2022

RENEW179 Energy Efficiency Plans - 130922

This authority is interested to hear if any other LA's have implemented energy efficiency plans across their estate, particularly in response to energy price rises. They are keen to hear if others have implemented measures such as not heating corridors, lowering the temperature of buildings and so forth. If so, what recommendations are they making or which guidance is best practice for this?

 

RENEW177APSE Network Query: Solar panels and enforced labour concerns 250822

This APSE Energy member authority is currently looking to install solar power systems on some of the council's buildings and one of the supply partners in this project has raised concerns about the ethics of some of the manufacturers in the solar panel supply chain. This authority is interested to hear if other members are aware of this concern and if so what are they doing to avoid procured goods that have been associated with enforced labour? They are particularly interested in solar, however any information regarding this issue of LA procured goods will be welcome, including for example any ethical procurement policy statements or how this is treated in tender proposals .

 

Education platform for air quality/pollution RENEW176/120822

This authority is currently in the process of creating an education platform regarding air quality/pollution, and they would like to hear from any councils that have experience with this. They are particularly interested in answers to the following questions:

1.What measurements do councils use to measure their success of educational content to secondary schools?

2.What measurements do councils use to measure their success of educational content to residents?

3.How successful have past educational campaigns been in the local area?

4.Would any member authorities be willing to share resources that they have created?

 

Solar PV Social Housing RENEW175/120822

This authority is interested to hear about how social housing providers have implemented Solar PV on their portfolio. This local authority is in the process of rolling out PV across their stock as part of a pilot and are trying to understand if any LA’s have had any experience with installing PV, potentially recouping investment or charging tenants for the generated electricity?

 

Climate Change/Impact in tender documentation RENEW174/080722

This authority is interested to hear how others have approached the subject of Climate Change/Impact in their tender documentation and their subsequent responses.

They are particularly interested in responses to the following questions:

1.Is there a more effective Climate Impact Assessment (CIA) that can be sent out with tender documentation? Attached is the one this authority currently uses.

2.Is there any wording needed to incorporate this into their tenders/specifications?

3.Is there a scoring Matrix to enable accurate assessing of returned CIA’s from Suppliers/Contractors in their tenders?

4.How can this be built into the Quality/Scoring criteria, would it be part of the current Social Value scoring or in addition to?

5.Is there a procurement & supply chain strategy with a standard set of KPI’s? How would these be measured to ensure consistency in productivity from clients?

6.How is this now being addressed with contracts that are currently running, who haven’t completed a CIA at tender stage?

 

Rising fuel costs - staff business travel RENEW173/010722

This authority is interested to hear from other local authorities about how they are responding to the rise in fuel costs, particularly in relation to staff business travel. They currently follow the HMRC fuel allowance rates but have had queries about revising the rate and wondered if any local authorities had done this.

This authority is also interested in how others have responded to the cost in fuel prices and if it’s enabled/ accelerated plans for lower carbon forms of travel such as e-bikes or electric pool vehicles.

 

Management software for housing stock EPC data RENEW172/240622

This authority is interested to hear which management software other councils use to manage their owned housing stock’s EPC data. They have run into difficulties with the company that they intended to use and are looking at other options, as without a management platform, any analysis to inform investment decisions becomes incredibly time consuming.

Any relevant research or information would be gratefully received. Those who reply will be sent all responses

 

GHG emissions from council owned housing stock RENEW171/160622

This authority is assessing how best to account for GHG emissions from their council owned housing stock. They are interested to hear from others about how they have classified and accounted for these emissions i.e. council scope 1, 2, 3. They are particularly interested to hear of any authority that is claiming carbon reduction in owned housing stock as an offset, due to classifying the original emissions as out of scope.

 

Local climate risks RENEW170/160622

This local authority is looking to identify a method which supports officers/councillors to protect their services and council assets linked to risks around climate change.

They are keen to hear from others who have taken or are looking at taking a similar approach.

