Meon | City Council exceeding their decarbonisation goals in reaching Net Zero by 2028

On the 15th of June 2023, Nottingham City Council welcomed Line Marking & Road Surface Repair Specialists, Meon, to visit Nottingham for the day, to review how the implementation of self-delivered cold applied line markings has been assisting the Council’s efforts to meet decarbonisation objectives.

Recognised as one of the top 122 world cities for climate action by CPD, Nottingham City Council is accredited as a Bronze level Carbon Literate Organisation. They are aware of the carbon impact from their activity and are actively looking for ways to drive down carbon emissions and provide their public services with the most efficiency, whilst staying as green as possible.

Nottingham has the greater ambition of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2028, by implementing changes and meeting smaller objectives of their decarbonisation strategy.

Matt Ralfe, Innovation and Change Manager at Nottingham City Council, explained:

“We’re aiming to be carbon neutral as a city, by 2028. Within that wider goal, there are many smaller goals where we think we can become neutral. We are trying to drive down carbon emissions as quickly and as far as we can.”

In a proactive effort to reach this decarbonisation goal, the Council have already embraced innovation and implemented impressive changes to their parking infrastructure, with the highest number of Electric Vehicle charge points per head of population, positioning them well above the average, for any core city within the UK.

Another area for innovation was within their Parking Services Team. The focus was to find more effective and sustainable ways to provide line marking services, whilst being align with the overall goals to promote the city council’s ambitions for decarbonisation and build a better environment in Nottingham City for the future.

Matt Ralfe, Innovation and Change Manager at Nottingham City Council, added:

“Nottingham City Council’s Parking Team are on a real push towards sustainability.

It’s quite tricky within parking services we are reliant on the cars and visitors to the city, but we’re really moving towards encouraging more sustainable vehicles, for example, the 80 electric vehicle charge points in Broadmarsh carpark which are powered by the 720 solar panels on its roof.

“We really want sustainability at the heart of everything we do within parking, including this electric line marking machine.”

Nottingham City Council’s Parking Services traditionally outsourced their line marking, but with large parking assets such as multi-story and surface car parks, great amounts of funding were required to maintain and keep such services up and running.

Self-delivery of cold applied line marking is easier to manage, requires less equipment, and is more convenient, meaning less disruption to the City of Nottingham. Additionally, the usage of an electric 0line marking machine equals a 60% reduction in carbon emissions alone, coupled with the electric vehicles used to transport and help provide the line marking service, this figure moves into the 90% range of carbon savings.

Richard Fowler, Parking Services Operations Manager at Nottingham City Council, told us:

“Line marking within Parking Services is new for us, traditionally this was outsourced. Due to the number of parking assets we have across the city, the size of the operation and the amount of funding required to keep on top of that, this technology really helps.”

The City Council will continue to lead the way with decarbonisation, by implementing greener alternatives for operations within the council, ensuring Nottingham City Council are doing everything they can to hit their carbon neutrality objectives, to become a carbon neutral city, by 2028.

Watch Nottingham City Council & Meon’s collaborative video for this decarbonisation story here…

To learn more about Nottingham City Council and their Strategic Council Plan for 2023, visit: https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/councilplan

To find out more about how Meon can help assist with your decarbonisation strategy, alongside Project Highway Zero, their sponsor campaign, visit: https://netzerocarbonhighways.com/