Council's carbon footprint

Moray Council has reduced its carbon footprint by a massive 11,000 tons a year.

That’s the equivalent to the output of 1700 three-bedroom houses.

The authority has just been awarded certificates by power supply company, Scottish and Southern Electricity, to confirm that all its energy is supplied from sustainable hydropower sources.

Schools, swimming pools, libraries, community centres and large council offices are now all powered by electricity generated from water.

In addition to using purely ‘green’ energy, the council has introduced measures to slash its power consumption.

We are improving the insulation of our buildings and are looking at draft proofing to reduce the amount of energy we are using. At our swimming pools we have upgraded the covers to reduce heat loss from the water overnight and we are also looking at lighting projects and replacing old and inefficient lights with low-energy ones.

As a local authority Moray Council has a duty to assess the level of carbon emissions being produced and look at ways of reducing them, and since 2005 the authority has been buying up green energy to reduce its carbon footprint.

The council's main properties used up 25million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

However, by using hydro-generated electricity instead of power from the burning of fossil fuels it was helping to cut carbon dioxide emissions by around 11,000 tonnes.

There is a small premium for buying green energy, but the offset is that we do not pay the Government’s Climate Change Levy.

Energy officer for Moray Council, Bill Anderson, is always on the lookout for new ways to reduce consumption.

Initially employed by the authority 18 months ago to reduce its energy bills and help the council become more environmentally friendly, he has since inspected every energy contract, checked every supplier, and scrutinised every council activity to reduce energy waste.

During his audit he discovered the council was being charged for water in locations where a pipe was not even connected. A large refund followed.

He has engineered the change of all the lights he could to low-energy, saving the council thousands of pounds at a stroke.

Not only has the council drastically reduced its carbon footprint, Council Tax payers have been saved an estimated £400,000 in the process.

"We have introduced low-energy bulbs in council properties everywhere, and created a culture of turning machines, computers and lights off when not in use," said Bill.