Businesses in the borough are steaming ahead in the fight to reduce carbon emissions.
Key figures gathered at an environmental awareness breakfast at City University.
Richard Gill, a sustainability officer from Islington Council, talked about the eco-standards it demands of buildings and contractors.
Adam Lacey, an account manager for Zipcar, also explained how it is reducing emissions by running cleaner vehicles.
He said: “We run a fleet of 1700 cars. We invest heavily in low emission vehicle types, so we’ve got the Volkswagon blue motion range.”
“We’re also working with Vauxhall to trial 10 of their new Ampera cars. We’ll be launching them in May.”
City University’s energy and environment manager Jason Clarke said the university has over 150 environment champions, and leads the way to help businesses in Islington.
They are on the Islington Climate Change Partnership (ICCP) steering group, and have been members of the partnership since the inception in 2007. The university is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 43 per cent before 2020.
The university, on Northampton Square in Clerkenwell, is the most environmentally friendly in London and ninth in the UK, according to the Environment Agency league tables for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).
Mr Clarke said: “Being a member of the ICCP has helped us in a number of ways. It enabled us to set targets. We were teaching about energy management but we weren’t actually managing our energy. We were the third highest emitter of carbon in Islington.”
The Islington Climate Change Partnership targets reducing emissions by 40 per cent by 2020.
