Measuring and Reducing Carbon Emissions from Consumption of Goods and Services: Local Authority Operations

Local authorities such as Leicester City Council (LCC) are responsible both directly and indirectly for generating carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gas) emissions through their operations. A previous analysis of council emissions from 2011/12 estimated that consumption emissions for the council were 1.4 times larger than operational emissions at the time. Despite this, these emissions are not currently quantified or reported for either the city or the council in their annual carbon footprints, due in part to the cost and complexity of doing so. This report was requested by Leicester City Council to inform the development of future action by the council to reduce its own scope 3 emissions from consumption of goods and services by:

1. Identifying existing approaches to measuring or estimating council consumption emissions on an organisational and/or category basis – including using the information to set targets.
2. Identifying successful approaches and actions to reduce those emissions, including how the approaches/actions might be targeted to maximise the impact.

A parallel report focusses on consumption-based emissions for the whole city of Leicester.