Council climate action and emissions summary 2023-24

This page contains some of our highlights from June 2023 to June 2024.

Theme 1: Efficient Homes and Buildings

• We worked with Merton, Croydon, Sutton, Lambeth and Lewisham councils to develop South London’s Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP). This will help direct the longer term energy strategy for Kingston and the wider region.
• Kingston’s Efficient Homes Show returned for a second year in 2024 and saw hundreds of local people connect with experts, businesses and community groups helping to reduce energy use and emissions.
• We were successful in our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund bid to further help us decarbonise council homes.
• Planning for the council’s first Air Source Heat Pumps at Four Oaks got underway.

Theme 2: How We Travel

• Over 99,000 trips were taken on Forest e-hire bikes, travelling over 217,000 miles.
• We further expanded the borough’s electric vehicle charging network.
• We published our Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy in September 2023.
• London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) was expanded to include the borough.
• 2 more School Streets launched for Ellingham Primary School (Chessington) and St Philip’s School (Chessington.
• 173 adults and 1300 children took part in cycle training run by the Council and funded through TfL.

Theme 3: Natural Environment

• Species and Habitat Action Plan groups were created alongside the Biodiversity Action Plan launched in September 2023.
• The borough’s Friends of parks and greenspaces groups continued to meet throughout the year.
• Dozens of public activities took place including community planting days, bat talks and nature walks.
• Established a high level baseline for carbon storage and sequestration capacity for the natural environment in Kingston as well as a baseline for soil carbon in different habitats in Kingston as part of a dissertation project by a Kingston University student.
• Fishponds wetland restoration project is ongoing and will soon be completed. New ponds or wetlands have also been created in Vine Close and on the Beeline Way.

Theme 4: Waste

• Kingston became the first council in the UK to switch its entire waste collection fleet to electric.
• Event guidance was created to help ensure events taking place in public spaces are as sustainable as possible, in particular relating to waste and recycling. 
• Three eco-refill school projects launched, helping to reduce packaging and promote sustainable habits.
• Over 200 items were repaired at the Repair Cafe hosted at Kingston Library.

Theme 5: Sustainable Council

• The council’s Net Zero 2030 Strategy was approved and outlines the remaining steps that will need to be taken to reduce council emissions as close as possible to zero.
• We submitted a Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding bid to help us decarbonise four council buildings.
• We undertook a piece of work through the GLA’s Retrofit Accelerator scheme to assess council owned and operated buildings for possible carbon reductions through retrofit, for example improved insulation, solar panels, boiler replacements

Theme 6: Green Economy

• Kingston’s Green Business Community grew to over 100 active member organisations.
• Our series of THINK GREEN discussions for the business community continued and featured topics including; apprenticeships, circular economy and green marketing. 
• Environmental reviews of businesses in the borough were undertaken by Kingston University Environmental Management MSc students. Five dissertations related to the green economy were undertaken by KU students in partnership with local businesses.
• Continued to work closely with South Thames Colleges Group, Kingston University and London South Bank University in the development and promotion of their green skills courses to local schools, as well as Stay Nimble which developed the Launchpad Green Skills programme.

Theme 7: Everyone Together

• We opened our Green Grant applications in November 2023 with funding being awarded in March 2024.
• The Kingston Environment Forum continued to meet and grow.
• Our Sustainable September 2023 campaign - Walk on the Wild Side saw hundreds of local people explore the borough’s green spaces.