Sutton Council has set out an updated strategy for delivery of its One Planet Sutton ambitions, reaffirming its commitment to being a greener borough in partnership with organisations across the borough.

At the Environment and Neighbourhoods Committee meeting on Thursday 18th June the council agreed to keep the five One Planet Sutton themes aimed at reducing the borough’s carbon footprint. The five themes are:

• Cutting carbon emissions
• Cutting waste
• Valuing our natural environment
• Supporting healthy communities, and
• Supporting the local economy.

These five themes are embedded in everything the council does, from targeting its work on community energy schemes, the growing of local food, and sustainable transport by encouraging walking, cycling and use of public transport.  The council will continue to undertake work across all of the One Planet themes to reduce carbon emissions. By targeting resources on deliverable projects within each of the five themes Sutton Council can re-endorse its vision for the borough to be London’s most-sustainable suburb.

Over the past four years, more than £8.5m of funding has been levered into the borough to help deliver projects contributing to its One Planet Sutton targets, and the council has made over £1.9m savings from council energy usage. The council has been monitoring targets annually relating to borough-wide energy reduction, waste, local food, transport, flooding and water reduction.  The council estimates the direct financial savings of the service review will be £84,700 from the 2014/15 budget.  Benchmarking of Sutton’s performance by the charity Bioregional confirms that Sutton is ranked the highest outer London borough and the third-highest London council overall in terms of having the lowest CO2 emissions.

Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of the Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, said:

“Sutton is committed to delivering a borough where residents have an excellent quality of life, and where our natural resources and wildlife are preserved for future generations.  Our revised sustainability strategy will allow the council to focus limited resources where we can provide best value. This includes increased partnership working on projects such as community-owned solar schemes and community-led behaviour change programmes.”

Sian Cooke, Senior Project Officer at Bioregional, said:

“We’re delighted to be working with Sutton Council on its refocused sustainability strategy in order to really push Sutton’s aspirations and achieve even more. Our focus will be to help local people benefit by saving money on their energy bills as well as lowering the borough’s carbon emissions. We’re also working with Volunteer Centre Sutton to find practical ways for Sutton’s volunteers to apply sustainability in their placements and bring One Planet Sutton to new audiences.”