Climate Change Action Plan for Swindon Borough 2006-2010

In April 2004 the Swindon Strategic Partnership (SSP) launched its Community Strategy for Swindon for the period 2004-2010: “Our Swindon, Our Community, Our Future”. One of the six main themes of that strategy was an aspiration to make the Borough a place that values its environment. Key to meeting the challenge of creating a sustainable environment for the area was the development of a Climate Change Action Plan. This document is therefore the first step along a pathway that will lead to Swindon becoming climate responsive.

The Climate Change Action Plan can be accessed by clicking on the links below. The whole document is 90 pages in length, so it has been split up into manageable sections as shown below:

• Contents
• Foreword and Intro
• Swindon Climate Change Action Plan
• Awareness Raising
• Planning and Development
• Energy
• Transport
• Waste
• Water
• Biodiversity and Natural Environment
• Food
• Health
• Pulling it all Together
• Appendices and Tables

Climate Change - 2007 Update

Swindon Borough Council has been working hard to ensure it delivers its commitments in the Climate Change Action Plan to help tackle climate change in Swindon. Progress has been made in a number of key areas including:

• A new officer group ‘Sustainability Steering Group’ has been established to direct and oversee activity across the Council.
• The new Supplementary Planning Guidance for Sustainable Design and Construction has been revised to include some challenging targets for sustainable development. These include a requirement for Code 3 homes and 20% renewable or efficient regulated energy from January 2008.
• The Council has been accepted onto the Carbon Trust Local Authority Management programme to identify its own CO² emissions and produce a fully resourced plan by March 2008 to reduce them.
• The Council now purchases 85% ‘green’ energy for all buildings.
• Over 40 ‘green’ champions across the Council are promoting a new campaign to make sure staff switch off their PC’s and monitors when they go to meetings, take breaks and go home – it is estimated the Council will save at least 1% on its energy bill.
• The new Swindon Eco-Schools Best Practice Guide has been published and is available to all schools to help them reduce their environmental impacts and gain ‘green flag’ accreditation.
• The new Swindon Energy Project Officer has been appointed. Their role is to reduce fuel poverty and tackle climate change by promoting home energy efficiency to all Swindon resident’s particularly young parents and young people.