Estate Manager

Estate manager covers council buildings, leisure centres, vehicles, streetlights, business travel and waste disposal sites. Many of these will need to be adapted to cope better with the changing climate. They will all be contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

Some activities may be partially controlled by the Authority, such as joint venture companies or trusts, e.g. to run leisure centres or waste disposal facilities. It is a matter of choice whether you address these under estate manager or service provider. The main thing is that they are eventually all addressed within your action plan.

In the case of adaptation, the basic approach suggested is similar for both the estate manager and service provider roles. It is a matter of choice how best to approach the work within your authority. For instance, a number of authorities have decided to develop their adaptation action plans at a directorate, or service unit level. The critical issue is that your action plan, or plans, should eventually address both impacts on your estate and corporate functions, and your capacity to deliver your services in a changing climate.

1. Click on the Advice for Council Services tab for guidance on what council services could be doing to enhance their estate's resilience to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their estate.

2. The Carbon Trust's Local Authority Carbon Management Toolkit provides resources, guidance and case studies on reducing emissions from your own estate.

3. Section 2.1 of Getting on Target - A Sustainable Energy Toolkit and Benchmark for Local Authorities recommends good practice on sustainable energy in Estate Management. It draws on the experience of the Sustainable Energy Beacon local authorities.

Estate Manager

• Woking Borough Council has delivered a 77% cut in CO2 emissions from its own buildings between 1991 and 2005.
• As participants in the Carbon Trust's Carbon Management Programme, these local authorities identified actions within their own estate that would:-
  • Bristol City Council: save the council more than £400,000 over five years and reduce its carbon emissions.
  • Leeds City Council : bring carbon emissions down by 15% by 2008, and reduce energy consumption by a minimum of 10% by the same date.
  • London Borough of Islington: bring annual carbon emissions down from 40,980 tonnes, to 37,490 tonnes by 2010, a reduction of 8.5 per cent.
  • North Yorkshire County Council : bring carbon emissions down by 10% by 2010.