Carbon Reduction on Fire Stations
Emily Frith, Senior Estates Improvement Manager, and Carrie Dickson, Energy & Sustainability Officer, for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, details the Service’s ongoing Carbon Reduction strategy and associated projects.
HIWFRS has a large and varied estate, with 61 operational buildings and one service headquarters. Keeping these buildings up to scratch from a carbon emissions perspective is a large annual undertaking. As a proportion of our total scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint (2,510 tCO2e in 2024/25), 59% of these emissions were from our buildings. This equates to 874 tCO2e of gas, 576 tCO2e from electricity, and 13 tCO2e from other fuels. Since our baseline footprint was re-calculated in 2020, we have reduced our total emissions by 20%.
In 2023 we released ‘Our Pathway to Net Zero’ 2025-2030 strategy, outlining our approach to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This goal was predominantly driven by the Government Climate Change Act, but also an internal ambition to reduce our own carbon emissions; the consequences of which our operational colleagues see the consequence of through increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
The impact of carbon and climate change is nothing new: HIWFRS’ journey to carbon reduction started in 2012, where we completed a project to install 748kWp of solar PV panel across the estate. This led to a more than 30% reduction in our carbon emissions.
STRATEGY
Alongside the development of ‘Our Pathway to Net Zero’, HIWFRS Property and Facilities assessed the estate against the following criteria:
- Current and historical energy use (annual kWh per m2 of the building)
- The efficiency and age of the heating system
- The lighting system
- Heat loss from the building fabric (for example older designs of appliance bay doors, or level of insulation)
This assessment gave us our baseline footprint. Combined with the Asset Maintenance Plan, a portfolio of deliverable projects set by the organisations planning cycle, the key opportunities over the coming years were identified as;
- Electrification of our non-operational vehicles.
- Improving the building fabric of our estate.
- Improving the efficiency of our heating and lighting.
- Designing in carbon reduction technology.
BORDON FIRE STATION
We started with Bordon Fire Station as a pilot for carbon reduction. Combined with a Salix application, this project saw new appliance bay doors fitted and a new insulated roof installed for heat retention, a full upgrade to LEDs, and the installation of an ASHP and solar PV array with battery storage. We continue to monitor energy performance data and report to Salix on the project. Bordon represents the baseline model for on-call decarbonisation.
ONGOING PROJECTS
Five on-call sites are receiving solar PV, LEDs, and ASHPs in appliance bays to replace old gas heaters. We are currently in the third year of this programme and we continue to focus on installation of solar PV at 10on-call stations, with battery backup to keep sites self-sufficient. Proposed projects for the next two years focus on upgrading aging heating systems and replacing with ASHP options.
NEW BUILDS
The Station Investment Programme (SIP) presented an opportunity to optimise carbon reduction on our new build fire stations, setting out a ‘gold standard’ for integrating sustainability features into both the design and construction. This includes a focus on renewable technologies, energy efficient systems, and passive design options such as optimising natural daylight wherever feasible, alongside effective building management systems to facilitate optimal and consistent operation of our buildings estate wide.
HIWFRS are constantly evaluating the options for carbon reduction technologies and incorporating this technology into new projects. For example, heat pumps are a highly efficient form of electric heating, as they can save around 60-70% of emissions compared to conventional electric heating. When designing our new SIP projects, heat pumps are now the default design option for HIWFRS.
Our sustainability design principles also incorporate measures to support ecology and local biodiversity on our sites. As part of the re-build Bishops Waltham Station has a green roof installed which includes a mix of native plant species, in addition to nesting bricks for small birds and bats. The new Station is also fully electric with an ASHP supported by solar panels and battery storage.
Likewise, the new Cosham Fire Station also operates via an ASHP and 90kWp solar PV array. It also achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating demonstrating how sustainability has been prioritised in the design and construction of the station.
CARBON REDUCTION BOARD
To ensure continued progression along our carbon reduction pathway, we hold ourselves accountable via a quarterly Carbon Reduction board, in which our carbon reduction trajectory is reported to the Corporate Services Director and relevant Heads of Service. These meetings involve summary updates on our carbon dashboard, electrification of our vehicle fleet, current carbon reduction projects, as well as environmental training and behaviour change initiatives.
These board meetings are fed back to the authority which helps influence future targets for carbon reduction.
KEEPING CARBON REDUCTION ON THE RADAR
Along with our quarterly carbon board meetings, we continue to keep our carbon pathway strategy on the radar and regularly engage with our colleagues through sustainability news stories while continuing to grow an Environmental Champions network group where like-minded colleagues share and implement ideas for improving our environmental performance as a Service.
An Environmental Awareness e-training package has been developed for all colleagues to ensure there is a shared understanding of the environmental risks we face, as well as outlining how everyone can play their part in reducing our carbon footprint.
We also continue to support sustainable travel initiatives through our Green Travel Plan and staff travel surveys to better understand current travel patterns and how we can best support colleagues to shift to sustainable and active transport modes where they can. A cycle scheme is available to support colleagues in active travel, and we have also completed cycle storage and facilities improvements at a number of our sites.
Following a legislative update earlier this year, we have since further segregated our recyclable waste to include food waste collections at each of our sites which has resulted in a positive increase in our overall recycling rates, contributing to our efforts to reduce the wider environmental impact of the Service.
Emily Frith – Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service
Senior Estates Improvement Manager
With 6 years in the Property and Facilities department at HIWFRS, Emily leads on a mix of capital and business as usual projects.
Carrie Dickson – Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service
Energy & Sustainability Officer
Carrie leads on the Service’s sustainability initiatives including carbon reporting, sustainable travel and behavioural change and has been part of the Property & Facilities team for 7 years.
For more information please visit website hantsfire.gov.uk