ADEPT launches DFT-funded programme for counting carbon
- robball6
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
Last week the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) launched a new programme designed to help local highways authorities in England cut carbon emissions associated with road maintenance. Funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), the Carbon Leadership Programme provides a standardised way for councils to count carbon and will collect information to help identify where efforts to reduce emissions should be targeted.
Thermal Road Repairs welcomes this programme. Decisions about road maintenance and repair methods should be based firmly on facts and evidence, rather than on glossy marketing promises. Providing a standardised approach for every local council will help to reveal which technologies are both carbon and cost efficient.
The Carbon Leadership Programme is set to run for three years from June 2025 and will prioritise the authorities with the longest networks, highest spend and best data in the first year. The goal is that by the end of the three years, all 153 English local highways authorities will have completed a baseline Carbon Footprint Assessment and then a Best Practice Carbon Assessment – which is a way for authorities to self-assess whether they are delivering value.
As well as giving local authorities a structured way to start reducing carbon emissions related to road maintenance, the programme will provide a database of best practice that can be drawn on by councils, according to ADEPT. And here’s a very interesting detail: the information will be used by the DfT to direct future funding towards ‘the most successful initiatives’.
The programme is being overseen by Proving Services, a consultancy that came out of Cranfield University School of Management in 2003. Proving Services runs the Future Highways Research Group (FHRG), which involves 40 local highways authorities and is an official research partner of ADEPT. Research and benchmarking exercises run by the FHRG have informed the structure of the assessment and reporting that will be used in the Carbon Leadership Programme.
A brochure about the Carbon Leadership Programme published at the time of the launch suggests that there will be further modules beyond the Carbon Footprint Assessment and Best Practice Carbon Assessment which will not be funded by the DfT. Councils will also be able to pay for assistance with assessments if they require it, although there will be online training sessions in how to fill out the assessments.
ADEPT is running introductory webinars about the programme on 16 and 23 June for local authorities, whether ADEPT members or not, and for ADEPT corporate partners. Training webinars will begin in July.
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