Climate Action and Adaptation Plan
The Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) serves as the council’s roadmap for achieving the goals set out in the Climate Change Strategy, including becoming a carbon neutral and climate resilient organisation by 2030.
WSCC developed the CAAP in partnership with all services across the organisation, as we know that all teams regardless of specific remit or duties have a role to play in meeting our climate aspirations. The CAAP provides an agreed approach, together with performance monitoring and resource requirements, for the council’s climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.
The CAAP is organised into six pathways of action that define the major areas of work that we will pursue.
Work is ongoing across each of these pathways to ensure we are comprehensively addressing mitigation and adaptation planning.
Our key corporate activities over the next three years are summarised across 20 priority actions. These priority actions spell out the ambitious action that WSCC is taking to ambitiously reduce carbon emissions and prepare our services, assets, and communities to withstand the impacts of climate change.
Resources and influence
Ensuring climate change mitigation and adaptation are at the forefront of decision making across the organisation.
Buildings and energy
Pursuing a sustainable estate with carbon-neutral operation, that supports the transition to low carbon energy.
Transport
Supporting transportation that minimises environmental impacts and promotes sustainable travel methods
Procurement and commissioning
Securing the best possible value including carbon, cost, quality, and social value when purchasing goods and services
Nature and environment
Pursuing ‘nature-based’ solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change, sequester carbon, and protect the environment.
Communities
Supporting, enabling, and inspiring West Sussex partners, communities, and businesses to work together to address climate change.
Implementing our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan is projected to result in a steady reduction in our organisational carbon emissions by 2027.
Carbon reporting methodology
The sustainability team has led the council’s efforts to establish its Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions baseline through improved data monitoring, embracing new data collection techniques, and investment in new data management solutions.
We collect activity data from various teams across the council and use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology alongside annualised Department for Energy Security and Net Zero conversion factors to calculate emissions.
Since our original baseline was defined in 2019, the council has added several new emissions categories to better reflect activities within its sphere of influence. This new baseline is reflected in emissions reporting from 2023/24 onwards. WSCC measures, tracks, and reports emissions data for the following:
- corporate estate
- education estate - maintained schools only starting in 2023/24
- streetlighting
- corporate and fire fleet
- grey mileage
- business travel and hotel stays
- employee commuting and working from home - starting in 2023/24
- office waste - starting in 2023/24