Our progress on becoming a carbon free council

We have achieved a 34% reduction in our organisational emissions against our 2019 baseline.

A breakdown of the areas this reduction in emissions has been made can be found below.

Street lighting

The street lighting LED replacement programme is on track and is expected to be completed during 2024.

• 3,881 tonnes annual carbon saved
• £2.4 million annual bill savings
• 52% energy efficiency

Council buildings and renewable energy

The Council was successful in winning significant Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) grant funding to enable effective whole-building decarbonisation on several buildings, including the replacement of low carbon heating, insulation, as well as the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) on roofs and in car parks.

• 306 tonnes annual carbon saved
• £3.6 million funding leveraged
• £400,000 annual bill savings
• 0.3 megawatts of renewable energy generated

Fleet and active travel

A small number of the Council's fleet are low carbon, and some key sites have Electric Vehicle charging. Progress of fleet decarbonisation is taking longer than expected to ensure effective fleet management prior to decarbonisation.

Active travel facilities and a bus service has been put in place at Woodhatch Place, but no further active travel, public transport or EV charging plans are being actively developed.

• 23 tonnes annual carbon saved

Schools and leased buildings

A solar rooftop Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) contract has been developed for the Council to install and supply electricity to buildings that the Council own but are managed by others, such as schools and leased buildings. The benefit of this contractual arrangement, in addition to carbon reduction, is that the school will be offered electricity rates much lower than the unit rates they can access through commercial energy providers and the Council will be able to generate a return on investment.

• 26 tonnes annual carbon saved
• £60,000 annual bill savings

Procurement

The Environmentally Sustainable Procurement Policy is in place across Surrey County Council. Work with contract managers and suppliers is ongoing to successfully implement the policy.

A method of more accurately measuring the carbon impact from three recent major procurements has shown that the current high-level estimates of supply chain carbon emissions are extremely inaccurate.

A supply chain carbon tool is being procured to more accurately measure the carbon emissions within our supply chain by gathering data directly from suppliers.

Staff

Although there has been some progress in installing sustainable transport infrastructure at SCC hub locations, delays in implementing the staff travel plan have hampered efforts to support sustainable staff travel. Business travel has steadily increased since Covid.

The Green Champions Network has attracted interest across the Council and has created a significant group, with ten well attended engagement events including a Veganuary lunch and learn. The roll out of Carbon Literacy Training has been more successful, with all of the Corporate Leadership Team and several Directors trained with evidence of impact in some areas. Over 3,000 employees have completed the climate change training through Olive.

• 762 tonnes carbon savings
• 3.1 million avoided mileage
• 153 Green Champions

Read the full reports:

• Net zero 2030 progress report 2021 to 2022 (PDF)
• Net Zero 2030 progress report 2022 to 2023 (PDF)

As the county council we have a duty to support residents and businesses in their decarbonisation journey. So as well as considering our own emissions, we provide a variety of support to facilitate wider decarbonisation across the county.

The Climate Change Act (GOV.UK) sets out sets out or national ambition to reach net zero by 2050. We recognise that reaching this target will require collaborative efforts and we would like to support Surrey residents with their decarbonisation journey. The below sections set out our progress to date .

Fuel poor and vulnerable

Excellent progress has been made to win and distribute government's Sustainable Warmth grants delivered through Action Surrey. Surrey is the highest performing Local Authority in the South-East; receiving and delivering the majority of available grant funding. On average, energy bill savings for off-gas households that benefited from the grants were £812 per year.

• 2,059 tonnes annual carbon savings
• £33 million funding leveraged
• £500,000 annual bill savings
• 130 warm welcomes

Households

The primary focus to support households to decarbonise has been on solar PV schemes where householders who invest in solar PV get a return through reduced energy bills and selling excess electricity produced.

• 1,165 tonnes annual carbon savings
• £11.8 million funding leveraged
• £1.6 million annual bill savings
• 15,800 solar panels installed

Active and sustainable travel

Active travel engagement with a key focus on behaviour change has taken place through the provision of cycle and walking training and the introduction of the BetterPoints app, where 0.5M active travel journeys were logged and with 70% of users saying they are more likely to walk or cycle as a result of the app. Increased investment in maintaining and improving the condition of the highway has contributed to safer journeys by active travel, resulting in cleaner air and improved health through physical activity.

• 150 tonnes annual carbon savings
• £3.3 million funding leveraged
• 1,558 residents engaged
• 15,350 pupils trained

Public transport

£49m has been invested in a programme to improve and decarbonise the bus service in Surrey. Despite challenges with the supply chain, 16 hydrogen buses and 36 hybrid buses are currently in operation as well as 15 electric community transport minibuses. In addition, real time passenger information has increased and more bus priority measures have been delivered.

• 569 tonnes annual carbon savings
• £16.4 million funding leveraged
• 18.7 million passenger journeys
• 3,000 Surrey LINK users

Businesses

Low Carbon Across the South East (LoCASE) was an European Union funded scheme targeted at small and medium enterprises offering grants for decarbonisation measures. The project was delivered in Surrey from 2021 to 2023. The Surrey LoCASE scheme exceeded its target, enabling 217 business to receive grants, helping them to reduce carbon emissions and save money on energy bills. LoCASE also provided 783 businesses with environmental advice and provided training to 68 businesses through the 'Net Zero 360' course (see case study).

• 1,088 tonnes annual carbon savings
• £5.5 million funding leveraged
• £600,000 bill savings
• 1.2 megawatts renewables

Communities

The Delivery Plan actions have resulted in at least 70,000 behaviour-change events across Surrey's residents, businesses and community groups this year, due in part to an improved approach to communications and engagement which reached around 843k people.

• 842,000 social media hits
• 88 Green Flag schools

Planning, placemaking and infrastructure

Following successful pilot phases that installed 134 EV chargepoints, a provider has been appointed to accelerate the number of publicly available EV chargepoints across the county to enable more residents to shift towards electric vehicles.

• 133 tonnes annual carbon savings
• 500,000 funding leveraged
• 12,714 charging sessions

Trees and land management

The Land Management Framework and Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) are being developed to improve biodiversity, help reduce impacts of flooding, droughts and heat on the natural environment, and to absorb carbon. The Council is preparing to become the statutory authority for nature recovery under the requirements of the Environment Act 2022 (GOV.UK).

• £1.1 million funding leveraged

Local authority carbon reduction

Eight Local Authorities have retrofit and fleet decarbonisation programmes which are around 7% complete. 94 low carbon vehicles are in operation with 34 suitable EV charging sites. Four Local Authorities have sustainable procurement policies and five have travel plans in place. 25% of Local Authority staff have had some climate change awareness training with 193 certified as Carbon Literate. The number of Local Authority staff able to deliver training has doubled to eight since last year. All councils continue to undertake communications and four are actively lobbying Government on the environment agenda.

• 8,417 tonnes carbon save
• £8.4 million funding leveraged
• 3,575 staff trained in climate change
• 2.5 megawatts renewables

Read the full reports

• Climate Change Progress Report 2021 to 2022 (PDF)
• Climate Change Progress Report 2022 to 2023 (PDF)