Adur and Worthing Councils are reducing carbon emissions across the area to meet their pledge of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. As part of their carbon reduction activities, they have installed ground source heat pumps at two sheltered housing developments in Adur. Tollbridge House and Shadwell Court were identified as having aging and unreliable gas-fired heating systems with poor energy efficiency ratings. The decision was made to insulate both buildings and replace their heating systems with ground source heat pumps to ensure that residents had access to reliable heating and hot water and to significantly cut carbon emissions. Ground source heat pumps harness natural heat from the earth by pumping a glycol solution through underground pipes. The pump then increases the water temperature so it can be used for heating or hot water. The project was part-funded by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), and a successful bid saw nearly a million pounds of grant funding secured to complete the works. Installation is in its final stages at both locations, with all works set to complete in mid 2022. The project will see 52 flats and two communal areas connected to clean, renewable heating systems across both sites. Individual shared-loop ground source heat pumps are being installed at both Tollbridge House and Shadwell Court by contractors, Kensa Contracting. This means that every property will have their own heat pump connected to a communal ground loop. This reduces heat loss and enables independent heat control and billing for each household. Sunamp UniQ Dual Port Heat Batteries are also being installed in each apartment to provide efficient hot water heating. The installations at Tollbridge House and Shadwell Court will turn off 10% of Adur and Worthing Councils’ emissions in a single project. We believe that by tackling our biggest emission offenders and working at scale, we can have a significant and positive impact on our local carbon footprint.
Carbon Copy (accessed) 15th May 2022 read more »
Concerns have been raised that Scottish local authorities are “massively underestimating” their carbon footprints, after an external review of one council’s climate pollution saw its reported emissions quadruple in one year. East Renfrewshire Council’s emissions rose from 14,971 tonnes of carbon dioxide under the old reporting model in 2019-20, to 59,988 tonnes in 2020-21. The increase came after the authority hired environmental consultants, Aether and Accelar Ltd, to calculate its contribution to the climate crisis. The consultants produced the first “robust” analysis of climate emissions from the council’s supply chain – also known as Scope 3 emissions – which caused the major rise in reported pollution. Currently, there is no standard system for reporting scope 3 emissions, and councils can report these as they see fit. They can also choose not to report on them.
The Ferret 14th May 2022 read more »