Purpose
This review presents the annual carbon footprint report for the financial year April 2022 to March 2023 (referred to as 2022/23), the report describes the greenhouse gas emissions produced by Devon County Councils activity. These emissions are compared to previous years’ data and our baseline year of April 2012 to March 2013 (referred to as 2012/13).
The Carbon Reduction Plan sets out the activities we are implementing now and over the next 6 years to achieve carbon neutrality and become net-zero by 2030.
Summary
- Overall, we are 56% below the baseline figure of 2012/13 and 6% in comparison to 2021/22. We are ahead of target to achieve a 70% reduction by 2030.
- Our emissions totalled just under 19,500 tonnes of carbon, decreasing about 4,000 tonnes below 19/20 and over 24,400 tonnes below the baseline year 12/13.
- Business travel, home-working and commuting emissions increasing may be linked to growth in staff members but has still not reached pre pandemic levels.
- Positively emissions are on a downward trend from previous years, this is a result of the replacement of older boilers through the maintenance programme, LED light installation, purchasing of electric vehicles, staff reducing their travel for work, and retrofitting of 9 buildings.
Source of Emissions
The biggest contributors to Devon County Councils carbon footprint emerged as school transport (taxis and buses) followed by street lighting and then the County Council’s buildings. The pie chart displays the amount in tonnes of carbon and the percentage.
Progress
This bar chart shows the gross corporate greenhouse gas emissions for each year. Included is a green line showing the level below which our emissions need to be to reach our target of reducing gross corporate emissions by 70% by 2030 from 2012/13 levels. You can see emissions are below the line and we are ahead of where we need to be to meet our reduction targets.
Actions
- Increasing the efficiency of street lighting – to reduce consumption
and a saving of £4,948,292 in 2022/23. - Public Sector Decarbonisation Funding saw retrofitting solar PV arrays generate renewable electricity saving about £50,000 and 50 tonnes of carbon, whilst air source heat pumps generated renewable heat.
- Gradual improvement in the carbon intensity of staff vehicles and now investing in
electric vehicles and charging points.
and a saving of £4,948,292 in 2022/23.Offsets
We are still looking to offset the residual emissions through certified 
carbon offsetting mechanisms in the United Kingdom to achieve ‘net-zero emissions’.
We have built our experience in carbon offsetting by attempting to purchase Peatland or Woodland Carbon Units to offset the remaining carbon footprint from 5% in 2019/20 to 100% by 2030/31. However, there are very few available up to 2030/31 under these codes. Going forward in 2023/24, we will have to look at credible carbon credits certified under other codes, which we can retire in 2030/31.
Additionally, we bought 11 hectares of land near Okehampton to trial a more direct approach to
offsetting; providing benefits for wildlife and public access. We are applying for grant
money to plant the trees over the next 2 winters and have registered the project with the Woodland Carbon Code.
Success
