Council wins top Energy Efficiency Award

Ashfield District Council has won a top award at the prestigious annual Energy Efficiency Awards.

The Council was crowned ‘Council of the Year’ for the East Midlands region in the ‘Energy Efficiency Regional Awards’. In particular, the award was for delivering the successful insulation of 104 bungalows across the district over the past 12 months.

This included the installation and replacement of external wall and roof Insulation, as well as new ventilation and heating upgrades carried out by the Council's major works contractor J Tomlinson Ltd

This is part of a larger approach to investing in energy efficient upgrades to help transition the Council’s housing portfolio of 6,632 homes to become carbon neutral.

In addition to housing, the Council is working across all its other service areas towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030 or sooner. Already, the Council’s actions have seen its carbon emissions decrease by 25% over the last eight years. Meanwhile, the Council’s electricity consumption from local solar power has risen by 428% since 2015.

This has been helped by installing solar panels across a variety of Council-owned buildings, including the newest installation at Hucknall Leisure Centres new pool which has been installed to offset the running cost for the new facilities.

This is being driven forward in ADC’s new Climate Change Strategy and Carbon Management Plan. The Council has also appointed a Climate Change Officer working across the District to co-ordinate activity and drive further reductions.

Leader of Ashfield District Council, Councillor Jason Zadrozny, said:

“This is brilliant news and a real accolade for the team. Tackling climate change is an urgent priority and not something we can simply pass onto the next generation. As a Council, we have worked to embed the aim of reducing carbon emissions throughout all our processes, including energy, waste and ways in which we procure services.”

He added: “We are making real progress – but there’s always more to do. With that in mind we will continue to push hard with our ambitious climate change strategy over the next four years.”