LIVING / Introduction

WHAT ACTIONS RELATE TO YOU?

Education and Promotion

Use the media to provide information to enable people to make sustainable decisions regarding the consumption of goods and services.

Everyone in Manchester to have climate change training.

Develop a coordinated programme of advice and support on domestic energy efficiency for residents, landlords and building owners, including behavioural change, physical improvements and grant/loan information.

Conduct climate change awareness and engagement campaigns and ensure that they are relevant to local communities and neighbourhoods.

Develop programmes of 'carbon literacy' education and training in schools, colleges and universities; at all levels in public, private and third sector organisations; and make them available in community groups, neighbourhoods and households.

Influence, promote and support the embedding of environmental considerations in all areas of the education system.

Increase education, skills and awareness among residents about sustainable food through local activity, campaigns and national programmes.

Work with partners to assist in the creation of a toolkit to support schools in achieving sustainable procurement.

Food

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

Homes

Investigate the development of green clauses in the Manchester Landlords' Accreditation Scheme.

Provide advice and support to universities, landlords and student groups to increase energy efficiency in student accommodation.

Launch a 'Two-Degree Challenge' to encourage residents to turn thermostats up or down depending on the season.

Ensure all new homes funded by Government or built by RSLs are in compliance with the escalating Code for Sustainable Homes requirements.

Provide usable billing information to inform energy savings.

Installation of domestic smart meters.

Make smart metering widely available through lending programmes at local centres, such as libraries.

Support a programme of retrofitting with advice, incentives and investment models to help homeowners fund projects.

Provide regulation, advice, incentives and investment models for private landlords to retrofit domestic properties.

Maximise the number of Supplier Obligation schemes available in Manchester.

Implement a 'Better than Decent' programme with the city's social landlords to take their stock beyond 'Decent Homes' retrofit.

Establish 'Green Leases' as an incentive to retrofit and share the benefits between landlords and tenants

Innovation

Reinforce the role of community buildings by making them low carbon neighbourhood hubs promoting the benefits of 'low carbon' lifestyles and technologies.

Develop digital connectivity in Manchester, maximising the sharing of ideas, information and develop the use of digital technology.

Share and promote common 'carbon accounting' data throughout the city.

Run a pilot programme of tradeable personal carbon quotas to help encourage changes in lifestyle and behaviour.

Lifestyle and Leisure

Establish a range of community-based micro-generation projects where energy can be used by local users and/or fed back into national and local grids.

Support and extend existing community growing projects.

Continue to work with the Waste & Resources Action Plan (WRAP) and support the Recycle Now and Love Food Hate Waste campaigns.

Research and implement a loyalty card scheme to encourage people to support local sustainable business.

Planning and Development

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.

Promotion and Education

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

The people of Manchester are the city’s greatest asset: resourceful, proud of their city and ready to tackle the toughest of challenges. And it is the communities of Manchester that will deliver our most significant cuts in carbon emissions.

We cannot pretend that things will remain the same in the future. We will have to adapt to shifts in climate, simultaneously making major changes in the way we live our lives.

Initially, some of the changes required may seem hard, even impossible, but there is a lot to look forward to as we strive towards life in a greener city and create ‘neighbourhoods of choice’ which meet our needs and are attractive to live in. If we take deliberate and collective action to reduce the carbon emissions of our way of life, the rewards will be a healthier, happier and more prosperous city.