What is Woking Borough Council doing?

Woking's Dynamic Green Initiatives

While world leaders continue to debate environmental issues on a global scale, Woking Borough Council is tackling issues such as global warming and depletion of natural resources locally. From an environmental perspective Woking Borough Council is widely recognised as being the most energy efficient local authority in the country.

A series of printable background case studies are available here. These detail a range of initiatives that the Council has undertaken that contribute to energy conservation and sustainable development in the Borough.

 

  • Woking is believed to be the first UK authority to have adopted a comprehensive climate change strategy on a scale that is likely to meet The Royal Commission on Environmental pollution targets of 60% reductions of CO2 equivalent emissions by 2050 and 80% by 2100.
  • The UK's first sustainable energy 200kWh fuel cell. Fuel cells were originally used in the USA space programme in the 1960's and provided the vital heat, electricity and drinking water to keep space missions going.
  • The first heating and cooling sustainable energy station in the country.
  • In 2000, the Council was granted the Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of its ground-breaking approach to sustainability; Woking is the only local authority honoured with Britain's most coveted commercial award.
  • Through its Environmental Charter and Energy Efficiency Policies the Council has introduced a number of innovative measures to protect the environment and reduce pollution to make Woking a cleaner, greener borough. It has adopted numerous energy and water saving techniques for Council-owned buildings and public places; the revenue saved as a result of these award winning schemes is reinvested in other environmental measures to further improve energy efficiency.
  • Since its energy efficiency and environmental policies were implemented in 1990/91 (the base year), the Council achieved its 5 year target to reduce energy consumption by 20% in 4 years.

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For more details of Woking Borough Council's green initiatives and environmental and sustainable development policies, please contact:

Woking Borough Council
Civic Offices
Gloucester Square
Woking
Surrey
GU21 6YL

Telephone: 01483 755855
email: wokbc@woking.gov.uk