Wiltshire Council shares update on progress towards carbon neutral

Wiltshire Council has shared an update on the significant progress so far towards its carbon neutral by 2030 pledge.

In 2019, Wiltshire Council pledged to become carbon neutral as an organisation by 2030 and aspire to support the Wiltshire local authority area to become carbon neutral as well. The council is on track to meet this goal in relation to its direct emissions and there is a wide range of work being undertaken to tackle its indirect emissions and help the county as a whole become carbon neutral.

Progress made already includes:

• The council has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 20,991 tCO2e or 88% since 2014 when it first started to measure and report its greenhouse gas emissions. The council’s emissions are now down to 2,767 tCO2e, which means that we have surpassed the target for 2023/24 which was 3,000 tonnes CO2e.
• The green tariff for electricity has been secured to 2027. This reduced the council's carbon emissions from properties by 2,440 tonnes CO2 during 2023/24.
• The council intends to switch all lighter vehicles to electric, as well as reducing number of vehicles and mileage where business need allows. Emissions from fleet vehicles decreased from 557 tonnes in 2022/23 to 431 tonnes in 2023/24, as 87 fossil fuel vehicles have now been replaced by ultra-low emissions across the council's fleet. On council property there are presently 117 workplace charge points, and an additional 60 public charge points, an increase of 87 from 2022/23.
• The council has now completed its rooftop solar programme for council premises. The total installed solar panel capacity by the end of 2023/24 was 3,313 kWp (peak output) and the total electricity generated was 2,639,271 kWh, which is a 50% increase from the previous year. The avoided costs for the council of using this self-generated electricity in 2023/24 was nearly £650K despite electricity usage increasing.
• The council continues to work with key suppliers towards measuring and reducing its indirect (Scope 3) emissions and building climate considerations into procurement processes and contracts. Highways maintenance contractor Milestone is innovating on carbon reduction in project delivery and use of materials. Based on these achievements and collaboration, Milestone and Wiltshire Council have been shortlisted for the Edie Net Zero Awards in the category ‘Supply Chain Decarbonisation’. The council has also started to work with smaller organisations such as its care providers to understand where their biggest potential for carbon reduction is and to support them to decarbonise.
• The council’s delivery team is working with internal service areas from across the council, to understand how climate change will impact service delivery, so that the council can have a better understanding on how service delivery may need to change to support vulnerable residents, communities, infrastructure, businesses and the natural environment to be more resilient.
• 23 new electric buses will be coming to Salisbury following a successful bid to the Department for Transport’s ZEBRA scheme for £3.4m, matched by £1m from Wiltshire Council’s Salisbury Transport Strategy budget and £7m investment from Go South Coast buses.
• August 2024 marked the one-year anniversary of the Wiltshire Connect on-demand bus service in the Pewsey Vale. More than 4,500 people have used the service so far, with 55,000 passenger journeys completed in the past year. Carbon emissions will be reduced where those journeys having replaced individual car journeys, and the service does much more for accessibility, social inclusion and mental health.
• The council’s nature recovery and tree planting projects contribute to capturing carbon and ensuring that habitats, species and natural systems (including floodwater retention) are more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and benefit health and wellbeing.
• The Tree Warden scheme has been set up to support tree planting and maintenance in communities. To date Wiltshire Council has recruited 56 volunteer tree wardens and has provided training and guidance.
• The council is working with farmers on regenerative land management, as part of our nutrient neutrality projects, biodiversity net gain and tree planting projects.
• The Home Upgrade Grant Scheme has commenced, offering grants for energy efficiency improvements to owner-occupied and privately rented low-income households that are off the gas grid. Wiltshire Council is working with specialist contractor, EDF to retrofit up to 86 homes in the county having been successful in securing more than £1.7m in grant funding from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
• Wiltshire Council and Centre for Sustainable Energy supported Wiltshire Climate Alliance in promoting their week-long Green Open Homes event that enabled other residents to see home retrofit projects in residents’ properties, inspire the community in their retrofit journeys and help them access ongoing retrofit support and home assessments. A total of 47 energy efficient homes in Wiltshire and Swindon were opened between 9 and 17 March 2024 to provide an opportunity to learn about the pros and cons of different technologies, without the sales pitch. Over 200 people visited an open home and all visitors who live in Wiltshire and Swindon that attended were offered a free retrofit survey provided by the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
• The council is building or acquiring 1,000 additional council owned and managed homes over the next decade. Those being built by the council are designed to be net zero in operation. The first Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) home was completed in April 2024 in Durrington. The bungalow was custom built off site then lowered into location by a crane. These modular homes are zero carbon in use thanks to air source heat pumps, smart controls, and solar panels - complete with an EV charging point. Further sites are underway in Rowde and Corsley Heath. New zero carbon homes are also being purchased by the council.
• The council’s new schools are aiming to be net zero in operation. These include the new Melksham Primary School (planning stage), The Grove Primary School new classroom block (starting soon) and a building project at Silverwood School in Rowde.
• £2.2m has been spent on retrofit installations which have been delivered to over 200 council-owned homes in the last year through the Housing Energy Efficiency Programme. The 700 measures included loft, cavity and underfloor insulation, air source heat pumps, high heat retention storage heaters, smart hot water cylinders, solar diverters, solar PV arrays and new double glazed windows.
• The “Fit for Net Zero” scheme which offers grants to businesses to improve their carbon footprint launched in August 2024 and has received 65 expressions of interest, with 36 businesses going on to participate in the project.

Cllr Dominic Muns, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “It’s fantastic to see how much we have achieved as an organisation since we pledged to become carbon neutral. However, we’re not complacent and we know there is more to be done to achieve our pledge to become carbon neutral as an organisation by 2030, and to seek to make the rest of the county carbon neutral as well. We know this isn’t something we can do alone, and we’ll need to work collaboratively with residents and businesses across Wiltshire.

“Our achievements to date include but are not limited to, reducing the council’s greenhouse gas emissions by 88%, replacing 87 fossil fuel council fleet vehicles with ultra-low emission vehicles, installing solar panels on council premises with capacity of 3,313 kWp representing a saving of nearly £650k in 2023/24, working with farmers on regenerative land management, energy efficiency retrofit installations on over 200 council homes and 30 carbon neutral or low-carbon affordable homes delivered so far, with 350 in the pipeline.

“We’re also increasing our delivery to support the rest of the county to become carbon neutral and we’ve made good progress already with schemes such as Solar Together to support household clean electricity generation, which has seen over 3,400 registrations by residents and businesses this year alone. This was the third scheme we’ve ran in Wiltshire and all of the schemes combined are estimated to lead to a reduction of 22,000 tonnes of CO2 over the 25-year guaranteed lifetime of the solar panels installed. We’re also delivering the Home Upgrade Grant scheme in partnership with EDF to give help those who on low incomes and not connected to the gas grid to improve their home energy efficiency.

“The climate emergency and our commitment to reducing carbon emissions is considered in everything we do as an organisation and we hope the work we’re doing will encourage and inspire others to do what they can too.”