LOCAL CARBON FOOTPRINTS

The local carbon footprints produced as part of the In Our Nature programme look at energy-use and transport related emissions for each ward in Manchester. 

Whilst there are lots of other activities which emit carbon, for example, what we eat and the things we buy and throw away, emissions associated with these activities can’t be calculated at a ward level and so haven’t been included in these carbon footprints. 

TRANSPORT BY CAR

This was calculated using car ownership data for each ward, available here and the car mileage average for Manchester available here. We than applied an ‘emissions factor’ to the mileage by vehicle type using the Government’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Conversion Factors available here. Unlike electricity and gas data this is not an exact measurement and is limited by having to assume a share of the mileage travelled by all Manchester residents (reported by the Department of Transport) for each ward based on type of vehicle ownership. We think this is the best way to calculate vehicle use from residents themselves as MOT data is less consistently available and there is no more localised data on travel carbon emissions available.   

ENERGY EFFICIENCY 

Energy Performance Certificate data was based on the central EPC database available here. The data was grouped to ward level using a postcode to LSOA and administrative ward directory. EPCs are not a perfect measure of how energy efficient and low carbon a home is, however, they do indicate important attributions of homes that generally mean less energy demand to keep warm – e.g., loft insulation, age/type of heating, wall insulation etc. Some homes are difficult to update to make energy efficient (also known as ‘retrofitting’) but getting all homes to the efficiency of at least a ‘C’ rating would help lower each ward’s carbon footprint, and make homes warmer, cheaper to heat and tackle issues like damp. 

PUBLIC TRANSPORT ACCESSIBILITY   

Greater Manchester Combined Authority publish a place-based assessment of the availability of public transport services across Greater Manchester. The data is available here and you can look at it in map form through Mapping GM. The Greater Manchester Accessibility Levels are one of the Transport layers you can choose on the map options.  

TRAVEL TO WORK

Data from the 2021 Census is used to report how far people in each ward travel to work. The results on home working might be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but working from home is continuing in a number of sectors.  

The hope is that these hyper-local carbon footprints can help Manchester’s residents understand where their climate actions will make the biggest difference, help to shape community-led initiatives and used alongside In Our Nature’s Resource Hub, help make Manchester a greener, healthier and more connected city.