The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) has been looming for months, and the 30 September deadline for registration has passed.

Is the CRC going to increase local authorities costs?

The quick answer? Yes. In the short term, costs will go up. One London borough we've been helping estimated it was likely to cost them approximately £300,000 more a year.

However, if it is tackled quickly and innovatively, local authorities can make savings for themselves and the organisations they are responsible for.

Engaging members of your group and sharing responsibility for the CRC

Local authorities are responsible for the energy use of a vast number of buildings and operations. To get on top of things, they will need to list these and an assign a contact for each.

Invite these contacts to an event to explore the legislation, its implications and how the responsibility is going to be shared. To do this, appeal to whatever will entice them - it may be saving money on energy bills - or additional teaching resources for school children.

At the event, make carbon something that is tangible, and involve participants in the discussion. We have considerable experience in this area so please let us know if you would like help facilitating the discussion. 

Read more about our interactive communications.

Early Action Metric

In the first year, local authorities will be judged purely on the Early Action Metric. This means you’ll need to achieve the Carbon Trust standard or equivalent and install Automatic Meter Readings. Moving all your buildings towards this as early as possible will give you the strongest chance of success. We recommend starting now.

But once these things are done, don’t rest on your laurels as getting everybody in line for the following years will give you a head start.

Keep the momentum

Maintain regular communication with your network of contacts and encourage them to collaborate with each other and in their own workplaces to achieve optimum savings.

There are other environmental areas you can look at to get a broader audience hooked on the topic. For instance, if your local area has a litter issue you could talk about this and the environment in a broader sense, before getting to the central issue of saving carbon purely from energy use.

This can help you to meet other local targets through the same team and could lead to greater efficiency.

Pester power

While having responsibility for schools in your borough may at first seem an additional burden, try and look at the flip side. The pupils will be happy and willing to learn about the environment and this can fit with their curriculum.

Many of the changes you need to make will be to behaviours and actions. If you get the local children involved in all areas of energy efficiency, you’ll be amazed what you can achieve.

For example, last year Lancasterian Primary School, funded by Haringey Council took part in Global Action Plan’s Action on Energy programme and achieved a 32.5% reduction in electricity consumption, which over a year equates to approximately 4 tonnes of CO2.

Read our case study on Lancasterian Primary School.

Read more about how Global Action Plan works with schools.

But don’t leave it at the school gate. There are options to get young people involved more broadly within the local community and reduce energy use. Read about Climate Squad, our youth volunteering programme.

Need to know more? See Carbon Reduction Commitment: how does it affect you?.

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