Lead Organisation
Sustainability West Midlands Project Manager: Alan Carr (Senior Sustainability Adviser)Overview
Cheshire East Council (CEC), along with many other local authorities, are increasingly concerned about climate change and how it could impact on its services and local communities. As a result, the council declared a climate emergency back in May and set a new ambitious target: to be carbon neutral by 2025. As such, CEC sought support from SWM to help facilitate a workshop for Councillors and senior council leaders to invite them to propose ideas for how this target can be achieved.Aims of the workshop
- To outline to Councillors and senior managers the scale of the challenge to become carbon neutral by 2025.
- To hear their ideas on projects and interventions to ensure this target is achievable.
- To provide an initial starting point to developing a series of activities that can be taken forward by CEC to reflect the magnitude of change that is required.
Results and achievements
SWM was invited to participate in this workshop due to our extensive track record in supporting local authorities and our expertise in supporting such events. We were able to bring a fresh perspective as well as an element of focus to proceedings. This enabled the workshop to:- Provide useful examples of why achieving carbon neutrality is important aside from tacking climate change, e.g. through benefits to reducing fuel poverty, improving air quality and economic growth.
- Provide a platform for attendees to express their views on what the council needs to do to adequately reflect the importance of climate change.
- Enable the generation of ideas to take forward to ensure the ambitious carbon target will be met via the implementation of projects.
“CEC was pleased to invite SWM to participate in the facilitation of our Carbon Neutral workshop. We recognised their track record in running similar sessions and supporting local authorities, as well as their engaging and organised approach to facilitation. SWM’s support in the workshop has helped us to determine a series of next steps that will enable CEC to achieve its ambitious carbon neutral target and tackle climate change.” – Ralph Kemp, Head of Environmental Services, Cheshire East Council.
