Newsroom

I was proud to be appointed Nottinghamshire County Council's first 'Environment Ambassador' in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow last year.

As someone who has always advocated for creating a greener future for Nottinghamshire, the Environment Ambassador role has put me front-and-centre of our council's aim to become carbon neutral in all our activities by 2030.

This week (2-8 July 2022) is Net Zero Week, created to raise awareness of the importance of reaching net zero in the UK, so it is a perfect time to explain what we are doing as a council to eliminate harmful carbon emissions.

We've been working hard to look at the council's everyday carbon emissions and have made considerable progress, slashing carbon emissions by 69% from energy use across our highways and properties since 2014. However, we recognise we still have a lot to do.

Council officials are drawing up a detailed carbon reduction plan, which includes a 2025 target to green our fleet by 50% with electric or other low emissions and to have an entirely green fleet by 2030.

We're also transforming street lighting in Nottinghamshire to more energy-efficient LED lighting. We've already installed 83,000 LED lights, saving 70,000 tonnes of carbon.

We've now committed a further £2.1million to complete our LED programme, specifically in north Nottinghamshire, which will result in us reducing an additional 800 tonnes of carbon per year.

Our Trees for Climate programme is also hugely important. This Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs funded project hopes to plant 250,000 trees across a number of Nottinghamshire sites in the next five years. 

We're making speed with this climate change combatting project, having planted 53,000 trees so far, including at Bestwood Country Park and on the old Rufford Colliery site.

We know our work towards achieving net zero is vital to the people of Nottinghamshire. Thousands of residents told us so when we consulted last year on our council plan. In response, we promised to deliver a 'healthy, prosperous and greener future' in our ambitious ten-year plan.

I'll be working hard with my council colleagues during Net Zero Week and every week after to bang the drum for a greener future for Nottinghamshire and ensure we meet our target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.