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Our response to the climate emergency

Our response to the climate emergency

Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy

In July 2019, Brent Council declared a climate and ecological emergency and committed to do all in its gift to strive for carbon neutrality by 2030. This target is borough-wide, not just council-only emissions, because of how urgent this issue is – and therefore more ambitious goals are required. We are one of only 12 councils in London who have adopted this 2030 target. 

In late 2019, we held the Brent Climate Assembly to understand resident’s priorities. The outcome of these workshops has informed our Strategy for reaching that ambitious goal.

Brent’s Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy (.pdf, 7.07MB) is the culmination of a year of research, review, and engagement with our communities and colleagues. It sets out our proposed priorities and a pathway to carbon zero. You can find out more information about the Strategy and the consultation by clicking the links below.

How will we track progress?

Every two years, we will publish a delivery pan against which progress will be tracked and comprehensive update provided. The delivery plans will set out specific priority actions for the coming two years, based on available funding. Good progress has already been made in all five of the areas outlined in our strategy.

Read the 2021-22 Delivery Plan progress report

What have we already done to tackle the climate emergency?

Our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy has five key themes which are closely aligned to the priorities set out by residents within the Brent Climate Assembly and also align to the Climate Change priorities being pursued across London, putting us in what we believe is the best possible position to tackle the climate and ecological emergency in our borough.

The five strategy themes are:

  • Consumption, resources and waste
  • Transport (Sustainable Travel)
  • Homes, Buildings and the Built Environment
  • Nature and Green Space
  • Supporting Communities.

A snapshot of progress against each of these themes since the strategy was adopted in April 2021 is set out below:

Consumption, Resources and Waste

  • Worked with United Colleges to open a new, pioneering Green Skills Centre at the Willesden Campus of the College of North West London. The courses available at the new hub focus on skills to tackle climate change through a wide range of construction and engineering subjects. Students are taught about the operation of air source heat pumps, electrical vehicle charging, internal and external wall insulation, and a variety of other sustainable technologies.
  • Adopted a new Sustainability Procurement Policy mobilises a potential £400m of council spending power towards tackling the climate and ecological emergency as all bidders for large council contracts now have to demonstrate how they will reduce emissions and operate sustainably during the delivery of services being procured
  • Delivered two free re-use and repair cafes, with plans for at least four more • Launched a new Library of Things at Willesden Green Library
  • 1500 new food caddies delivered to council owned blocks
  • London’s first Fixing Factory has launched in Brent at the Abbey Road Household Re-use and Recycling Centre
  • Through working with West London Waste and the Restart Project, 20+ Brent based circular economy businesses have been added to the Restart Project’s Repair Directory
  • Held a free ‘Clothes Mending Workshop’ in collaboration with Sunny Jar Eco-Hub on Thursday 11 November 2021 during the Brent Climate Festival
  • Held a free virtual webinar entitled: ‘The Recycling Process in Brent - What happens to your waste?’ on Thursday 11 November 2021 during the Brent Climate Festival
  • Held a free virtual webinar on the low Carbon Circular Economy as part of ‘A Beginner’s Guide to the Climate Emergency’ Webinar Series entitled: ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Creating a Circular Economy’
  • Worked with Veolia to deliver: new e-learning sessions on re-use, repair and recycling in Brent schools; a new eco-leaders programme for young people; a sustainable schools competition; and at least 25 school waste education assembles
  • Held a successful ‘Brent Skills Summit 2021’ which ran over two days as part of the Brent Climate Festival in November 2021
  • Arranged for sustainability apprenticeships with green businesses as part of the council’s Apprenticeship scheme

Transport (Sustainable travel)

  • Implemented 30 school streets and are in the process of making 26 permanent
  • Installed 383 new Electric Vehicle Charge Points, taking the borough’s overall total number of EVCPs to 600+
  • Developed a new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan for the council• Improved the amount of available information on Electric Vehicle Charge Points on the council’s website and provide a link to ‘Zapmap’ to make it easier for residents to visualise and locate the nearest chargers to them
  • Delivered a Healthy Neighbourhood scheme in a section of Stonebridge/Harlesden• Installed 50 new bike hangars in the borough, taking the borough’s overall total number of bike hangars to 100+
  • Engaged with local businesses/organisations in Harlesden on the sustainability benefits that can be provided by cargo bikes and undertook three successful trials accordingly with Sparks, Crazy Baker and Harlesden Mutual Aid group and have since launched the Brent Bikes for Business Cargo Bike Scheme
  • Worked with Brent schools to achieve an accreditation of either Gold, Silver or Bronze as part of the TfL STARS School Travel Plan scheme
  • Facilitated and promoted local community events on cycling for Bike Week in May 2021 and June 2022
  • Ran an anti-idling campaign which continues to educate motorists about the harmful effect on local air pollution of idling in a car
  • Introduced new engine idling guidelines for staff and contractors and took the #EnginesOff pledge

