Impact Awards: Councils can make ‘game-changing’ difference to carbon management

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

Jon Coane and Mark Cook look at the difference local authorities can make in reducing carbon emissons.

It’s a real privilege to be part of the Room 151 Impact Awards and to sponsor the Carbon Management award.

Local government doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for all the cutting edge projects that you, as teams plan, finance and implement that can make a huge difference to people, place and the environment.

As well as investing in projects to reduce it’s own carbon footprint, local government is often prepared to invest in projects that the commercial sector isn’t willing to. That may be because the monetary returns are not sufficient even though the environmental returns could be game-changing.

Crucial

We are at a crucial time for the environment and climate change is a real threat. However, the use of local government finance to help the environment is not a new thing, but councils do not “blow their own trumpet”.

This award is a chance for them to do just that. Local government finance colleagues are always a key part of the team even if they don’t always front the project. Without their hard work, the projects wouldn’t happen.

We have advised local authorities on many projects that benefit the environment and it’s always inspiring to experience how motivated members, employees and officers of local government are to make a difference.

We have been heavily engaged in helping councils implement the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in recent months, as well as trialling new cooperative ways of developing local energy infrastructure and have devised a flexible procurement route for achieving a stream of such projects at a sub-regional level. Our advice covers all angles including:

• local government law
• procurement
• subsidy controls
• commercial law
• energy regulation
• governance
• company/partnership law
• public law
• finance
• banking
• real estate
• construction

As a law firm, we are on our own journey to becoming carbon neutral and have a lot to learn from how local government use their finance to reduce their and their local area’s carbon footprint, whilst stimulating the local economy and working closely with the public and third sectors.

If you would like to know more, do contact us using our details below or visit our website, anthonycollins.com.

Jon Coane and Mark Cook are partners at Anthony Collins Solicitors. Jon is the financial regulatory team leader while Mark works in local government team.

jon.coane@anthonycollins.com
0121 214 3542

mark.cook@anthonycollins.com
0121 214 7472

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

AWARDS INFORMATION

Read about the awards here.

Read about the seven categories here.

For submissions click here.

To read case studies of finance team impact, click here.

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