Carbon emissions across Greater Manchester’s public buildings reduced by over 7,000 tonnes per year

Over 200 public sector buildings across Greater Manchester have seen their annual carbon emissions significantly reduced thanks to improvements making them greener and more energy efficient.

Greater Manchester’s public buildings are now producing over 7,000 tonnes less CO2 equivalent per year, helping push the city-region towards its ambition of being carbon neutral by 2038 – 12 years ahead of the national target.  

Work carried out also means that the public estate has reduced its energy use by over 43 million kWh, saving over £2m across the city-region per year.  

The improvements are a result of over £78m from Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and delivered by Salix Finance. The latest award from the scheme in England, the PSDS has supported energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and organisations in Greater Manchester including: 

• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service: 19 sites benefiting from new installations including solar photovoltaic panels and LED lighting, saving over £63,000 per year 
• The Science and Industry Museum: saving around 515 tonnes of carbon per year by placing carbon literacy and zero-carbon technology at the heart of the museum’s story and visitor experience 
• The Royal Northern College of Music: Updates including air source heat pumps, solar photovoltaic panels, improved roof insulation and energy efficient chillers and ovens to reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 349 tonnes annually 
• Salford Sports Village: heat decarbonisation and energy generation technologies installed to generate 485kwh of energy and save 36 tonnes of carbon annually, benefitting hundreds of Sports Village users every year 

Measures implemented include the installation of air source heat pumps for heating, solar panels to generate and create electricity, insulation and LED lighting to improve energy efficiency, and energy monitoring and control systems to ensure these public facilities can accurately measure their energy usage. 

In total, the works are expected to have supported the creation or safeguarding of around 2,000 jobs throughout the city-region, fostering the skills that we need to keep cutting emissions as well as supporting the goals of Greater Manchester’s Five-Year Environment Plan. 

Councillor Martyn Cox, GMCA lead for the Green City Region, Waste and Recycling, said: “In Greater Manchester, we’re serious about making the changes needed to reach our target of becoming a carbon neutral city region by 2038 and for our region to be a greener and fairer place for everyone.  

“Reaching that target will require meaningful change from all of us. Retrofitting our public buildings is an important step in ensuring the buildings of Greater Manchester are producing as little carbon as possible. We hope that insight from the PSDS so far will go on to help us make further improvements and compel other owners in the city-region to make similar improvements to their own buildings.” 

The PSDS is one of many initiatives helping to deliver the goals of Greater Manchester’s Five-Year Environment Plan. Join us on 17 October 2022 for the fifth annual Greater Manchester Green Summit to find out about other projects and help us further accelerate action together, today. You can register for free tickets to the Green Summit here.