Greenhouse gas emissions

Director's report 2022 to 2023

GHG Emissions Report 2022-2023 overall emissions

Company name

Hampshire County Council is a local authority whose headquarters are based at:

The Castle
Winchester
Hampshire
SO23 8ZB

Reporting period

1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023

Change in Emissions

The County Council’s overall reported net emissions have decreased by 15.8% this year, compared to 2021-22, to 43,439 tonnes of CO2e. This good progress has been achieved through significant reductions across all three of the Scopes 1, 2 and 3. Scope 1 emissions have decreased by 15% due to reductions in heating emissions and continued progress in the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil in the vehicle fleet. Scope 2 emissions have decreased by 26% due to reductions in grid consumption, an improvement in the national grid conversion factor and through the adoption of a renewable energy tariff. Emissions from the limited categories of Scope 3 reporting have decreased by 12%, largely due to improvements in national conversion factors.

Scope 1 emissions from heating fuels in HCC buildings have decreased by 14% from 2021/22. The main heating fuel used is natural gas and over the past two reporting years, 2020/21 and 2021/22, the trend had been an increase in usage, due to an increased need to ventilate sites for the requirements during the COVID pandemic as well as reduced occupancy and ICT equipment resulting in lower internal heat gains. However, gas usage in 2022/23 shows a change in that trend, with emissions from natural gas usage decreasing by 1.36% compared to the last full pre-pandemic reporting year of 2019/20. Oil usage has again seen a significant decrease due to some sites converting to natural gas or LPG, with a 10% increase in LPG usage from the 2021/22 reporting year. Some of these oil conversions have been part of the County Council’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) funded programme of works, alongside double-glazed window replacements, cavity wall insulation and new heating controls across hundreds of sites. This reporting year was the first year to see a full 12 months’ impact of these improvement works on Scope 1 emissions.

For our fleet and pool cars the continued use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) in the fleet this year has resulted in significant carbon savings. Use of HVO fuel in lieu of diesel has increased by 57% from the previous year, resulting in a saving of 1,196 tonnes of CO2e against the equivalent usage of diesel. Previously we have reported on the AlphaCity pool cars. These have been replaced by HCC’s own 7 electric pool cars, with a total usage of 19,047 miles this year and, as they are predominantly charged on HCC charge points, their emissions are counted within our Scope 2 reporting.

In the built estate, electricity grid consumption has decreased by 12% since 2021/22. The reduced consumption along with the electricity conversion factor decreasing by 9%, due to the continued greening of the grid, has seen the total gross emissions for electricity consumption on the built estate decrease by 20%. A major contribution to these reductions is from the 258 solar photovoltaic roof projects completed as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme as well as completing energy efficiency and behaviour change initiatives across the built estate.

Electricity consumption from street lighting has decreased by 20% due to the introduction of changes to part-night lighting arrangements. The majority of corporate sites and all HCC provided street lighting have been signed up to a Renewable Energy Green Tariff for the entirety of this reporting year. This tariff has reduced our net carbon emissions by a further 5,636 tonnes taking the total reduction in Scope 2 emissions to 26% from 2021/22.

Total Scope 3 emissions, limited to those that we report on, have decreased by 12% from 2021/22. This is the second reporting year of the expanded Scope 3 reporting including waste generated in operations and business travel expenses for public transport. While it is not HCC’s role as a local authority to dispose of the waste it generates, it is the waste generated in our business operations including schools we are reporting on. This totalled 7,078 tonnes of waste collected in 2022/23 equalling 146 tonnes of CO2e, a 4% increase in the quantity of waste collected but a decrease of 6% in emissions due mainly to lower emissions factors for the disposal of waste. Business travel from 2021/22 now includes expense claims for public transport as an agreed methodology has been used to convert money spent to distance travelled to convert to carbon emissions. Public transport includes rail, bus, ferry and air travel and equated to 74 tonnes of CO2e in 2022/23. Private vehicle mileage increased by 20% to 8,977,042 miles from 2021/22 as we return to more normal ways of working after the pandemic but still down from 2019/20. This year the emissions from private vehicle mileage is 2,482 tonnes of CO2e. Water consumption has decreased by 20% from 21-22, also impacting waste water reporting as 95% of water supplied is presumed waste water. The emissions from both of these totalled 261 tonnes of CO2e in 2022/23.

