Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2023 to 2024

In February 2024 we delivered our first in-house Carbon Literacy Training using material and trainers suitably accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project. 16 officers subsequently received their Carbon Literate accreditation. This built upon two external training sessions delivered in November 2023 to 18 officers. This brings the total number of officers certified as Carbon Literate to 59, alongside a number of members who were also trained in 2022. Buckinghamshire Council have been a Bronze tier Carbon Literate Organisation since June 2023.

In July we ran an online survey for those who had completed Carbon Literacy training, to get their feedback. All respondents indicated that they would recommend Carbon Literacy training to colleagues. Respondents reported a range of ways that they had been able to use their Carbon Literacy training, from improving their own knowledge on the topic to influencing their behaviour, for example, in recycling and reuse, or their driving choices.

The council has encouraged staff to adopt more sustainable behaviours through a variety of means including:

• promoting the “BetterPoints Bucks Workplace Challenge” over 8 weeks in October and November 2023
• highlighting key points from the Annual Climate Change & Air Quality Strategy Progress Report in November 2023
• the December issues of “Spotlight on Planning, Growth & Sustainability” included tips on energy saving at home
• The Council ran a re-usable cup competition for three months from January to March 2024
• The Council’s Energy Management Team ran an internal campaign including an information stand in Walton Street during “Big Energy Saving Week” in January 2024
• officers from the Climate Response and Waste Prevention teams ran a pop stand in the Walton St. Offices focussing on reducing plastic use on 28th February 2024
• the Strategic Environmental Protection Team produced an article our Together weekly update from 19th June 2024 about Clean Air Day
• Millie, who has featured in every Progress Report since 2021/22, wrote a staff blog for Plastic Free July about her experience of reducing plastic consumption. Millie is a passionate campaigner in this area and has written about her plastic free journey during Plastic Free July in 2022, 2023 and 2024!
• promotion of two new e-bike schemes launched in Bucks via the Council wide weekly update newsletter (July 2023)

Launched in January 2023, BetterPoints Bucks is a behaviour change programme, underpinned by academic research, that incentivises and rewards people for making positive changes to their lives. Delivered through an app and online platform it enables Local Authorities to incentivise, track, reward, and measure activities such as walking, cycling, wheeling and public transport and engaging directly with local audiences.

Within Buckinghamshire, the vision is to use a systems-based approach which works across active travel and health, recognising shared aims of encouraging people to be more active to tackle obesity, reduce smoking prevalence, whilst also reducing solo car use to improve air quality and reduce congestion. The latest version of Better Points calculates CO2 and NO2 avoided, in real time on all journeys not made by car and highlights this on the app.

The app has proven to be very successful and at the end of its first year after being launched there were 3,066 registered users. It is estimated that in that year 159,036 car journeys have been replaced by other forms of sustainable transport and 35,020kg of CO2 and 301,476g of NO2 has been mitigated.

More information on BetterPoints Bucks can be found on their website at https://bucks.betterpoints.uk/.