The green measures which could save Sunderland £3million - and help the planet too

City leaders have set out proposals for a new cross-party approach to tackling environmental issues, which they hope could slash energy use across Wearside.

The move follows the formal declaration of a ‘climate emergency’ by Sunderland City Council in March 2019, and promise to become ‘carbon neutral’ by 2030.

“Previously, my intention was to exclusively focus this work on the city council as an organisation in its own right – after all, that is all that is in the gift of this council to alter,” said Coun Michael Mordey, the deputy leader of the council.

“However, this issue is bigger than just the city council.

“The council is only responsible for a very small portion of the output of the city and therefore we organised calls in recent weeks and widened the scope of the work to take in as much of the city as possible.”

Coun Mordey was speaking at a full meeting of the city council on November 20, where he outlined plans for a ‘2030 Board’ to help coordinate energy efficiency plans across the city.

It is hoped this will include councillors of all parties, as well as representatives of other groups and businesses working on Wearside.

Measures expected to be introduced include:

Full roll out of LED street lights completed by 2020, expected to save £2.5 million and 7,500 tons of CO2 a year Energy efficiency improvements at the council’s data centre, to save £150,000 pounds and reduce carbon emissions by 300 tons a year Solar panels and battery storage on council buildings

“I am absolutely convinced that the council alone nor any other organisation working in isolation can tackle this issue,” Coun Mordey added.

“I’m sure that by combining our efforts and resources we will achieve our aims efficiently and more quickly.”

Councils across the region have been passing “climate emergency” motions outlining the need to do much more to reduce the harm done to the planet, and looking at ways of tackling the issue.