Sustainable

Sustainable Telford and Wrekin campaign

In July 2019, Telford & Wrekin Council declared a climate emergency. It committed to:

Go carbon neutral by 2030

Reduce single-use plastic across the council by 2023!

Our Sustainable Telford and Wrekin campaign will be used for all of the work we and the community are doing and will do to tackle climate change

Telford, the Forest City

For decades Telford has carried the title Forest City – reflecting the wealth of greenspaces, landscape, forest and woodland which characterises the area and has been afforded protection and enhancement through Council policy and land management.

The commitment to this was re-emphasised in January with the review of the Local Plan to be focussed on establishing a forest community with climate change action central to the review.

What we're already doing...

Reducing our carbon footprint

The Council has already done much to reduce carbon emissions in the borough – since 2005, the council has already reduced its carbon footprint by 44%! (From 14,173.1 tonnes CO2e to 7,956.0 tonnes CO2e in 2018.)

The power of the sun

In 2014, we were only the second council in the country to build a solar farm.

Our solar farm at Wheat Leasows generates enough green electricity to power 800 homes – saving approximately 1,880 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. It’s also generating the Council money £1.83m pa.

Protecting green spaces

We’re protecting 200 Green Guarantee sites – Council owned sites that provide valued open green space often on people’s doorsteps which also act as ‘green lungs’ providing carbon removal.

The Green Guarantee encouraged members of the public to vote for their favourite spaces that they wanted us to protect.

Promoting recycling

We have worked to increase levels of recycling to over 52% - as well as introducing a food waste service. We have recently begun to roll out food waste recycling internally too.

Lighting the way

We have replaced more than 20K street lights to energy efficient LEDs – reducing pollution and saving energy and money. Our CO2 emissions from street lights has halved in two years!

Using clean energy

In September 2019, the council switched to a new environmentally-friendly energy contract – reducing the Council’s CO2 emissions by 1,252 tonnes a year.

Embracing low carbon technology

The Marches LEP has provided funding to fit low carbon technologies in public buildings as part of it sustainable building initiatives. In Telford and Wrekin, we have completed a number of projects, including:

Energy efficient LED lighting in Darby House, Telford Ice Rink, Wellington Civic and Leisure Centre and in Telford Tennis Centre will save 131.04 tonnes of CO2 a year and around £55K.

Solar panels installed on the roof at Telford Ice Rink and Telford Tennis Centre. Saving 60.88 tonnes of CO2 a year and over £18.5K in lower energy costs.

Pledged to reduce single-use plastic

The council pledged to reduce single-use plastic from its operations and activities, either removing or replacing them with sustainable alternatives.

We signed up to support the national campaign Refill and held an action day in Wellington in October.

Our action plan sets out how the Council will reduce its use of single-use plastic – and seek to become a Plastic Free Council. And also how the Council will encourage and promote plastic-free initiatives borough wide.

Including Plastic Free February – email drip campaign.

The Plastic Free email campaign encourages people to make environmentally friendly swaps to reduce the amount of single use plastic they use

Established a community task force to help the borough become a certified Plastic Free Community.

The new Sustainable Telford and Wrekin website will launch soon. It will be a place for the council to share what it and what the local community are doing to tackle climate change in the borough.

Working with our local community

The council plans to collaborate and engage with residents, partners and businesses in the borough to achieve our carbon neutral by 2030 goal – making sure we take communities with us.

Celebrating success

We want to tell the stories of the amazing work already being done.

The website will feature all of these examples – including Hollinswood Primary School who have become the first school in the area to get Plastic Free status...

Hollinswood Primary School pupils signing up to recycle more

...and ao.com who are doing everything they can to recycle white goods and make them into new products.

ao.com's Halesfield recycling plant - which recycles enough steel from fridges to build a new Eiffel Tower every 12 months

Appreciate