Council energy performance
This page is about our energy performance.
Carbon emissions to be reduced by 30% in 5 years
The Council's Carbon Management Plan commits to a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from the council's estate and services between March 2009 and March 2014 (5 years).
Baseline figures 2008 - 2009 
This graph shows a summary of carbon emissions and related costs for the baseline year 2008-09. It clearly demonstrates that the most significant source of carbon are our three leisure centres located in Banstead, Horley and Redhill, followed in second place by the council's HGV fleet.
Progress (as at March 2011)
Our Carbon Management Plan is now in its second year of implementation. The downward trend is encouraging, even though the expected savings across the whole estate for 2010 were blown off course by a combination of unexpected events.
Another exceptionally cold winter frustrated efforts to keep some of the older buildings warm. Many of these, including the Park Farm Depot built early in the 1800s, depend entirely on electrical heating and struggled to cope with the coldest December since national records began in 1910!
The Harlequin's gas boilers, set for replacement this summer, seemed to sense their time was near. After failing to re-ignite, put pantomime celebrities at risk of hypothermia. To avert any possibility of closure, the necessary solution was to keep the system running constantly. If only this had occurred during a less harsh winter: the resulting annual gas use increased by 32%.
Reduced by 4.9%
Nevertheless, despite these set-backs, carbon emissions were reduced by 4.9% compared to 2009-10 levels.
The stacked graph here demonstrates the reduction achieved during this last two years, relative to the baseline year. Also shown is the aspirational target for this year, and the target for the end of the Carbon Management Plan period (March 2014).
The relative movement in carbon emissions for discrete "service" areas this year (against the baseline year) is shown in greater detail at the following link:
This finer analysis shows that, with the exception of the Harlequin (see earlier), all of the sites/service areas have shown emissions reductions. Particularly notable are the savings from the use of LED lighting in our car parks where now only half the energy is used compared to 2 years ago.
Sites/service emissions with their respective energy efficiency initiatives
| Site/service | % reduction | Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Fleet | 11.1 | New Euro V vehicles/trackers fitted |
| Town Hall | 13.9 | Server virtualisation |
| Car parks | 49.7 | LED lighting |
| Community centres | 6.9 | Photovoltaic panels/energy efficient T5 lighting |
| Earlswood depot/Park Farm | 23.9 | LED floodlights/Infrared CCTV/energy efficient T5 lighting |
| Help shops | 25.6 | Electric heater timer switches |
| Business travel | 13.9 | Pool cars |
Future programme
Our three ageing leisure centres are responsible for the major proportion of the Council's carbon emissions.
The decision to replace the Horley Anderson Centre with a new-build leisure centre at Court Lodge presented a key opportunity to introduce cutting edge technology. A 500KW wood fuel boiler will be supplied with over 400 tonnes of wood chip sourced from Surrey/Sussex woodlands, providing most of the heating and hot water for the centre. Additionally a 22KW photovoltaic system will adorn its roof to generate over 20,000 kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable electricity each year.
The centre is set to become a green flagship within the 100+ portfolio of leisure centres managed by leisure operators, Greenwich Leisure Limited.
The feasibility of installing similar measures at Donyngs, the new Banstead Leisure Centre and across the wider estate is already underway.
Display Energy Certificates
Display Energy Certificates (DECs) show the actual energy usage of a building, the Operational Rating and help the public see the energy efficiency of a building. This is based on the energy consumption of the building as recorded by gas, electricity and other meters.
Display Energy Certificates are only required for public authority buildings (with a total useful floor area over 1,000m2) providing a public service to a large number of people and therefore visited by them. Only two sites within the council estate now meet these criteria. They are listed in the table below (a value of 100 is deemed to be average for the particular building type: a rating from A - D indicates a building that is more efficient than a typical building of its type):
| Display Energy Certificate results | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town Hall - main building | F (148) | E (110) | D (95) |
| Harlequin Theatre* | C (62) | B (50) | *C (57) |
| * (NB: 2011 DEC assessment demonstrates impact of December 2010 issue described in text above) | |||
New reporting arrangements
The Government has requested that, from the end of July 2011, Local Authorities start to publish energy performance data in a new format. This new format is necessary to come into line with reporting arrangements required of larger organisations who are part of the national Carbon Reduction Commitment.
The effect of this change is that energy use from this date will represent all greenhouse gas emissions, rather than just carbon dioxide emissions. This will mean that new factors will need to be used in converting units of energy consumed (kilowatt hours) to take account of a wider range of greenhouse gases emitted as a result of energy generation from fossil fuels (e.g. oxides of nitrogen and sulphur and methane).
So as to provide continuity for the purposes of the Council's defined baseline and targets, the existing form of reporting on this page will continue alongside a new greenhouse gas emissions page, where the new data will be published. At a point in the future, after appropriate validation, the baseline and targets will be all be moved over to the new format.
Contact
sustainability@reigate-banstead.gov.uk
Environmental Team
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall, Castlefield Road, REIGATE, Surrey RH2 0SH
Telephone: 01737 276211.
Last updated : 05/12/2011
