Meeting with Ned Harrison who usefully explained what Suffolk County Council are up to at the moment. As Green Economy Officer he is responsible for ‘Growing the Green Economy’ and Programmes. Creating the Greenest County means cutting carbon emissions 15% by 2020 and 60% by 2025. Tough targets indeed.
Medium sized businesses are being met by a similar programme to LCC with aim of delivering to 400 of the county’s 50-250 employee organisations; small and micro through other less intensive i.e. less costly initiatives. The point was taken about the un-sustainable nature of LCC but this was ‘influenced by the science at the time’. The LCD aim of delivering at 1/100th of the cost therefore appeals.
Ned stressed it’s not about carbon reduction for business but carbon reduction business i.e. making low carbon core. Green and growth are the same thing not a contradiction. He’s fundamentally OK with offsetting / balancing but stressed the problems with double counting and UK government interests. Likes the idea of identifying core business benefits.
They’ve tried building community through a LCC Linked-In group but this didn’t take off. It will be worth trying to find out why. The first cohorts of LCC are now coming due for renewal and the cost of another Groundwork intervention is being halved to encourage take-up. It will be useful to contact these to see if they’d like to attempt this via the LCD method instead.