Herefordshire Council declared a climate emergency on 8 March 2019.
Following this, in September 2019, the council committed to take a major step to minimise their impact on the environment, agreeing to accelerate a reduction of emissions and aspire to become carbon neutral by 2030/31.
Schools play in important part in this journey to become carbon neutral as they are the biggest contributor to the council’s carbon footprint.
The authority to spend this budget will allow for all maintained schools to have a have a heat decarbonisation plan (HDP) carried out.
The purpose of a HDP is to assess how each school can replace fossil fuel reliant systems with low carbon alternatives (e.g. Heat Pumps) and complementary retrofit solutions such as insulation.
In addition to carrying out HDP’s, the budget will also allow for a number of these HDPs to be worked up to a designed specification and fully costed so as to be in a position to apply for grants, such as Salix and or make a capital bid to full council.