Carbon Management Action Plan

The Carbon Management Action plan was passed by Cabinet in March 2005. It forms an important stage in addressing issues of climate change introduced under the revised "key lines of enquiry" within the CPA Corporate Assessment from 2005/06. The CMAP also provides an important contribution to the emerging Herefordshire Partnership Climate Change Strategy and generates bankable financial savings contributing to the Council's obligations to generate efficiency savings.

The Council has signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change.

The Council target is to achieve a 12.5% reduction on the 2002 base-line by 2012 and a total 20% reduction by 2020. These reductions will be achieved by the following methods:

A continuation of the Property rationalisation process resulting in energy consumption reductions

The development of a landfill gas power generation from Stretton Sugwas closed landfill site during 2006/07

The adoption of low cost energy measures in corporate buildings and schools

The development of an invest-to-save budget by offering financial resources to Schools and other corporate buildings to achieve energy saving measures

In the longer term consideration will be given to other areas of potential savings including Transportation and Street Lighting.

GEM report 2004/5

Protecting the environment has always been one of the authority's top priorities and is also central to the Herefordshire Plan. Herefordshire Council has been committed to registering all it's activities and services to an environmental management standard since May 1998.

GEM (Good Environmental Management) covers the whole Council In addition, all office administration and land management across the Council has been certified to ISO 14001, the international environmental management system) since July 2002. Other services are steadily joining the scope. Standards are checked twice a year by our external certifier SGS Yarsley.

The work of GEM forms an integral part of the Council's commitments to delivering sustainable development. The sustainability agenda received a further boost in 2004/05 with the publication of both the revised national sustainable development strategy "Securing the Future" and the revised West Midlands regional Sustainable Development Framework "The Future Starts Here". Effective environmental management is key to the delivery of sustainable development and through the GEM programme the Council can demonstrate that it is leading by example in this area.