Download Case Study: English | Français

Context

Leicester's energy and sustainable development policy

On becoming "Britain€s first Environment City" in 1990, Leicester committed itself to a process of local sustainable development, based on cooperation between different local contributors. This cooperation materialised through the involvement of the LECT - Leicester Environment City Trust, an organisation that promotes discussion, research and consultation, which is composed of 8 working groups that focus on specific areas, including that of energy, and which brings together representatives from the public and private sectors, associations, universities and independent experts. This has enabled specific strategies for the city to be developed and outlined in an action plan.

The municipal energy policy aims to reduce energy consumption by the year 2025 to half that of 1990, and to ensure that 20% of all energy used is derived from renewable sources by 2020. In order to achieve this objective, the energy action plan makes recommendations for initiatives in the fields of cogeneration, renewable energy, waste, transport and energy efficiency, for example in the domestic sector. The economic and social dimensions of the energy policy have been reinforced by the adoption of a Local Agenda 21 "Blueprint for Leicester", and subsequently the Leicester Community Plan 2001-2003, which proposed initiatives to complement those already in place.

Measures implemented

For the production of electricity, the city council has installed a number of small units that run on gas, which supply council leisure centres and other buildings. A waste-to-energy scheme and passive solar projects are still on the drawing board.

Measures to improve energy efficiency involve all sectors: municipal, domestic and industrial.

In the municipal sector, these measures take above all the form of energy audits of council housing, so that future steps can be prioritised, the integration of energy efficiency objectives into the planning of new housing, and the reinvestment of savings made in initiatives to improve energy efficiency. The enhancement of energy efficiency for private housing has been achieved in the following ways:

• The "Home Energy Strategy" programme, which included training for professionals working in the building industry, the financing of initial energy efficiency audits for housing, advice for private individuals on work to be carried out and the use of trained professionals, provided by the local energy agency and a campaign entitled "Save Energy at Home", and the subsidising of work,
• Defining energy efficiency standards for new housing,
• Informing the public and raising their awareness of energy efficiency measures and protecting the environment.

The industrial sector is essentially the focus of information and communication initiatives implemented by various organisations:

• For large companies, the "Leicester Energy and Environment Group" created by the national energy efficiency office in each region,
• For SMEs/SMIs, local organisations, such as the Leicester energy agency. It operates a mobile conference centre, the "Energy User Cruiser", in cooperation with the national energy agency ETSU and the financing of the "Energy Efficiency Best Practice" programme. Initially intended as a means of publishing the results of the national programme and providing training for managers of SMEs and SMIs in the field of energy management, the "Energy User Cruiser" aims to adopt a "bottom-up" approach and provides training for employees.

Keywords: Information/Awareness Raising/Education; Housing

This case study was prepared by Energie-Cités with the help of Leicester Energy Agency officers.