Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) has slashed its paper consumption as part of its mission to become carbon neutral.

Having declared a climate emergency in 2019, the council has committed itself to becoming carbon neutral, where it produces no net carbon dioxide emissions, as soon as possible.

Members of various political parties came together to help produce a Climate Emergency Action Plan, which was approved by the council in June 2020. The authority’s overview and scrutiny committee (OSCOM) will receive an update on progress every six months.

Figures included in an OSCOM update last month showed that between October 2019 and July 2020 the council reduced the number of pages printed by around 100,000, halving the number of trees used and saving more than half a million pounds. This has been achieved by a variety of measures, including increasing the number of bills for council tax and business rates issued electronically.

The authority has also ordered three refuse collection vehicles with electrically operated bin lifts, which are each expected to save around 2,000kg of carbon dioxide per year.

In addition, the council has switched to a new electricity tariff which uses renewable energy, as well as looking at the potential for renewable and low carbon energy sources in the borough to help inform future planning policies.

Environmental Portfolio Holder, Councillor Alison Johnston, said: “We were already driving forward our climate emergency plans when coronavirus hit. Covid-19 has, understandably, taken the lion’s share of the news coverage over the past few months. But the climate emergency is still very much at the forefront of our minds and green recovery will continue to be at the core of our response to the pandemic. Indeed, the impact of lockdown has accelerated a move towards more energy efficient ways of working.

“We remain keen to explore all options to help reduce our carbon footprint, with a view to achieving carbon neutrality as quickly as possible and certainly before the government target of 2050.

“Some of the changes we implement will have a relatively small impact but this is about seeking to reduce our CO2 emissions wherever we are able to do so.”