Our Environment Strategy
South Somerset District Council's Environment Strategy
We're striving to be a leading Council in developing and adopting a Green Agenda to promote a sustainable environment, economy and communities. We adopted our Environment Strategy in October 2019 and have been working since to implement the measures set out within our delivery plan.
You can download our Environment Strategy by clicking the button below.
Councillor Sarah Dyke, SSDC's Portfolio Holder for Environment.
SSDC's Corporate Plan
SSDC's new Council Plan has been released for the forthcoming year at South Somerset District Council, which sees the environment placed as the number one priority for 2022/23.
This plan sets out to continue our work to not only mitigate the effects of climate change but also continue a 10% yearly carbon reduction to reach our target of net-zero by 2030.
An introduction to the strategy
The strategy sets out both the immediate actions and long-term goals for the district to achieve a significant reduction in SSDC’s carbon emissions.
Since its adoption officers across the Council have been working hard to get baseline data on our carbon footprint, identifying where our biggest impacts are and where improvements need to be made. Further work is also taking place to work up plans for larger and longer term project work. See our Environment Action page for more information.
In terms of project delivery, we are working on tree and woodland schemes, developing schemes to engage with and support our communities on a whole range of environment projects, including installing EV charging points across the district, undertaking an audit of cycle infrastructure, supporting the installation of energy efficiency and decarbonisation measures across our SSDC estate and supporting clean business growth.
Councillor Sarah Dyke, SSDC's portfolio holder for Environment, said: “The Environment Strategy sends a clear message that South Somerset District Council is committed to achieving a significant reduction in its carbon emissions and that we recognise that this is only the beginning of what can be achieved. We have conducted a number of engagement events to help us understand the issues that matter most to people. Through this engagement, we have identified a number of interventions that will help to significantly reduce our carbon emissions. We want to make it clear that we can only action what we are responsible for, but we are committed to working with stakeholders to enable positive change throughout the district.
How you can get involved
You can engage with us and let us know how you would like to be involved in the future. Contact us here and let us know what you would like to do, whether it be informed about future projects or prepared to get involved within your community with recycling, reusing, biodiversity protection plus much more.
We also facilitate our popular Environment Champions network across our parishes, where we share ideas and encourage action within our communities; if you'd like to find out more and how to get involved, click here.
Finally, if you'd like to sign up to receive our regular monthly e-newsletter, Get SuSSed, for news and updates on the Environment Strategy, as well as information about what's happening across South Somerset, click here.