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Welcome to our first Northumberland Climate Change e-newsletter!
Last summer the council declared a climate emergency. Since then we have laid out clear objectives to help tackle climate change in Northumberland. |
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Cutting the council's carbon emissions in half by 2025. Making Northumberland carbon neutral by 2030. |
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We want to keep you informed about projects and initiatives the Council are working on to help make Northumberland carbon neutral by 2030.
It’s not going to be easy, and we'll need everyone to get involved and do their bit.
We will be sending newsletters on a monthly basis with latest updates from ourselves and local communities, as well as sharing useful tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint.
Don’t forget to check our website for more info 👇👇👇 |
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Green Homes Grant
A new Government grant scheme is offering up to £5,000 off energy efficiency or low carbon heating improvements on homes from the end of September.
Did you know: energy used in our homes contributes to 31% of the county's carbon emissions - this grant can help reduce Northumberland's carbon footprint by making our homes more efficient.
The scheme will cover two-thirds of the costs towards improvements, with low income households offered vouchers to cover all improvement costs under £10,000.
In preparation of the scheme launching at the end of the month, we're encouraging homeowners and landlords to take the first steps now to speed up the process.
1. Check if you're eligible for a voucher 2. Check what improvements may be suitable for your home 3. Choose which improvements you would like and see an estimate of how much they may cost
4. Find accredited tradespeople to get quotes from to carry out the work
Then once the grant scheme goes live, you'll be all set to make your home more energy efficient, which could help save up to £600 a year on energy bills.
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Free Trees update
We had a phenomenal response to our first ever free tree giveaway - with 15,000 trees claimed by community groups, schools and residents across Northumberland!
Thank you so much if you claimed a tree - by planting more trees we can offset harmful carbon emissions, helping the county become cleaner and greener for all.
We are in the process of setting up an online booking process for collection points, which will be emailed directly to everyone who placed a successful order. This is to ensure we are operating in a safe and secure way during the pandemic. Collection dates are set for early December in easily accessible locations around the county. Please keep an eye out for this dropping into your mailbox in the coming weeks!
If you didn't manage to snap up a tree this time round, we are planning on running the initiative again next summer - watch this space for more info! |
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A few other things we’re working on to reduce carbon emissions in Northumberland...
Green Fleet
We are in the process of replacing our small van fleet with 100% electric vehicles, which will emit zero carbon once on the roads. It is estimated that each electric van saves around 3 tonnes of CO2 per year, that’s the equivalent of 136 mature broadleaf trees! Keep an eye out for our new ‘green’ vans on the road!
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Electric handheld equipment
We have trialled the use of electric strimmers and hedge trimmers with our neighbourhood services teams in Alnwick, Blyth and Ashington. This replaces two-stroke engine run equipment with battery-operated tools that are quieter to run, safer for our staff and greener for the county. Plans to roll out use of the new equipment in Hexham will begin this month. |
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Electric street-sweepers
We are in the process of testing new electric pedestrian street sweepers in Ashington and Cramlington, which are much quieter to operate and emit zero carbon emissions. Further trials are due to take place this November.
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This email has been produced by the Northumberland County Council Communications team. |
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| You can also view this email online here if it doesn't display correctly |
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