1 - Leading by example
We strongly believe that in order to ask others to make the necessary changes to their organisations and lives, we must be seen to be leading on making these changes ourselves. By seeking to set ever higher standards, we can offer advice and share best practice to make it easier for others to follow, signposting to other leaders along the way.
Ongoing and completed
We are already on our way to understanding how our staff travel to and from work and will proceed by promoting lift-sharing and public transport options. We have introduced a staff cycle purchase scheme through salary sacrifice, to encourage modal shift and help reduce our commuter transport emissions. We continue to consider flexible and home-working options to reduce the emissions from commuting and building use.
In addition to this, charging points for the Mayors electric car will be installed at Swindon Road in 2022, coinciding with the arrival of the first two electric vehicles as part of the Ubico fleet, as we begin our transition away from fossil fuel consuming vehicles. In support of this, during 2022, we will be changing some of our UBICO fleet to run on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), a fuel with much lower carbon emissions.
To improve our ways of engaging with communities, we are trialling two different platforms which encourage democratic participatory processes and stakeholder involvement, one of which is under the Cheltenham Zero Partnership. We have already had many positive interactions through our online consultation and engagement hub and the Cheltenham Zero website and we are continuing to explore ways to get the most out of these sites. These sites not only allow us to hear the views of Cheltenham residents and businesses, but also provide a platform for us to share updates and case studies from ourselves and other organisations. In this way, we hope to inspire and encourage others to join us on the journey to net zero.
Actions
Priority in 2021-23
- Report our carbon footprint annually and encourage others to follow suit. Endeavour to be more thorough and precise over time and include more of our impact year on year
- Commit to lobbying higher levels of government for stronger climate action and greater support to local authorities to help facilitate them making a difference
- Introduce compulsory ‘Carbon Literacy Training’ to the Council and partners and commit to 100% of the Council’s officers, staff and elected members gaining a Carbon Literacy certification
- Develop case studies to share our experience in implementing climate initiatives, learnings and success stories, to help others learn from our actions, replicate, or ideally, do better
Priority in 2024-26
- Keep the public informed about our progress in meeting or missing our climate targets
Priority in 2027-28
- Develop, or help facilitate through the Local Resilience Forum, a strategy for locally addressing epidemics and pandemics as part of our wider climate actions
- Leverage our position as ‘The Festival Town’ to drive change through the development of a more sustainable and carbon friendly events strategy