Ideally responses will relate to the following, but these are examples and other feedback would be welcome, •Identifying and prioritising climate related risks;

•Collecting evidence to justify the importance of the risk – especially local;

•Risk based GIS layers identifying areas most at risk of different issues (e.g. over-heating, flooding, wildfires, storm damage, energy outages);

•How the risks are linked to or promoted within corporate strategies;

•Links with other public service providers, social landlords and the like who are looking at the same issue.

They are also keen to hear from any local authorities who have retrofitted roof gardens, green walls or similar changes to corporate buildings.

 

RENEW170 – Green skills agenda – assessing capacity locally – 070622

This authority is looking to do some work on the green skills agenda to try to understand and quantify the need locally amongst existing trades people and education providers. They would be interested to hear from member authorities that have looked into, or are currently looking into this area? Specifically they are interested in the following areas:

1)The ability to robustly measure current and projected future skills gaps (ideally by industry)

2)Measuring the impact of the skills gap on employment opportunities/ decarb work/ energy efficiency measures

3)What specifically has been done to address this issue?

4)How has this exercise been ‘‘sold’ to senior leaders?

5)What impact has this had?

 

RENEW169 – Council retrofit teams / companies – 070622

This authority is looking at establishing a team or company around decarbonising existing housing stock via retrofit.

There is currently a lack of skilled workers in their area to deliver such initiatives so it has been suggested that they treat this as a commercialisation opportunity and investigate setting up a retrofitting team/company within the council.

They are keen to hear from other authorities who have actually or considered setting up such a team or company to focus on housing retrofit projects in a similar manner?

This authority does not have a council housing stock.

 

RENEW168 – Helping staff with home energy improvements – 010622

This authority has a member of staff who says, ‘’when I worked for British Coal I took out a loan from my employer to replace my solid fuel fire/boiler with gas. The loan was paid back as a deduction through payroll.’’

The authority is interested to hear from any other authorities who have explored options for a salary sacrifice scheme or revolving loan fund to support staff with ever increasing home energy costs, by helping to fund energy efficiency improvements, PV plus battery storage, etc., especially now we are often adding to such costs at with a greater level of home working.

Any relevant research or information would be gratefully received.

 

RENEW167 - APSE Network Query: How have councils engaged with their staff over UN Sustainable Development Goals?

A member authority is interested to know how any local authorities have engaged with the UN Sustainable Development Goals amongst their staff. This authority’s Sustainability Plan is based around the SDGs but they are looking to develop a way for staff to engage with it.

Have any local authorities developed a network of staff Sustainable Development Goal representatives or something similar such as Green Champions or a Sustainability Network?

 

RENEW165 – Heat pumps in domestic new build projects – 260422

This authority is interested in hearing from others who have examples of developers in their area who are building new properties which are not dependent on gas for heating. They could use heat pumps or district heating.

Number of properties and sites (approx.)

Type of pump (air; ground; water) or district heating?

Any further details would be appreciated such as those looking to install hydrogen ready boilers.

 

RENEW164 – Swimming Pool Covers for Lidos/External Pools – 200422

This authority is looking to install a swimming pool cover on a lido. They are keen to hear from others who have done the same or investigated it. Information regarding expected or actual heat / energy savings would be beneficial as would details of justifications for investing in a cover.

 

RENEW163 – Installing heating improvements in Northern Ireland – 190422

This authority is interested to hear from other NI councils or public sector service providers who have made or are planning improvements in their heating arrangements such as installing heat pumps, micro-CHP or biomass boilers.

 

RENEW162 – Ring-fenced reserve to capture net monetary savings from schemes or projects linked to net zero ambitions – 240322

This authority is considering establishing a ring-fenced reserve to capture net monetary savings from schemes or projects linked to their net zero ambitions. The idea is that this would then give them a pot to fund future initiatives. They are considering returning 50% of any savings to the MTFP.

