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Buildings

A Greenwich Builds low carbon home

Greenwich Builds - low carbon homes

The biggest source of emissions in Royal Greenwich are existing buildings, homes and businesses. There are over 120,000 homes and over 2 million metres squared of non-domestic floor space in the borough.  

In 2021, 41% of the borough’s total emissions came from homes, with 64% coming from heat and electricity used in buildings.  Council owned homes currently account for 8% of the borough’s emissions.  

Reducing these emissions will involve a combination of: 

  • making buildings more energy efficient  

  • replacing fossil fuel heating systems with low carbon alternatives  

  • behavioural change – operating our buildings more efficiently.  

Our actions 

Our aspirational objectives are to make all Council-owned homes, and the private domestic sector achieve net zero carbon emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 2030.  

This will also include the council’s non-domestic stock buildings like corporate property, maintained schools and community centres  

We are also supporting businesses across the borough to decarbonise their own building stock through engagement and advice.  

Progress so far 

Operational emissions 

  • Successfully secured £1.9m in Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) funding, saving £36,000 and 300 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tco2e) per annum. 

  • 11% (700 tco2e) reduction in Corporate property stock on previous year 

  • Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) delivering £20m to improve over 600 Council owned home 

  • In the 2022 to 2023 financial year, the Repairs and Investment team delivered a Housing Capital Programme totalling £32.8m where:  

  • 481 homes benefitted from more efficient boiler replacements  

  • 196 homes had their windows replaced 

  • 405 homes benefitted from improved communal heating services.   

Borough emissions 

  • Successful Local Authority Delivery Scheme - supported over 150 properties with energy efficiency upgrades, about £10,000 of investment per low-income household 

  • Our fuel poverty outreach service supported 272 low-income households with a total estimated saving of was 715 tco2e.   

  • Undertook evaluation of green skills opportunities - estimate 2,299 jobs that could be created per annum from a household net-zero retrofitting programme up to 2030. 

Read the full Action Plan for Buildings for more details of the specific actions we’re taking.