Sustainability initiatives

Steps we are currently taking as a organisation to work towards our 2030 carbon neutral target, and overall 2043 net zero borough ambitions.

Climate change

Wandsworth’s climate ambitions are to become a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a net zero borough by 2043 for a more sustainable Wandsworth.

We are:

Find out more about climate change and sustainability in Wandsworth.

Rubbish, recycling and food waste

To help create more sustainable waste collection processes, we:

  • Carry out weekly borough-wide food recycling collections for households with front gardens/driveways (from 10 June 2024)
  • Make weekly recycling collections for small electricals from all premises not using communal wheeled bins
  • Use a brand new collection fleet which runs on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) rather than diesel
  • Have installed a network of 20 on-street recycling banks for small electricals, plus collection facilities for these in all libraries

Find out more about rubbish and recycling in Wandsworth.

Transport

Transport is one of the most important parts of day-to-day life in the borough. We aim to be champions for the delivery of sustainable travel initiatives and projects to encourage walking, cycling, use of public transport and car sharing, and to reduce carbon emissions.

Recent highlights include:

Find out more about transport in Wandsworth

Air quality

We are committed to making sure that people throughout the borough have clean air to breathe. Our new Air Quality Action Plan (2023-2028) builds on the themes identified by the Citizens Assembly and expands this to include other areas of work where will take action to improve air quality.

Our current air quality data can be viewed through the London Air Quality Network (LAQN), and live air quality data can be found at the Breathe London Network.

To help improve air quality, we are:

  • Promoting active sustainable transport – with initiatives including Clean Air Day, Car-free day and Clean Air Night
  • Delivering anti-idling events monthly over the past year, to increase awareness of idling-related pollution across the borough
  • Working with Schools to reducing idling, conducting Air Quality assessments and running school workshops. Many Air Pollution Workshop were delivered in the 2023-24 School year.
  • Promoting #AskAboutAsthma 2024 from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 September 2024. This aims to raise awareness about children and young people's asthma, and increase understanding that air pollution can trigger attacks

Sign up to AirTEXT to receive free air quality alerts.

Find out more about air quality in Wandsworth.

Enable

Enable is a not-for-profit organisation, working in partnership with councils, charities and other organisations to deliver health, leisure and community services and events that enrich people’s lives. Our approach is inclusive and collaborative – we involve our partners and people in the community to help us identify needs and respond to them.

The Enable Parks team is a passionate group of people who:

  • Work together to maintain and improve Wandsworth Council’s parks, commons, playgrounds, allotments and other greenspaces
  • Work to deliver sustainable planting and urban greening, following both the borough’s Biodiversity Strategy and Tree Policy. This work is completed by three specialist teams: the trees team, the operations team and the parks development team

We are keen to recognise, value, manage and enhance the biodiversity and plant heritage of our landscapes.

The London Biodiversity Partnership were already producing action plans for many of the species and habitats we were concerned with, we decided to prioritise contributing to meeting their targets. 

Wandsworth has one of the highest numbers of council-owned parks and greenspaces in inner London, culminating in over 300 hectares of public greenspace.

There are ten allotment sites in Wandsworth.

Arts

Arts and Culture play a vital role in making Wandsworth a prosperous, healthy and attractive place to live. The Arts and Culture Strategy seeks to identify how the arts and culture community can contribute to tackling climate change at a strategic and operational level, in line with the Wandsworth Environment and Sustainability Strategy.

Our aims include:

  • Setting net zero carbon targets for the Borough’s cultural sector to be achieved by 2030 at the latest
  • Embedding environmental themes into our cultural programming and education/learning activities, drawing in cultural organisations, to help build environmental knowledge, awareness and inspire behavioural change
  • Supporting local creative businesses to be not only environmentally friendly but drive forward innovation within the economy
  • Supporting art commissions in taking sustainable and environmentally friendly approaches

Find out more about Wandsworth Art’s recent Weaving Out Waste project.

Up to Wandsworth Sustainable September

Updated: 04/09/2024