Our action to tackle climate change

Our climate emergency declaration set ambitious targets for us to become carbon neutral in our operations by December 2025 and to work together with partners, communities and businesses to help achieve a net zero carbon borough by December 2030.

Our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy outlines how we are taking action and our progress below highlights some of the things we've done so far.

Our progress

View our carbon footprint page for a snapshot of the council and boroughs carbon emissions

We have already:

• switched to a new energy contact so we now power our offices with 100% renewable electricity
• installed electric vehicle charging points on our land and in our car parks, including creating Hampshire's first publicly owned charging hub in Basingstoke town centre
• brought electric cars into our fleet and swapped diesel for low-carbon biofuel in grass mowers, tipper trucks and street sweepers
• had solar panels installed on several council-owned buildings and teamed up with Hampshire County Council and other local authorities for Solar Together – a group-buying solar scheme for residents.
• launched climate change toolkits to support people, community organisations and businesses to take action
• encouraged carbon-cutting action by communities, including award a £17,000 grant to community energy societies to take forward projects generating zero-emission electricity
• helped residents and companies access over £1 million worth of grants to make homes and businesses more sustainable
• improved the energy efficiency of our offices, including installing a fresh-air cooling system at our Civic Offices that is both environmentally friendly and has helped us save £9,500 a year
• set up a group of Environment Champions to promote sustainable practices among staff
• introduced a campaign and fines to prevent idling vehicles creating air pollution
• adopted a transport strategy with a focus on encouraging more sustainable transport including cycling and walking

We continue to work on:

• supporting our innovative Green Team to encourage even greater carbon-cutting action by communities and businesses
• making buildings we own more energy efficient, including looking to invest over half a million pounds to power more of our community centres with solar panels
• swapping our waste and recycling vehicles to low-carbon biofuel in the spring, cutting emissions from our operations by over 1,000 tonnes a year
• putting forward proposals for more sustainable homes as we update our Local Plan that guides development with strong low-carbon policies
• making it easier to walk and cycle and taking forward ambitious plans to increase the number of on-street electric vehicle chargers, working with the county council.

Contact the team

We are continuously looking at greener ways of delivering council services as well as how we can enable and inspire greater climate-positive action by communities, businesses and local organisations.

If you have ideas you would like to share with us or have an enquiry about climate change and sustainability, send a message to the Climate Change Team