Crawley Borough Council (CBC) commissioned City Science to refresh and strengthen its strategy for achieving net zero by 2040 across council operations. This initiative aimed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of CBC’s carbon footprint by fully integrating Scope 3 emissions, enhancing supply chain engagement, and revising the Climate Emergency Action Plan for greater clarity and usability. Additionally, we developed key performance indicators (KPIs) and a Finance & Implementation plan (FIP) to support effective monitoring and delivery of the Council’s net zero commitments.
City Science Response
Corporate Carbon Footprint Calculation: We conducted a detailed update of CBC’s carbon footprint, covering Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The methodology combined raw usage data with spend-based data, ensuring maximum accuracy. To achieve this, we employed our advanced Corporate Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool, which integrates lifecycle assessment data and state-of-the-art climate science to produce granular emissions estimates. Key features of our approach included:
- Full assessment of all relevant GHG Protocol categories, ensuring alignment with best practices and existing CBC monitoring processes.
- Emissions were classified across three levels of granularity, enabling precise emission factor allocation from a database of over 50,000 emission factors. This ensured comprehensive coverage of expense data and enhanced accuracy in emission reporting.
Scope of emissions
Crawley Borough Council Carbon Footprint
Scope 3 Enhancements: Scope 3 emissions, are often the most challenging to quantify and represent a large proportion of local authority emissions. Identifying Scope 3 emissions was a significant focus of this project. We collaborated with CBC to:
- Identify key suppliers with high emission profiles.
- Engage directly with these suppliers to assess their carbon maturity and gather detailed emission data.
- Incorporate supplier-provided emission figures into the overall carbon footprint, ensuring an accurate and dynamic representation of CBC’s supply chain emissions.
This approach not only improved data accuracy but also fostered stronger engagement with the supply chain, laying the groundwork for long-term collaboration on carbon reduction efforts.
Corporate Carbon Footprint Dashboard: To facilitate ongoing monitoring, we developed a user-friendly dashboard displaying the updated corporate carbon footprint results, including a clear visualisation of emissions across different scopes and sectors. Additionally, interactive filters and overlays were embedded to enable CBC to quickly identify high-impact areas and potential ‘quick wins’ for emission reductions.
Review and Revision of the Climate Emergency Action Plan: We conducted a comprehensive review of the Council’s existing Climate Emergency Action Plan, focusing on improving accessibility and conciseness. The original plan included 80 actions across 16 themes. To enhance usability and manageability, we consolidated these into 15 key actions grouped under 5 broad themes, such as Transport and Enabling Actions. A multi-criteria assessment was applied to evaluate and prioritise the consolidate actions, considering carbon impact, cost and co-benefits. We then used our extensive net zero expertise to assess whether there were any key gaps in the actions such as key emitting sectors/sources that have not been addressed. Each consolidated action was accompanied by implementation steps, drawing from previous actions and introducing new steps to bridge identified gaps. Additionally, KPIs and delivery timescales were developed to support ongoing monitoring.
Consultation Sessions: To support with securing buy-in and enabling delivery, we conducted 2 x consultation sessions with senior leaders. One of these sessions focused on gathering feedback and ensuring alignment with leadership priorities. As finance is a critical barrier to delivery, the other consultation session was held with CBC finance officers to explore potential funding mechanisms for implementing priority actions. Informed by the feedback obtained from the workshops, the discussion’s were consolidated into a summary report that outlined funding and financing options suitable for CBC tailored to the priority actions.
Outcomes
We delivered a set of actionable outputs designed to support CBC’s net zero journey, including:
- An updated and comprehensive carbon footprint, with full integration of scope 3 emissions and enhanced supply chain insights.
- A revised and prioritised Climate Emergency Action Plan, streamlined for greater clarity and ease of implementation.
- A FIP, outlining practical funding and financing strategies tailored to Crawley’s needs.
- A corporate carbon footprint dashboard, providing a dynamic and accessible tool for ongoing monitoring and decision-making.