Approach

We have followed the Government’s Guidance on how to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions along with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We used the 2022 conversion factors to calculate the figures.

Organisational boundary

We have used the Financial Control model as the basis to calculate our emissions.

For further details relating to specific areas included in this report, refer to GHG Emissions Report 2022-2023 Inclusions and Exclusions

Operational scopes

We have measured our Scope 1, 2 and limited Scope 3 emissions.

Scope 1

Source	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2022 to 2023	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2021 to 2022	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2020 to 2021
Fleet vehicles and pool cars (HTM1)	515	797	2,207
Fleet vehicles and pool cars (HTM2)	0	0	12
Buildings: natural gas	22,524	25,827	23,926
Buildings: burning oil	335	415	387
Buildings: gas oil	630	1,240	1,671
Buildings: LPG	428	389	443
Scope 1 total	24,433	28,668	28,646

Scope 2

Source	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2022 to 2023	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2021 to 2022	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2020 to 2021
Electricity generation (purchased): buildings	9,761	12,218	11,937
Electricity generation (purchased): street lighting	2,569	3,194	4,542
Scope 2 total	12,330	15,412	16,480

Limited Scope 3

Source	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2022 to 2023	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2021 to 2022	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2020 to 2021
Business travel - Private cars	2,428	2,046	1,360
Business travel - Public transport	74	23
Buildings: water supply	96	119	208
Buildings: water treatment	166	206	407
Waste Generated in Operations	146	156

Indirect emissions

Source	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2022 to 2023	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2021 to 2022	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2020 to 2021
WTT: fleet vehicles and pool cars (HTM1)	287	256	534
WTT: fleet vehicles and pool cars (HTM2)	0	0	3
WTT: buildings - natural gas (indirect)	3,837	4,421	3,111
WTT: buildings - burning oil (indirect)	70	86	81
WTT: buildings - gas oil (indirect)	145	284	383
WTT: buildings - LPG (indirect)	51	46	54
Transmission and distribution (purchased electricity): buildings	893	1,081	1,027
Transmission and distribution (purchased electricity): street lighting	235	283	391
WTT: UK electricity generation: buildings	2,334	3,182	1,647
WTT: UK electricity generation: street lighting	614	832	627
WTT: UK electricity transmissions and distribution: buildings	214	281	142
WTT: UK electricity transmission and distribution: street lighting	56	74	54
WTT: Business travel - Private vehicles	651	542	351
WTT: Business travel - Public transport	16	4
Transmission and Distribution (T&D) for EVs Business Travel-Private vehicles	1	1
Scope 3 total	12,313	13,922	10,380

Overall total

GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2022-23	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2021-22	GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2e 2020-21
43,439	51,602	51,170

GHG Emissions Report 2022-2023 yearly comparison figures

Geographic breakdown

The figures relate to UK emissions only. Hampshire County Council has no business interests outside of the UK.

Base year

Following changes in the data collection process, our emissions figures were restated and therefore 2013/14 is taken as the baseline year. In 2021/22 we expanded our Scope 3 reporting to include commercial waste generated by HCC operations and business travel by public transport.

Targets

Following the declaration of a Climate Emergency in July 2019 a target has been set to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Intensity measurement

The intensity measurement is tonnes of CO2_e per GIA m² of the estate as this is the most appropriate way to measure the intensity for the public sector.

This has decreased from 0.035 to 0.03 tonnes of CO2_e per m² of the estate from 2021/22 to 2022/23.

Carbon offsets

The County Council does not currently purchase carbon offsets.

Green tariffs

From October 2020, as part of our gas and electricity contracts, there was the option for our sites to sign up to purchase a renewable electricity tariff. Renewable Electricity Guarantees of Origin (REGO) is a renewable electricity tariff backed by certification that allows for the traceability of energy supply and the opportunity for reporting zero carbon emissions under the Greenhouse Gas reporting protocol (2015). In this report 29,146,933 kWh was consumed on the green tariff, the equivalent of 5,636 tonnes of CO2e.