Newham Council’s cabinet has approved in principle to introduce measures to decarbonise its Dockside headquarters involving new LED efficient lighting and more energy efficient heating systems.
The council has agreed the installation of solar voltaic panels and a ground and water source heat pump that will heat the Dockside building and make a significant impact on reducing the Council’s carbon footprint.
The investment in the decarbonisation measures, funded by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and costing around £2,250,000 will allow for new solar panels and a LED lighting solutions to be extended to both wings of the Dockside building, extending a previous plan that covered the previously West Wing only. It is hoped that the works will be completed by 31 March 2022.
Replacing the Water Source and Ground Source heat pump with an Air source heat pump is estimated to deliver 70% savings in gas consumption, or approximately 320 tonnes of carbon per year.
Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz OBE said: “We are taking action on Climate change and leading by example. Every action that we can take to make our heating methods more efficient to reduce our carbon footprint makes a difference.
As a Council, we have been determined to play our part since we declared a climate emergency back in 2019, with an action plan. It’s fitting that during the period of COP 26 the cabinet has given agreement in principle for these works to go ahead, delivering on a commitment that we made in our Climate Emergency Action plan to set out a path to become carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050.”
Councillor Terence Paul, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources said: “Cabinet has sent a signal that we mean what we say about making council buildings more energy efficient and also saving the council and residents money. The Carbon savings will be 320 tonnes per year and the financial savings will be £220,000 from the financial year 2022/23.
“The council’s carbon reduction strategy commits the organisation to lead by example through procurement, and this includes our energy reduction measures.”
The Council has committed to become to carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050. The Council’s approach to the climate emergency is set out in ‘Newham Climate Now’ and the ‘Towards a Better Newham’ COVID-19 recovery strategy. It was also a signatory to the UK100, a network of highly ambitious local government leaders who seek to implement clean energy in the fight against climate change.