Nottingham City Council’s Energy Services has won The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Award for Best Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative.
The APSE awards celebrate outstanding achievement and innovation within local government. Energy Services was recognised for its innovative approach to reducing the council’s energy demand to ultimately improve its environmental performance and help manage its budget.
The council’s energy projects include:
- Solar systems on over 40 operational sites, which save the council over £150,000 each year and bring in over £300,000 year via FITs a subsidy for the generation of renewable electricity.
- UK’s first publicly owned solar car park at Harvey Hadden Sports village and Ken Martin Leisure Centre.
- Operating one of the largest district heating networks in the UK which is powered by energy-from-waste; many council buildings are connected to this network for their heat and power.
- Energy efficiency projects such as LED lighting and upgrading heating systems — last year alone the team completed over thirty projects which will save the council over £100,000 each year.
Councillor Sally Longford, Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment at Nottingham City Council, said: “It’s a great achievement to have won these awards and testament to the services’ innovation and hard work.
“By reducing operational costs and generating income for the council, the Greener Building Strategy is making a real contribution to the protection of frontline services and keeping services viable for those in the most need. Also the large number of energy projects that we are delivering under the strategy has enabled us to create a large workforce in this area creating local job opportunities in managing, installing and maintaining sustainable energy technologies.”
Wayne Bexton, Head of Energy Services, commented: “My service is extremely proud to have won this award, it is great recognition of all their work to deliver a fantastic array of energy projects over the last 12 months. We are now building on this success and working with local companies on a commercial basis to help them reduce operational costs and achieve improved environmental performance, further contributing to Nottingham’s green credentials and supporting local businesses.”
APSE Chief Executive Paul O’Brien said: “The winners of these awards are amongst the best at delivering outstanding local government frontline services. APSE works continually to encourage public service excellence and we are delighted that all our finalists and winning councils are so highly committed to delivering the best possible services for the benefit of their communities.”
