Environmental Sustainability Action Plan

Our Environmental Sustainability Action Plan sets out SMART actions to deliver our top-prioritised mitigation, adaptation and environmental conservation objectives.

Supplementing our Climate Change Strategy 2022-26, the Action Plan is a working document which is continually monitored and developed, assisted with input from a range of sources including third sector organisations, and our local community.

The plan is divided into three sections:

  • Changes to the council's own premises, people and services we deliver
  • Use of our regulatory powers to promote action by others
  • Actions to help us influence and encourage others to do things

Read our Action Plan for 2023/2024 in full

East Herts Council also works closely with the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP) through which it delivers action on climate change across Hertfordshire as a whole. HCCSP has developed comprehensive action plans related to water; biodiversity; carbon reduction and transport, with two further actions plans; behaviour change and adaption, currently in development. These action plans provide details of additional climate initiatives that East Herts is working to deliver and are complementary to our own Environmental Sustainability Action Plan.

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Our aim is to achieve net zero for East Herts Council's own generated emissions by 2030 and do all that we can to assist in achieving this by the same year for the wider district.

The council wants to reduce reliance on cars to get around the district, improve air quality at pinch points, and increase our use of sustainable materials. It is committed to ensuring good quality housing with a sustainable travel infrastructure which will support the needs of its communities while maintaining the highest environmental standards.

As the Plan progresses, actions are carbon accounted, with proposed milestones, in order to track progress against achieving our 2030 goals.

East Herts Council's progress towards carbon neutrality of council services:

2019 - East Herts Council makes Climate Change Declaration
Council's net emissions: 2,800t CO2e

Latest position - 
Council's net emissions: 2,063t CO2e. This is a 30% reduction from 2019.

2030 - East Herts Council becomes Carbon Neutral
Council's net emissions: 0t CO2e

Diagram showing East Herts Council's progress towards net zero services

For further information, please refer to our East Herts Emissions Report 21_22.

We’re making good progress on our Action Plan with 41 actions completed to date. We'll update you here on actions that have been completed in the last few months.

  • All but two LEDs have now been replaced in the top shed, offices and warehouses at our Buntingford waste depot.
  • 2 new e-chargers have been installed at Bell Street Car Park in Sawbridgeworth.
  • Sustainability and Climate Action groups across our district's towns brought together some fantastic COP26 events including street stalls, presentations, film screenings and workshops.
  • Public screenings of the sustainability film 'Tomorrow' took place in Bishop's Stortford and Sawbridgeworth with funding assistance via Grants provided by East Herts Council.

For a full list of completed actions and the details associated with them, please download our Environmental Sustainability and Carbon Action Plan.

Carried out sustainability staff survey - Adopted Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document
Established and are running East Herts Environmental and Climate Change Forum - Devised Ways to incentivise use of the e-cars
Included sustainability issues in the councils medium term plan - Installed bicycle racks in the market towns
Maximised Sustainability benefits through procurement processes - Introduced video conferencing kit
Now include carbon foot print as part of procurement process - Replaced Wallfields lighting with LED bulbs
Revamped our sustainability pages a - completed 2 more subway improvements
Surveyed developers about barriers to higher energy efficiency - switched councils electricity to a 100% renewable tariff
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