Homes and Buildings & the built environment

  • As part of a consortium of London Boroughs, we were collectively able to obtain around £40m in funding secured from government to upgrade 4000 fuel poor homes from Spring 2022, of which £3.5m is allocated to Brent homes (approximately 350 Brent homes). The partnership will carry out smart energy efficiency retrofits across the participating boroughs
  • Secured and delivered on £3.2m of government funding to improve the energy efficiency of 16 council-owned buildings across our estate
  • Secured £1.3m of funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for retrofitting some of the council’s least energy efficient council properties
  • Overall, the council achieved a 3.1% reduction in emissions from council’s corporate estate, streetlights and fleet this year
  • We have undertaken an assessment of the energy efficiency of the council’s own housing stock
  • We have undertaken three pioneering retrofit pilots on void street properties within our own stock.

View the latest annual corporate CO2 emissions savings report for 2022/23 for our corporate estate and operations.


Nature and Green Space

  • 661 new streets have been planted across the borough in 2021-22
  • Installed two new Green screen at two Brent schools (Harlesden Primary School and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School)
  • Completed a new Green Infrastructure Vision for Brent for 2030, which aims to bring together a multitude of strands that provide an opportunity to develop a green infrastructure throughout Brent.
  • Completed a new Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan for the borough. The aim of this document was to assess the key climate-related risks facing Brent and sets out a framework for adaptation and resilience.

Supporting Communities

  • We launched the first tranche (£500k) of the council’s Carbon Offset Fund (CO2GO) through a Participatory Budgeting process. A total of £400k (Pot 1) was available to reduce carbon and save energy costs to households and community buildings across Brent. Residents were able to apply for up to £10,000 per household and were able to join up with others in their community to form clusters of connected houses, flats or a combination. A total of £100k (Pot 2) was available for organisations and groups of residents to apply for between £500 and £20,000 for projects that deliver education and awareness to reduce the carbon footprint in Brent.
  • Continued to develop and expand the Brent Environmental Network which now has 3500+ members
  • Launched a communications programme via the information, newsletters and events provided via the Brent Environmental Network. For example, the Brent Climate Festival had an extensive programme of 20+ events that were all free for the public take part in and fostered engagement on the climate and ecological emergency by approximately 2500 residents.
  • Delivered six free webinars as part of the ‘A Beginner’s Guide to the Climate Emergency Webinar Series’ to help to educate residents and break down the biggest topics in relation to sustainability. All of these remain freely available to view via the council’s youtube channel
  • Launched a new Community Cookbook ‘From Brent to Bowl’ – which contained plant-based, or food-waste saving recipes from Brent residents to promote environmental sustainability in cooking
  • Organised a unique new photo exhibition Climate Change and My Religion which explored the ways in which faith informs our thinking about and motivation to act on climate change
  • Launched a Brent Faith Climate Action Plan, to practical encourage places of worship in Brent to take practical action to tackle climate change
  • Ran a ‘Green New Year’ comms campaign at the start of the year which reached 218,716 people
  • Launched a Brent School Climate Champions group, working particularly closely with the Kingsbury Schools Together cluster as part of the Kingsbury Green Neighbourhoods Work
  • Launched a new Climate Charter for Businesses
  • Provided funding to Brent businesses via an energy efficiency grants scheme
  • Developed 5 key Green Business Guides tailored to each of the five key business sectors operating in Brent – Retail, Hospitality, Construction, OfficeBased Companies and Media and Creative.
  • Ran a five part webinar series for each of the five sectors entitled ‘Going Green to Survive and Thrive’.
  • Launched the Brent ‘Together Towards Zero’ small grants scheme which gives residents and community organisations the opportunity to apply for a grant of up to £5,000 towards one-off projects and initiatives to residents and organisations which support plans to tackle the climate change and ecological emergency in Brent. So far, 61 community projects have been provided funded as part of this scheme

No Faith in Plastic

Say NO to Single-use Plastic

Plastics pollute the planet, kill creatures and destroy the health of our community and children

Key facts

  • Plastics pollute the planet and take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose
  • The world generates 400 million tonnes of plastic waste a year (Earth Org)
  • More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year (Ocean Conservancy)
  • It is estimated that roughly 40% of the ocean’s surface is covered in plastic debris – and there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean as soon as 2030 (Centre for Biological Diversity)
  • Ocean plastic pollution on track to rise to 29 million metric tons by 2040
  • 100,000 animals die from plastic entanglement each year (Earth Org)
  • Humans ingests 5 grams of plastic every week (Panda.Org)

How faith communities can help

  • Faith leaders and communities can make a huge difference 
  • Instead of single-use plastic - bring your own Tupperware or use biodegradable alternatives
  • Faiths share a religious commitment to protect the planet - and reducing single-use plastics is a practical and big way to make a difference
  • Faith leaders can close the door to single-use plastic in faith spaces, showing communities how to practically care for God’s creation. 

