Courts go green | Mirage News

The money is being spent on a series of measures to improve sustainability and make the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) more environmentally friendly, now and in the future.

This includes reducing its consumption of fossil fuels by installing solar electric panels in a number of buildings in the estate, as well as updating lighting, heating and air conditioning systems to ensure their energy efficiency. In addition, electric vehicle charging points are being deployed in more buildings to encourage carbon-friendly travel.

The move will help cut court-generated emissions by 10% – saving an estimated 6,000 tonnes of carbon by 2025. It comes after four new “net zero†prisons were recently confirmed by ministers, designed to prevent emitting 280,000 tonnes of CO2 and halving energy demand.

Together, these measures ensure that the justice system plays its role in tackling climate change and helping meet the government’s goal of reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Courts Minister James Cartlidge said:

It is essential that we rebuild greener after the pandemic and seize this opportunity to improve sustainability across the criminal justice system.

This investment will reduce the carbon footprint of our courts and tribunals by 10%, with solar panels, electric car charging stations and more efficient buildings reducing our energy demand.

This is part of our plan to deploy technology and modernize the domain in order to provide better service to all court users.

The HMCTS has also developed a five-year strategy to ensure that sustainability is considered in everything it does. The strategy sets out measures to minimize its impact on the environment and increase biodiversity. It is divided into four areas:

• Reduce carbon emissions – by better insulating buildings, using technology to monitor and automate building management systems and reduce energy consumption, by providing vehicle charging points and bicycle racks, and allowing courts to access digital services remotely
• Water saving – using smart meter technology to track water usage, fix leaks quickly, and use water from showers and sinks to flush toilets and irrigate floors when that is possible
• Reduce waste – by increasing the volume of waste that can be reused and recycled, reducing the amount of food waste generated, and reusing or donating unwanted furniture and office items
• Protect and nurture biodiversity – by protecting and maintaining trees on one’s estate, increasing planting of pollinators where possible, and replacing shrubs with native plants where possible

Meanwhile, £ 12 billion is being invested by the government to rebuild greener and deliver on its commitment to achieve net zero by 2050. This will include hydrogen and carbon capture technology, greener houses, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, walking and cycling infrastructure, flood defenses. and supporting offshore wind power to power every UK home by 2030.

Remarks

• This is part of a £ 285million investment to improve our prisons and courts.
• Court Solar Panel Installations Case Studies available for the following regions: Coventry, Leicester, Mansfield, Northampton, North Staffs, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Cardiff Mags. (See Annexes AH below.)
• Meanwhile, the government is taking important steps to ensure our courts can operate at full capacity to recover from the pandemic and tackle delays. This includes:
  • opening of new Super Court rooms to handle large “multiplayer trialsâ€
  • set up Nightingale courtrooms across the country to increase capacity and ensure more trials can be heard – with a commitment to extend 32 courtrooms that deal with criminal trials through March 2022
  • work to reopen 60 more Crown courtrooms after most restrictions – including social distancing – are lifted in England and Wales
  • ensure there is no limit to the number of days Crown Courts can sit this year
  • put in place measures to make available more than 300 jury trial rooms to conduct trials safely
  • hosting over 20,000 hearings using remote technology each week (across all jurisdictions) – a huge increase from a standing start in March 2020.
• The impact of these measures is already visible. England and Wales were among the first major courts in the world to resume jury trials, as latest figures show the number of pending cases dropped by tens of thousands in magistrates’ courts since last summer. Crown Court cases remain around pre-COVID-19 levels, and we list thousands of cases every week.

Appendices

• A – Coventry. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 40710KWH / AN Energy generated. 9491 kgCO2E of energy savings. 0.94 acres of forest saved. This is equivalent to taking 6.18 cars off the road each year.
• B – Leicester. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 76,400 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 17,812 kgCO2E of energy savings. 1.78 acres of forest saved. 11.6 cars off the road each year.
• C – Mansfield. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 40,800 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 9344 kgCO2E of energy savings. 0.93 acres of forest saved. 6.13 cars off the road each year.
• D – Northampton. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 42,250 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 9,850 kgCO2E of energy savings. 0.99 acre of forest saved. 6.46 off-road cars each year.
• E – The northern staffs. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 41,040 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 9568 kgCO2E of energy savings. 0.96 acres of forest saved. 6.27 off-road cars each year.
• F – Nottingham. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 45010 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 10,494 kgCO2E of energy savings. 1.06 acres of forest saved. 6.58 off-road cars each year.
• G – Shrewsbury. We worked with Ameresco Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 49.5 kw bulb installed. 36,080 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 8412 kgCO2E of energy savings. 0.84 acre of forest saved. 5.5 cars taken off the road each year.
• H-Cardiff. We worked with Engie Ltd to install photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of the building. 1,076 KWH / YEAR Energy generated. 12,216 kg of CO2E energy savings.