Last week, Karen Lawrence, head of CRC and Consultancy here at Local Energy took part in a Guardian Q&A that explored how to be the greenest local authority ever.
Karen said:
The idea that ‘being green’ costs more needs to be tackled: Energy efficiency can save councils millions of pounds a year and reduces carbon emissions as a bonus. Local authority officers are finding it difficult to justify projects on the basis of sustainability or climate change benefits alone, but the cost savings (significantly lower energy bills) win the argument almost every time. Making these savings by using energy more efficiently actually means you need to find fewer savings elsewhere (by cutting jobs, for example).
The full debate can be read here.