The authority is interested to hear from other councils who have done something similar and if so, how have they captured the savings and what (on average) have they managed to accrue?

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RENEW161 – Developers and carbon management plans – 240322

This authority is looking at a gap analysis in the areas of planning policy, development management and climate change.

They increasingly have developers submitting carbon management plans, and are finding that they do not have the skills internally to review this work. They are interested to see how other address his work and would be grateful for responses to the following:

• Which officer(s) oversees work on sustainable development, carbon management plans and emissions monitoring of construction/operational phases of development within the local authority?
• In which team / service / department does this officer(s) sit?
• What grade is this officer(s)?
• Can you provide further information about how you deal with developers and carbon management plans?
• Would any member authorities be willing to share the job description of this officer(s)?

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RENEW159 - Examples of collaboration between councils and local business to reduce emissions from transport - 170322

This council is looking for examples of collaborative projects or actions between businesses and local authorities that reduce emissions from transport especially in a city context.

They will be used as prompts in a meeting with local businesses and organisations to show what is already happening and hopefully encourage ideas, to help to identify collaborative actions / activities to reduce emissions.

 

RENEW158 - Climate change KPIs - 250222

This authority is looking to introduce a climate change element into their service reporting structure. They would like to seek the experience and advice of any other councils who have successfully implemented some element of climate tracking into their internal reporting, especially but not limited to:

• Service level carbon footprints
• Service level climate change impact assessments
• Project carbon footprints
• What KPIs are you using to measure this?

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RENEW157 – Installing solar panels on school roofs – 110222

A Member Authority are currently considering installing solar panels on some of its school building roofs. However, they are concerned about what may happen to the panels if the school transfers to an academy at a future date.

The Member Authority would be keen to hear from any other authorities who have been through a similar scenario and would be interest in the arrangements that were put in place and what the outcomes were.

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RENEW156 – Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) of new homes – energy monitoring – 010222

This authority is looking at Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) of its new homes, including Smart meter energy data access and monitoring. They are interested to hear from other authorities who have experience of doing this, and are particularly keen to hear about their experience with the data access, associated software data packages and processes.

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RENEW155 - Area-wide approach to Greenhouse Gas reporting Tool - 260122

This authority is interested in learning more about Greenhouse Gas reporting tools, in particular SCATTER (Setting City Area Targets and Trajectories for Emissions Reduction) and The Net Zero Navigator tool.

They would like to hear from other authorities who have used these tools (or similar) to hear their experiences on:

• Ease of use
• Time spent loading data initially/ ongoing maintenance
• Quality of reports
• Benefits of these tools as opposed to in-house reporting
• Limitations of tools

The authority would also be interested to hear from other authorities who have used both tools and are able to provide a short comparison overview.

Any information on this topic would be gratefully received

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RENEW154 - Battery storage and fire safety

This authority is considering 2 applications for commercial battery storage and they are concerned about fire safety of having read the report attached.

They would like to hear from others who have had experience of dealing with fire safety issues and how they can be adequately addressed through planning process.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

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RENEW153 – Council housing stock and net zero targets – 210122

This local authority has a target for their council housing stock to be net zero by 2040.

This is focussed on offering property upgrades and alternative heating sources to tenants (e.g. district heating, boiler replacement, solar) as well as using a fabric first approach.

They are keen to hear from others regarding the following:-

1. How have you defined ‘net zero’ in terms of your housing stock for those who have a retained stock
2. How have you defined ‘net zero’ in terms of the locality housing stock (private rented, owner occupied, other social housing)
3. What do you see as the local authorities role in meeting ‘net zero’
4. If the role includes investing in new technologies (as noted above) please give a brief about which you have invested in.
5. They are looking at the methodology for measuring carbon emissions from the council housing stock and would like to hear how others calculate and monitor changes in emissions and
6. Whether you have allocated a carbon budget for the stock and how that was calculated