Horsham District Council OnePlanet

Horsham District Council

Case Study

Overview

Name: Horsham District Council

In 2019, Horsham District Council formally recognised the global environmental crisis and committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The Council has also committed to achieving carbon neutrality for the whole District by 2050. Horsham wanted to fast track the development of an inclusive Climate Action Strategy that could be a focus for collaboration between Horsham, the County Council, key business stakeholders and residents to deliver collective climate action.

More info: Becoming a carbon neutral district

Challenges

Horsham District Council is a small rural District with two tiers of government, therefore delivery of any Climate Action Strategy will require collaboration between different government actors and other key stakeholders.

Key challenges:

The Climate Action Strategy and its delivery plan must put partnership working at its core.
Compressed timeline to develop the strategy.
Identifying and building on existing work around climate action.
Ensuring collaboration and accountability on climate action both internally, but critically also externally with other levels of government and stakeholders.
Small team trying to deliver an ambitious strategy

OnePlanet Solution

Responding to the growing climate crisis can only be met through a whole government response. Working with Useful Projects, OnePlanet supported Horsham in developing a strategy that was embedded into existing plans and strategies.

OnePlanet supported the development of the Climate Action Strategy by:

Internal strategy mapping. Mapping out Horsham’s key existing strategies to understand where there are synergies and conflicts across departments.
External strategy mapping. Mapping out the relevant strategies of the County Council and key stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union, South Downs National Park and Southern Water, to identify key areas of partnership working.
Internal Opportunity analysis. Using the embedded Net Zero Navigator to prioritise likely opportunities.
Alignment and collaboration. Shared Outcomes and Indicators can be adopted into existing Council strategies, as well as external strategies, to facilitate a joined-up approach to climate action.
Action management and accountability. All Actions can be allocated to Council staff or departments to simplify management and tracking of cross departmental strategies.
Community engagement. Create resources to connect the community with Horsham’s Climate Action Strategy.

We had a really compressed timescale to develop our strategy and OnePlanet’s ability to map out the policy overlap internally and externally gave us a real headstart.

We've been able to link our District strategy with key County strategies to give us further insights and enable collaboration, which is critical for a small council.

The platform is alive and fun and allows me to see the plan in new ways.

I’m really enthusiastic about the potential to connect to the local community and key stakeholders, so that we can work together to deliver this ambitious plan - that is what gets me excited about my job!

Helen Peacock, Environmental Coordination Manager, Horsham Distric Council

Benefits and Return on Investment

Opportunity analysis and policy mapping using the OnePlanet platform saved time in developing the strategy and getting buy-in which allowed the ambitious timetable to be met.
The collaborative process ensured early engagement with key stakeholders and allowed Horsham to focus on the areas where the Council could have the biggest impact.
The OnePlanet platform presents the Climate Action Strategy in an engaging manner to boost community climate action – increasing impact and saving council resources.