New tool and database will bring together local authority emissions evidence with housing, demographic, economic data

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) has launched TrACE, a new tool that will record CO2 saving evidence. The tool has been developed with input from the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) has been created to help local authorities report and keep track of their actions to curb local carbon dioxide emissions, in line with their new national performance indicator, NI 186. The tool is available to download free from the Energy Saving Trust (EST) website.

TrACE (Tracking Actions on Carbon Emissions) is aimed at helping English local authorities to record evidence of their activities and so achieve CO2 savings across domestic, transport, business sectors in their areas.

TrACE is to become a core component of EST’s work to support local authorities, and it is hoped that other bodies, such as the Audit Commission and government departments, will also adopt it as a standard method for reporting local activity.

Developed by a partnership led by Aether, TrACE has undergone extensive piloting and received a positive feedback from the local authorities involved.

The same team has also developed a database for the Energy Saving Trust that can help to bring together local authority data with housing, demographic, economic and CO2 emissions data.

This new database will, over time, enable more effective comparison and benchmarking of local authority performance and improved understanding of those actions and initiatives which make most difference at local level to CO2 emissions. for National Indicator 186.

While aimed primarily at English local authorities, it is a useful tool for any local authority in the UK that wants to monitor and report on carbon saving actions related to domestic, transport and commercial/industrial emissions in their area.

TrACE is currently available as a downloadable spreadsheet which includes full guidance on how to enter data.

The Energy Saving Trust is also developing systems to combine and aggregate the data so that multi-LA, regional and national comparisons can be made and to help in the identification of good practice and national progress.

In the longer term, it hopes to be able to use this data to allow local authorities to benchmark their performance against other similar councils.