2020 (Part 2)

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RENEW110 - Whole house retrofit - 211220

This authority is interested in any information about contractors or organisations who could undertake a whole house approach to achieve, for example, an EPC rating B for our housing stock. These works might include loft and wall insulation, heating and hot water system replacements, window replacements and any other appropriate improvements. They would be interested to hear from local authorities who have experience in this area. 

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RENEW109 - Reducing carbon emissions in waste - 211220

This authority is interested to find out whether Zero Waste Scotland’s carbon metric has been applied by your council and if so whether you have any experience, findings or evaluations to share? Any information relating to the metric would be gratefully appreciated.

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RENEW108 - Extra energy charges resulting from COVID - 211220

This authority currently pays for their energy through a framework agreement with an energy broker. The broker has advised that they can achieve their prices because they purchase 100% of required energy one year in advance of consumption. However, as a result of COVID, a large amount of energy has not been used and they have had to sell the energy back to the market. As the wholesale market prices have dramatically reduced they have made a loss and are now seeking to recover those losses by charging the council an additional charge amounting to thousands of pounds. 

This council is interested to see if any other authorities had a similar problem and if there was an agreed approach for how to manage this situation? Any related information or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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RENEW107 - Supply Chains - carbon neutral objectives & social value - 111220

This authority is interested in hearing from councils who have explored making revisions to their social value policy and including carbon neutral objectives in tender evaluations. They would also welcome any information about what weightings local authorities are giving to social value in tender evaluations.

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RENEW106 - Reporting on carbon related performance measures - 111220

This authority is looking to report on carbon related performance measures both for internal operations and at local authority level, and would like to hear from other local authorities who may have started to do this. They are particularly interested in thoughts on reporting via dashboards to make the information easy to interpret, accessible, interactive and engaging.

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RENEW105 - Climate change - roles, resources and responsibilities - 111220

This authority is considering the scale of resource required to address the climate change agenda and is keen to hear from others regarding the following:-

• How many people are directly responsible for climate change and sustainability matters (i.e. it represents 100% of their time)?
• Are they based in the corporate centre or in a service (e.g. environmental services dept)?
• If the latter do they have responsibilities corporately or within that department only?
• Do you have a core team to address this topic with officers from a range of services?
• Are you planning to increase the staff resource in future? If so by how many?

Please provide brief further information you feel relevant such as description of responsibilities - community engagement, behavioural change, communications, funding applications, administrative support.

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RENEW104 - Tenders for small scale battery storage projects - 201120

This authority is interested in hearing from councils who have recently undertaken tenders for small scale battery storage projects. They are looking at a number of building integrated battery projects and would like to hear from any LAs that had done similar projects already to see if there are any lessons learned. Any replies would be gratefully appreciated.

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RENEW103 - Procurement of sustainable low carbon stationery supplies - 201120

This authority is going out to procure a new contract for stationary supplies and would welcome input from others councils who have experience in sourcing sustainable low carbon stationery supplies. Any research or experience in this would be gratefully appreciated.

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RENEW102 - Updating a council energy policy to include enhanced building standards for council buildings - 051120

This authority is in the process of reviewing and updating their energy policy (their current one is 14 years old), within which they want to include design and build standards for any new build or refurbishments of council buildings that go above and beyond Building Regulations. They are really keen to hear from other local authorities who have such standards in place and if so, what design standard targets they use? Information about this topic would be gratefully received.

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RENEW101 - Charging for energy efficiency in council properties - 231020

This local authority’s social housing stock is managed by an ALMO and they are looking at how they can improve the thermal efficiency of the stock. They are considering an energy charge which is separate from the rental payment and the normal utility bills. It would sit over the property for a number of years depending on the lifetime of the measures and be priced cautiously to ensure that the tenant benefits in the round. This authority would welcome replies from any councils that have had any experience of developing a policy or can provide any legal advice?

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RENEW100 - Managing the costs of transitioning council housing stock to net zero - 231020

This local authority is interested in understanding how other local authorities with retained social housing stock are managing/or intend to manage additional costs from investment to bring social housing stock to net zero.

They would specifically welcome responses to the following questions:

1. Have you changed your stock investment plans and priorities as a result of a climate emergency/net zero declaration (or similar) by your council? If so, what changes?
2. How do you intend to manage increased investment and maintenance costs that will be required in your stock to achieve this? (e.g. absorb costs, rent/service charges)
3. Have you sought out new or unique funding sources for investment? (e.g. private investment, RHI etc.) If so, which sources?

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RENEW099 - Structuring Energy Management Teams - 121020

The Council’s Planning and Environment Directorate has entered a service review. As part of this the existing energy management team is reviewing how it can be better structured and resourced to address broader climate change issues, including adaptation, inside and outside the Council. To help inform this review, the Council is interested to understand how other authorities have structured, resourced and tasked their equivalent teams. Responses to the following questions would be greatly appreciated: 

• Where does primary responsibility for achieving climate change targets sit within the Council?
• What processes / mechanisms are used to influence other department’s projects / policies / strategies, to help address climate change?
• Does the Council, and if so how does it, engage with and support voluntary, community and other interest groups on climate change? (e.g. a dedicate officer? As part of other established mechanisms?). Please provide detail.
• Do public behaviour change campaigns feature in the Council’s work to address climate change? (for example, as waste reduction programmes may already do?) Please provide detail.
• What sort of initiatives do you operate with the LEP/ business community?
• Any other comments on what member authorities have found to work or not work in addressing climate change are also welcome.