Agenda item

The Head of Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) presented the report on the service's Environmental Sustainability Plan 2024-29.

Climate change was already having an impact on the Fire and Rescue Service; the service was responding to new and evolving risks, such as wildfires, and new technologies designed to address climate change, including electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and highly insulated buildings. Rising temperatures would have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable, such as reducing food and water availability. Changing heating systems, insulating buildings, moving to an alternatively fuelled fleet and planting trees was essential in contributing to net zero, however, environmental sustainability was much wider.

The Climate Change Act 2008 committed the UK government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels (net zero) by 2050 whilst the Paris Agreement committed the UK and other countries to a global temperature rise this century of below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Since launching LFRS’s Carbon Management Plan in 2009 the service had made good progress in terms of reducing its carbon footprint, however Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) recognised there was more work to do. Environmental enhancements on LFRS premises had been made as part of business-as-usual (BAU) investment, for example new build premises meeting Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) standards, boiler replacement and LED light installs. The Service had not used dedicated funding for aspects such as photovoltaic installations, in order to make further process this approach needed to be reconsidered in conjunction with our wider Estates Strategy. A similar approach had been taken to the LFRS fleet, with BAU investment providing environmental enhancements as technology had changed.

Since 2009 LFRS had been monitoring use of gas, electricity, fleet vehicle fuel and water on the services sites. Conversion factors were applied using a toolkit to generate a carbon emissions total with the target of reducing this by 40% (initially by 2020 and then extended to 2030 following CFA approval). The conversion factors for emissions were kept constant and therefore never fully reflected any changes such as decarbonisation of the grid, however based on this toolkit, as of 31st March 2024, fuel, gas and electric emissions had reduced by 25.4%. Water emissions had reduced by 30.1%. 

A new Environmental Sustainability Plan was proposed for LFRS and this plan outlined the initial actions the service must take in order to continue to reduce the organisations environmental impact. This plan aimed to outline LFRSs commitment to minimising its impact on the environment and to provide a clear approach to the progress of actions that would contribute to the long-term achievement of becoming a Net Zero organisation. This was the first of five, 5-Year Plans in the journey to Net Zero by 2050.

The governance of the revised plan would be overseen through the Health, Safety and Environment Advisory Group (HSEAG) and annual reporting to the CFA as part of the Annual SHE Report. 

The Carbon Management Team had been renamed the Environment and Sustainability Group and would continue to be responsible for practical implementation and delivery of the areas outlined within the plan.

County Councillor J Singleton remarked that since 2009 the team had established good improvements.

The Chair remarked that it was good to see momentum behind the agenda.

Resolved: That the Planning Committee support the revised approach with the adoption of the new plan with the long term net-zero aspirational vision for the Service.