GROWING / Introduction

WHAT ACTIONS RELATE TO YOU?

Food

Create a baseline of sustainable food consumption and production and increase year on year to 2020 and beyond.

Develop the infrastructure to enable an increase in local food production, both commercially and within the community.

Leadership and Co-ordination by Manchester City Council

Support planning applications that include innovation and investment in sustainable construction

Lifestyle and Leisure

Encourage interim use of development sites for local food production.

Major Schemes

Undertake a heat mapping exercise to understand the potential to use waste heat within the city

Install large-scale energy generation and distribution systems to serve large areas of the city

Continue to explore the use of a mix of renewable energy sources, including biomass, waste, geothermal, wind and solar power.

Seek to be a host for energy management trials, including smart grid technologies, peak demand management, intelligent pricing, intelligent appliances, heat storage from excess generation, mixed generation, and storage capacity.

Establish community development interest initiatives and social enterprises to co-ordinate the take-up of low-energy appliances and low-carbon technologies for domestic and business use.

Establish and implement best measures for aggregated purchasing of energy efficient equipment to make it widely available and encourage energy efficient use.

Planning and Development

Continue to implement the MCC waste and recycling service plan.

Investigate and implement the highest standards possible for Planning and Building Control in relation to sustainability measures and increase enforcement capacity to ensure uptake of new regulations.

Continue to implement the GM Waste Disposal Authority waste and recycling service improvement plan.

Work with GMWDA to establish further stronger landfill and recycling targets for 2020 and beyond

Produce a Manchester Energy Plan that provides the framework for establishing a city-wide decarbonised energy generation and distribution system and local energy plans supported by the LDF and Strategic Regeneration Frameworks. Establish the partnerships and investments needed to develop and deliver the Energy Plan and the structures needed to integrate projects sharing heat, power and 'smart grid' information, and to manage them.

Work with partners in the Northwest to encourage sustainable procurement policies and procedures.

Investigate the potential to develop a city-wide approach to sustainable procurement

Work with partners at the city, city-regional and national level to improve existing infrastructure, existing regulatory frameworks, and policy to help deliver a decarbonised generation and distribution system.

Create a city-wide programme of neighbourhood low-carbon zones.

Commitment to create a Total Carbon Footprint framework by 2013.

Save over 350,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year by 2020 through a major programme of retrofitting domestic buildings with energy efficiency and home energy generation measures. Develop and implement best practice in retrofit.

Develop and implement best practice in low-carbon building design.

Develop measures and incentives to ensure all new developments are zero carbon in terms of both building design and appliances.

Use planning agreements so new building development can catalyse retrofit. Establish carbon-reduction targets in the Local Development Framework to require developers to install and/or contribute to low-carbon, de-centralised and renewable energy technologies.

Promotion and Education

Develop and promote a range of high-profile building exemplars at 2050 sustainable standards in all categories (domestic, public and commercial) and ages.

Promote sustainable tourism through the Green Event Guide and a sustainable event management system such as BS 8901. Make the reduction of CO2 a key objective for all major events in the city, underpinning the reputation of Manchester as a low-carbon city. Promote sustainable tourism through the Green Event Guide and a sustainable event management system such as BS 8901. Make the reduction of CO₂ a key objective for all major events in the city, underpinning the reputation of Manchester as a low-carbon city

Encourage schools to promote sustainability with parents and communities

Promote learning, teaching, evidence and inspiration of 2050 standards of low-carbon generation and distribution.

Organise an annual climate change conference for young people so they can discuss future scenarios.

Encourage and support community groups to implement their own plans for reducing energy use towards zero/low-carbon communities, including clear and simple advice on project development, obtaining funding, and a programme of incentives

Support the introduction of feed-in tariffs in 2010 to encourage local generation of renewable electricity.

Research

Research and establish targets for the Manchester Energy Plan demonstrating how the overall carbon reduction target will be met through the actions.

Research the flow of resources (including goods, waste etc) throughout the city and beyond and assist in the development of opportunities towards a closed loop system

Conduct a research project to establish the energy use of different sectors

Manchester is a city that has split atoms, created political movements and exported trade models across the globe. We will not shy away from attempting to create a model for others to follow.

Manchester’s vision of being an ‘original modern’ city is one of innovation and leadership, always striving to define what 'contemporary' looks and feels like. It is a vision that we will share with others and which is increasingly shared across the city, from political leaders to business groups, the voluntary sector and our local communities.

Our future city will be greener, but it will also be a place of opportunity and enterprise. Manchester wants to chart a pioneering low-carbon course but wants to become a significant force in the new, global, low-carbon marketplace too.