Reducing the council's emissions

Herefordshire Council has committed to reduce our carbon emissions to net zero by 2030.

Herefordshire Council has made significant progress in reducing its carbon emissions from operational activity. The 2024/25 figures demonstrate a 64% reduction from the 2008/09 baseline. The new carbon management plan details a continuation of this work for 2026/27 to 2030/31 and sets out how the council can continue to reduce its emissions, and achieve further savings by the end of this period.

The carbon management plan supports the Herefordshire Council Plan 2024-28 priorities and aims to reduce carbon emissions and achieve improved energy efficiency, energy resilience and costs savings. The plan is a key enabler towards these goals.

Target benefits include:

• Improving the energy efficiency of buildings to reduce council expenditure and secure energy resilience
• Increased use of renewable energy where appropriate to support energy and business resilience of the organisation, reducing reliance on price-volatile imported fuel supply, and delivering long-term savings
• Maximising potential for reduced air pollution to improve public health, particularly older population with respiratory conditions, and younger children

View the Carbon Management Plan 2026/27 to 2030/31

Emission sources and progress

Herefordshire Council provides a wide range of local services and functions. Greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the energy we use to operate the buildings and vehicles required to deliver those services.

Buildings include offices, libraries, museums and community spaces. This also includes all of the street lighting in the county. The fuels used are electricity and gas.

Vehicles include our own fleet, staff travel and those used by contractors collecting waste and maintaining the highways and public spaces. The fuels used are diesel and petrol.

We have produced emissions reports since 2008/09 and we track our progress reducing emissions from this baseline year. Since 2008/09 our emissions have reduced by 64%.

This has been achieved by:

• Purchasing 100% renewable energy for use in the council's own buildings and street lighting
• Installing solar PV systems on offices and schools
• Using LED lights in buildings and for street lighting
• Replacing fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles
• Better use of energy for heating and cooling, to avoid waste

There are full details of the emissions in our greenhouse gas emissions report 2024-25.

For further information, email energy@herefordshire.gov.uk