Faith Climate Action Group

Brent’s Faith Climate Action Group are a group of faith leaders who are passionate about taking climate action and working with their congregations and the wider community to reduce carbon emissions, and show kindness and compassion to the planet.

They are committed to increase the representation of faith communities on this key issue, so that followers of faiths can feel represented on this agenda and feel motivated to get involved.

This group is working closely with Brent Council to reach net zero by 2030.

“As a marker of identity that transcends national borders, religion influences many environmentally relevant behaviors. Thus, understanding its role is key to tackling environmental challenges that are fundamentally transnational.” (Colombia Climate School)

Brent projects

Find below climate emergency projects that involved faith communities.

No Faith in Plastic

Say NO to Single-use Plastic

Plastics pollute the planet, kill creatures and destroy the health of our community and children

Key facts

  • Plastics pollute the planet and take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose
  • The world generates 400 million tonnes of plastic waste a year (Earth Org)
  • More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year (Ocean Conservancy)
  • It is estimated that roughly 40% of the ocean’s surface is covered in plastic debris – and there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean as soon as 2030 (Centre for Biological Diversity)
  • Ocean plastic pollution on track to rise to 29 million metric tons by 2040
  • 100,000 animals die from plastic entanglement each year (Earth Org)
  • Humans ingests 5 grams of plastic every week (Panda.Org)

How faith communities can help

  • Faith leaders and communities can make a huge difference 
  • Instead of single-use plastic - bring your own Tupperware or use biodegradable alternatives
  • Faiths share a religious commitment to protect the planet - and reducing single-use plastics is a practical and big way to make a difference
  • Faith leaders can close the door to single-use plastic in faith spaces, showing communities how to practically care for God’s creation. 

Climate Change and My Religion photography exhibition

Faith leaders were invited to be part of this photography exhibition. They were encouraged to share their perspectives on the climate emergency from their faith teachings.

‘From Brent to Bowl’ cookbook

‘From Brent to Bowl’, is a community cookbook that was launched to promote the message of reducing food waste, and to showcase recipes and traditions from around the world that help to tackle the climate emergency.

The cookbook showcases a diverse range of cultures and faiths in the borough. 

Faith Leaders Cycle Ride

Faith and community leaders in Brent arranged a group cycle ride as part of activities for Bike week.

They were led by Joyriders North West London who took them from Kilburn to Little Venice, and then stopping off at Queens Park for a coffee and cake.

There were representatives from different faith organisations across the borough.

The group will look to raise awareness of cycling within faith communities, and support worshippers to learn and gain confidence in cycling. 

Faith and climate action resources

Find a range of climate action resources including faith specific information.

Faith Climate Action Plan

This Faith Climate Action Plan has been produced as a resource for other places of worship in Brent to use and help promote greener behaviours and sustainable ways of living.

This plan focuses on key areas where the faith organisations and places of worship can have a long-term environmental impact at a local level in Brent, as well as save money (e.g. on energy bills) and promote a healthier lifestyle for their congregations.

Download the Faith Climate Action Plan

Faith for the Climate

Faith for the Climate exists to encourage, inspire and equip faith communities in their work on the crisis of climate change – the biggest and most urgent challenge facing humanity.

Faith For The Climate

Judaism

EcoJudaism promotes the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment across the Jewish Community in accordance with the principles of the Jewish faith.

EcoJudaism - Our Faith In The Planet

Hinduism

Hindu Climate Action work towards a shift in consciousness towards a greener and more compassionate future.

Hindu Climate Action – Mobilising the Hindu Community to Tackle Climate Change

Christianity

Eco Church is A Rocha UK’s award scheme for churches in England and Wales who want to demonstrate that the gospel is good news for God’s earth.

Eco Church - An A Rocha UK Project

Islam

Sustainably Muslim aims to inspire and empower Muslims to serve the environment and their community through education and social action.

Eco Islam: IFEES Protecting our planet for future generations using Islamic teachings

Sikhism

EcoSikh is a response from the Sikh community to the threats of climate change and the deterioration of the natural environment

EcoSikh

Our response to the climate emergency

Brent Schools Climate Action Guide 

This guide is designed to support schools with developing climate action plans and contributing to Brent’s strategy to become carbon neutral by 2030. Developed in consultation with teachers across Brent, this guide is broken down into six different areas of climate action, each containing suggested activities, case studies, resources, and practical tips.

The guide is informed by Brent’s Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2021-30, the Whole School Approach, and the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for Education.

With this guide, Brent aims to support schools in:

  • developing climate action plans 
  • making climate action initiatives more manageable for busy schools
  • embedding climate education in the curriculum so that children can take climate action now and in the future 
  • creating positive cultures that enable and encourage the school community to make sustainable choices
  • making school sites more green, climate-resilient, energy-efficient and sustainable.

Downloadable resources