Aberdeen City Council has graduated from the Carbon Trust's Carbon Management Programme, with a commitment to reduce its carbon emissions.

The council is one of four Aberdeen-based organisations to graduate from the scheme this year. The others are the University of Aberdeen, the Scottish Agricultural College and Robert Gordon University.

They were among 43 organisations to receive a certificate from John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, at the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel, Edinburgh, marking the end of the seventh phase of the programme.

Aberdeen City Council, which has embarked on its second carbon management plan, has set a target of a 23% reduction in carbon emissions by 2015, with anticipated savings of £2million. The University of Aberdeen is expecting to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and achieve financial savings of £1.5million by 2015.

The Carbon Management Programme is designed to help organisations develop a targeted framework to deliver carbon reduction practices by establishing their current baseline emissions, assessing the risks and opportunities posed by climate change, and developing a robust strategy to reduce carbon footprints over a five to ten year period. Since the programme began in 2003, nearly 100 public sector organisations have developed, or are in the final stages of developing, a Carbon Management Plan.

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Council chief executive Sue Bruce said: "We have a strong track record of tackling carbon emissions. The council was one of the first to sign up in 2004 to the Carbon Trust Local Authority Carbon Management Programme and since this time we have achieved impressive results with a 31% carbon emission reduction.

"We want to build upon this good work to meet our new targets and are currently involved in a number of projects including cutting the number of IC servers, signing a contract to ensure all our electricity comes from renewable sources and the installation and expansion of combined heat and power plants."

The University of Aberdeen, which has been able to benefit from a Salix Finance loan from the Carbon Trust, is using a remote meter reading system to provide energy displays to increase staff awareness of energy usage. It is also progressing with upgrading insulation, developing the building management system and installation of conversion kits for improved lighting efficiency.

Director of estates Angus Donaldson said: "Although we have already put numerous carbon cutting measures into effect we will continue to update our carbon management plan as we examine further aspects of the University and its practices."

By March 2009, the 50 organisations which had prepared a Carbon Management plan have so far collectively reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by over 350,000 tCO2, with associated energy bills savings in excess of £35 million.

(GK)