With the help of the Carbon Trust, Brighton and Hove City Council plans to cut its carbon emissions by 20% by 2012, and the Council already purchases 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. The Council’s Jubilee Library, one of the most energy efficient public buildings in the UK, has won several awards including the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award. Recently, the Council’s Head of Sustainability and Environmental Policy, Thurston Crockett, won the ‘Global to Local Foundation Prize’ national award, for contributing the most to a significant cultural shift towards Climate Change at a local authority. Mel Poluck spoke to him to learn his secrets of success.

What projects are you currently working on?

“We’re looking into large scale renewable [energy] plans for Shoreham Harbour and planning to establish a pool of expertise in sustainable development. There are a lot of people involved in the environment working nationally and internationally, living in Brighton and Hove and we’re keen to tap into them. We could get advice from the experts.”

What has helped boost the overall success of low carbon initiatives at the council?

“Getting the previous leader of the council and the Chief Executive to sign the Nottingham Declaration and sign up to a Carbon Management Programme with the Carbon Trust. Also we’re quite demanding – you’ve got to hold the line on what’s really important to you and stick to your guns.”

Do you work in partnerships with other organisations?

“We’re in the throes of [helping] create a Climate Change Strategy Group in the local strategic partnership (LSP) including the Environment Agency and Friends of the Earth. I’m proposing they model themselves on the Birmingham LSP who produced their own climate change strategy.”

What is one of your proudest “green” achievements?

“I was proud of us winning the South East Renewable Energy award [for Local Authority Commitment] last November”

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

“The rate of speed of demands and keeping up with the pace of change of new policy development. There are challenges in relation to organisational culture too. Most councils are really like working for 50 organisations, each with their own culture. Inevitably you come up against resistant ones.”

How do you deal with that?

“Win awards! Senior officers and members like awards. And you need to build the political consensus behind climate change, ensuring you’re briefing political groups all along. It’s also about picking the time well”

How do you encourage the public to become more environmentally conscious?

“We’ve been innovative in raising awareness of climate change through evening classes and working with estate agents on Home Information Packs (HIPS) – we’ve found independent estate agents locally to be quite progressive.

There’s also a way of doing group learning through a game [Climate Talk] from the New Economics Foundation. We want to trial it and give feedback on it.”

What emerging trends do you predict?

“I think there will be a backlash against micro-wind [turbines]. There’s a growing feeling some manufacturer’s claims about efficiency or output of micro-wind turbines haven’t lived up to real life practicalities. I’m a lot less convinced than I was a year ago.”

What’s the most important emerging technology for sustainability in the public sector?

“Biomass boilers and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) are about to take off. We’ve made tentative moves towards the use of marine power. A tidal lock at Brighton Marina that would fill up at high tide could drive a 25 kilowatt turbine. It’s relatively straightforward technology. We’re keen things like that get developed”

Is central government supportive of councils striving to reduce carbon?

“There are mixed messages from central government. It’s not concerted enough. You need visionary politicians or very pushy individuals as officers.”

Should councils take a role in terms of supplying renewable energy on a wide scale?

“I think there may be a need for authorities to return to the old-school municipal model of supplying utility services. In years gone by, you found councils were involved in supplying power to citizens. Councils have land. If they chose to, they could use that to generate power. They need to be imaginative.”

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Best Practice Ideas

Please visit the Forum here and share a tip that you have for organisations to reduce their carbon emissions. Often the very simplest ideas can have the greatest effect in reducing carbon emissions:

• Start an employment suggestion scheme - empower people, make people feel responsible.
  (Linzie Forrester, Sustainability Programme Manager, AMEC)

• Spread the word within your company or organisation about any energy saving work you are doing. At Debenhams, for example, members of staff received, with their payslip, a 'Hello' magazine-style case study on energy reduction work undertaken at another store.
  (Alan Carter, Energy Manager, Debenhams)

• Think about your heating levels - manual workers, such as cleaners, don't need the same levels of heating as office workers.
  (Bob Stiff, Energy Manager, Brunel University)

• When it comes to implementing micro-renewable energy sources, now is the time for the "early movers." Anyone doing it now will get more media coverage than anyone doing it in the future. Media coverage should also be factored in to calculating payback periods.
  (Toby Sawday, Business Development and Sustainability Manager, Alastair Sawday Publishing)