Cheltenham Borough Council's story
Cheltenham is a town filled with beautiful historic buildings and includes one of the largest conservation areas in Europe and the Council also has an ambitious Net Zero target for 2030.
CBC started reporting our carbon footprint some years ago and it was clear that we had an energy footprint that could be reduced especially in some of the listed buildings the council owned.
We applied for Public Sector Decarbonisation funding and received a grant large enough for us to install over 230 sub-meters and upgrade all our existing main meters. The platform will enable us to measure and report on our energy usage to all the stakeholders of these buildings encouraging long term behaviour change.
To manage change you have to first measure and report, and this platform will enable us to do that on a daily basis. It offers accessible reporting for everyone who works or plays in our buildings.
Useful learnings from Cheltenham Borough Council
We can preserve our heritage and reduce energy consumption at the same time. It can be more difficult but we don't believe it is impossible. We really want to be an example to others, by reducing the footprint of a grade one listed building. There might be issues regarding planning permission etc, but these can be overcome with communication and careful placement of equipment.
Cheltenham Borough Council's metrics
The aim is to reduce our energy usage in all these buildings by monitoring our usage and engaging all staff to reduce wastage. We will count our success by the overall reduction in KWH