Green Shoots can help – an article in the Municipal Journal

This article was written in the Municipal Journal – please visit here to read it.

Pressure to lower costs can go hand in hand with initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of local authorities, suggests James Swanston

The next few years will see a reduction in local authority budgets of more than one-quarter, together with similar targets for cutting carbon levels.

The fundamental challenge posed by the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) also presents an opportunity for the ‘other’ CSR – corporate and social responsibility to start providing solutions.

But, while corporate and social responsibility can be seen as a mechanism to produce an overall positive impact on society, including a cleaner environment, it can also be aligned with cost-saving measures, since the two go together – cost savings can lead to carbon reductions, while carbon savings and sustainability measures can result in cost reductions.

Transport is a significant element of all government expenditure, and cannot be excluded from spending cuts. And yet transport is a core element of many local services, including emergency services, education, health and welfare.

Sustainable transport strategies can help deliver massive financial savings through improved efficiency, with a minimal impact on underlying services, and savings in the region of 20% are not unrealistic. Local authorities can adapt a number of strategies to address this challenge, using existing technology, solutions and concepts which are already available.

In some respects, the financial spending cuts are not as significant as the legally-binding carbon reduction/management targets being set. Nationally, the UK is meant to reduce its transport-related carbon emissions from 135 to 111 MtCO2e by 2020.

Accurate reporting for Scope 1 and 3 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions is a key component of this, and while more focused on central government at present, it will be quite enlightening to see how successful the recent Revenue and Customs 2010-11 dry run sustainability reporting is, given that public sector spending has not always been that transparent – a fact highlighted by the DCLG when it decided to ‘open the books’ in August 2010.

Ultimately, any new strategy will cost money to implement, whether it is about deploying new technology, training, education, communications, or incentives. However, sustainability-focused transport strategies can have very fast returns on investment.

Consider the case of taxi usage around Whitehall by six central government ministries, which costs around £10m a year – so the total central government cost is significantly more. Imagine if a strategy was implemented whereby all staff had to use public transport, with the exception of key personnel or those who shared, and a shuttle service was set up between key government locations. The cost savings could be immense.

Local authorities have an unenviable task of seeking immediate savings, with more needed in coming years, while not increasing council taxes. This, therefore, requires a rapidly-implemented plan incorporating efficiency, reduced services and new revenue streams.

Here are some generic ideas which may be of use. A key enabler for any idea is robust management information to make the right decisions – and often this is not available.

Fleet management

Greater fuel efficiency can be achieved through driver training in a very quick space of time, and some telematic devices can provide a more sophisticated solution to enable this, as well.

Another option is to use hybrid vehicles, but this is obviously a more expensive proposition in the short term, depending on funding arrangements, and also are less effective than highly-efficient diesel vehicles on highways.

Consideration should also be given to whether an organisation actually needs its own vehicles, or whether it could share a fleet with an adjoining local authority.

Alternatively, there may be some merit in seeing whether a fleet size needs to be maintained or whether there are car clubs/car hire schemes that could be used, enabling an authority to see off under-utilised fleet vehicles.

Car parking

Where councils operate their own parking facilities, consideration should be given to changing the tariff structure to something that is based on a vehicle’s carbon emissions, and incorporate special rates for car sharing.

Not only can this provide a new revenue stream, but would start to address carbon and air-quality issues by incorporating special rates for car sharing. It could also start to reduce the horrific rates of single car occupancy and congestion while, at the same time, free up car parking spaces that can then generate more revenue.

Incentivising staff in local authorities to walk, cycle or use public transport would have health benefits, and also help free up parking spaces for members of the public or local businesses.

Shared services

Given the 30-40% empty running/dead mileage rates in taxis and private hire vehicles, as well as road freight, collaboration between neighbouring local authorities could look to fill these empty vehicles for a discount.

Procurement processes should factor in opportunities to work with other organisations and, if an office is located in a business park, there are opportunities to have a shared taxi service or shuttle bus schemes.

Change is inevitable because of cost pressures, but it is still useful to understand some of the barriers that organisations and individuals need to address. Competition for scarce resources will become greater, inefficient procurement mechanisms need to be removed, employee terms and conditions may need to change, and organisational change must be fully supported from the top-down.

Staff will need to trust new strategies and have the right incentives and information in place to support change, and understand just how new approaches can help maintain key services and protect jobs. Harsh decisions may be needed to meet the current financial landscape, but there are also opportunities to create local services that are more sustainable in economic and environmental terms.

Those who support the need to address climate change should appreciate the need for urgent action, while those who are sceptical will hopefully discover just how neatly financial and environmental savings can go together.