Our approach to environmental sustainability

The Vision in our Corporate Plan, Reigate & Banstead 2025, includes ‘being proactive about tackling climate change and reducing our environmental impact’. Our Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024 (PDF) outlines how we plan to deliver the commitment to reducing our "own environmental impact and supporting local residents and businesses to do the same".

We have identified four main sustainability themes where together we can make a big difference and actions to deliver these themes are contained within a stand-alone action plan, from which key actions are outlined below:

Energy and carbon

We will reduce emissions and increase renewable energy and renewable fuel use.

The Council carbon footprint (from the fuel and electricity we use in our buildings and vehicles) is less than 1% of the carbon footprint of the Borough as a whole (from our transport, housing and businesses) so it needs to be a collective effort to reduce emissions across the Borough to reach the national 2050 net zero target.  We aim to be net zero by 2030 for carbon emissions produced by our operations.

Some of our main actions proposed in this area are:

• Deliver energy efficiency in our Council buildings
• Continue to promote grants and group-buying schemes to residents and businesses to enable decarbonisation of borough buildings
• Install solar PV on roofs of suitable Council buildings
• Continue to use a renewable electricity tariff
• Convert our refuse vehicle fleet to biofuel as a transition fuel
• Continue our vehicle fleet replacement programme with electric or other low carbon options
• Work with Surrey County Council to promote active travel and uptake of low carbon transport

Low impact consumption

We will use fewer natural resources - such as cutting the amount of water we use and the food we waste.

We recycle 54% of waste in the Borough but there are opportunities to increase this and to produce less waste in the first place. There are also opportunities to consider how much water we use and how much food we waste.

Some of our main actions in this area are:

• Roll out the actions from the national Resources and Waste Strategy to increase borough recycling rates and reduce residual waste
• Work with SES Water to reduce consumption of mains water, and promote the Refill scheme to reduce packaging and single use plastics
• Replace the Council vehicle wash with a more efficient model
• Reduce the environmental impacts of our purchases

Biodiversity and the natural environment

We will protect and enhance our green spaces and nature.

Our borough contains many protected natural spaces, including parts of the Surrey Hills National Landscape, and the Council manages many of our parks and greenspaces.

Some of our main actions in this area are:

• Prepare and implement the Council Greenspaces and Tree Strategies
• Support community tree planting and wildlife initiatives
• Continue to maintain streams and ditches on the Council estate and work with others on flood mitigation projects
• Deliver the Council Air Quality Action Plan and Strategy

Climate adaptation and resilience

We will ensure we adapt our buildings and services, and improve the resilience of our communities and the natural and built environment, to meet predicted future climate conditions.

Summer 2022 saw record-breaking temperatures in the UK with associated heat-related deaths, drownings and wildfires, whilst the global temperature in 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded and the highest global temperature in human history was hit in 2024, fuelling more climate-related wildfires, flooding and atypical weather across the globe.  In the UK, future summers are likely to be hotter and drier whilst winters are likely to be wetter and stormier, so we need to prepare for these changes.

Some of our main actions in this area are:

• Ensure that as an organisation we plan for how to respond to climate change risk, including understanding the borough’s flood and wildfire risk
• Provide information for residents and businesses about what you can do
• Continue working in partnership with other local authorities and service providers to address this challenge

Effective implementation

Overarching these four themes we also have Effective Implementation measures - these support delivery of the Strategy and include activities such as communications, partnership working, planning policies, procurement, governance and reporting.

Some of our main actions in this area are:

• Continue to deliver internal and external communication plans
• Continue to cultivate partnerships and work with partners to deliver projects
• Consider the climate crisis, decarbonisation and other environmental sustainability objectives in the Local Plan Review
• Develop guidance on Sustainable Procurement
• Develop a Corporate Development framework which includes how to embed environmental sustainability measures into all Council building projects
• Review Council project documentation, decision-making and governance to ensure environmental sustainability is given due consideration
• Review effective options for the future offsetting of residual Council carbon emissions

You can find more detail on all the topics above in the Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024 (PDF) document. It also contains sections on:

• Why we did a review in 2024 and what was included
• What is included in our carbon footprint
• How we prepare to monitor Scope 3 carbon emissions (those outside our direct influence)
• How we will determine our approach to offsetting (once we have eliminated 90% of our carbon emissions how can we remove from the atmosphere an amount of carbon equivalent to the remaining emissions)
• The challenges and opportunities that the Strategy brings
• Progress highlights for each theme

Underpinning the Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024 (PDF) is a Strategy Action Plan (PDF) covering actions that will deliver environmental improvements in the Council and those that will deliver borough-wide environmental improvements.