We monitor our carbon emissions as part of our plan to achieve net-zero by 2040.
For more information about our commitment to reducing emissions, you can read our carbon reduction plan (pdf)
We calculate our emissions by recording the energy and fuel we use to carry out our services (including HTS (Property and Environment) Ltd and Veolia fleet).
We use conversion factors provided by the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to convert activity data (such as litres of fuel used or number of miles driven) into kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Annual emissions
This table covers all emissions from Harlow Council sources between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
The scopes are defined as:
- scope 1 (direct emissions) – emissions produced by council owned vans and minibuses, as well as fuel combustion
- scope 2 (energy indirect) - emissions from electricity
- scope 3 (other indirect) – emissions from extraction, refining and distribution of fuels, as well as non-council owned transport such as Veolia fleet and staff business travel
Gas and electricity consumption relates to buildings occupied by the council and also those occupied by HTS (Property and Environment) Ltd.
| Emission | Scope 1 (kg CO2e) | Scope 2 (kg CO2e) | Scope 3 (kg CO2e) | Total energy produced by renewable resources (kg CO2e) | Total (kg CO2e) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 709,995 | 0 | 117,253 | 0 | 827,248 |
| Electricity | 0 | 368,305 | 31,864 | -368,305 | 31,864 |
| Operational vehicles - petrol | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Operational vehicles - diesel | 10,918 | 0 | 2,672 | 0 | 13,590 |
| Staff business travel | 11,797 | 0 | 3,074 | 0 | 14,871 |
| Veolia fleet | 225,823 | 0 | 54,921 | 0 | 280,744 |
| HTS (Property and Environment) Ltd fleet | 397,774 | 0 | 97,302 | 0 | 495,076 |
| HTS (Property and Environment) Ltd LPG | 81,879 | 0 | 19,563 | 0 | 101,442 |
| Biomass | 30 | 0 | 104 | 0 | 134 |
You can look at our greenhouse gas emission data year on year in our greenhouse gas emissions annual comparison document (pdf)
How we calculate our emissions
We use the following information to calculate our emissions data:
Scope 1
- gas consumption data from our energy supplier
- transport fuel consumption for operation vehicles from mileage logbooks
Scope 2
- electricity consumption data from electricity suppliers and meter read information
Scope 3
- car business mileage payment data from employee claims
- transport fuel consumption for HTS (Property and Environment) Ltd from HTS mileage logs
- transport fuel consumption for Veolia fleet from Veolia mileage logs
Our data includes emissions from buildings where Harlow Council is the owner or occupier.
It does not include emissions from properties owned by Harlow Council but occupied by a third party, where the tenant ultimately pays for the energy consumed.