener
Wiltshire is making good progress toward the council’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 according to a new report.
A climate emergency was declared by Wiltshire Council in February 2019 and the new report explains what has been done to tackle the emergency and reach carbon neutrality.
A £12 million project to convert the council’s streetlighting to energy efficient LED lighting is now complete for all standard streetlights in the county.
That project will save around 1770 tonnes of CO2 each year and will also provide significant cost savings for the council in future years as well as reduced maintenance costs.
In addition, under the £3.5 million Property Carbon Reduction Programme 1500 tonnes of CO2 per year from the council’s carbon footprint are being saved.
The council have also been looking at a programme of solar canopy installations in sites where there are suitable council owned car parks sited next to high energy using buildings.
The first site for this programme to be rolled out will be Five Rivers Leisure Centre in Salisbury.
As well as this, the council has tendered a three-year contract to find a provider to deliver 1000 new affordable zero carbon homes.
There are also plans to reduce the amount of Household Recycling Centre waste which is sent to landfill as this carries a large carbon footprint.
The council aims to reduce the amount of CO2 coming from its 5000 houses by 15,000 tonnes and has already begun work on the project.
Leisure centres, which are one of the council’s biggest users of energy have been told to come up with energy-saving ideas.
However, the carbon emissions from council buildings went up recently as people returned from working at home after covid-19.
Vehicles
The council also wants to boost its electric vehicle fleet with the aim of all vehicles being powered this way by 2030.
It's already invested £600,000 in 17 hybrid vans which can run up to 70 miles on a single plug-in charge.
Those vehicles are being used by the parking, pest control and highways services,
Green areas
There have also been environmental improvements to help combat the climate emergency.
The council has submitted a bid for £300,000 to fund county-wide tree plantation and there have been works to trial rewilding rural road verges and more urban grassy areas and parklands.
In addition, The Salisbury River Park £27 million transformational scheme which aims to reduce flood risk to over 350 homes in Salisbury will also create two hectares of improved riverside habitat and remove obstructions to allow fish migration to continue upstream.