Agenda

(a)          Minutes of the meeting held on 13 February 2020 and, if in order, to be approved as a correct record.

(b)          Minutes of the 17 October 2019 – to consider passing the following resolution

“RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of County Council held on 17 October 2019, which were approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record on 17 December 2019, be amended in order to correct a subsequently discovered inaccuracy by the addition of resolution (d) to  minute no 181 (Select Committee – Knife Crime) “that the Cabinet submit an update to County Council on 19 March 2020 on the progress with the Select Committee recommendations”.  

Minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2019.

Reducing the carbon impact of Kent County Council’s internet-related activity

Proposer: Ida Linfield     Seconder: Antony Hook

“Having been evaluated and approved in principle by the ICT Compliance and Risk Manager, the Council requests the Cabinet Member for Finance Corporate and Traded Services to instruct the relevant Officers to, at the earliest opportunity, set Ecosia as the default search engine on all of Kent County Council’s internet-enabled devices (where technically feasible), including those available in public spaces such as libraries.”

Background information provided by Ida Linfield  and Mr Hook  in support of the motion

Kent County Council passed a motion declaring a climate emergency in May 2019, which included commitments to reducing the impact of its own estate and activities. Internet-related activity is a notable source of carbon emissions within the Council, which has thousands of devices connected to the web. Activities such as conducting web searches can act as a significant source of such emissions (see note 1 below). The Council has a responsibility to mitigate this impact as much as possible.

One such approach which has already been adopted by many Universities worldwide (including the University of Sussex), as well as having a motion recently passed at Brighton and Hove City Council, is to adopt Ecosia as the default search engine. Ecosia not only operates its services on 100% renewable energy, but as a certified ‘benefit corporation’, it uses its revenue to plant trees in locations worldwide with over 85 million trees planted to date (as of March 2020). This means it is carbon-negative (see note 2 below).

Footnotes:

1.    One Google search accounts for an estimated 0.2 to 7g of carbon dioxide emissions. 7 grams is equivalent to boiling a pot of tea: https://climatecare.org/infographic-the-carbon-footprint-of-the-internet/

2.    Every search with Ecosia removes C02 from the atmosphere by funding the planting of trees. If Ecosia were as big as Google, it could fund the absorption of 15% of all global C02 emissions: https://blog.ecosia.org/co2-neutral-seach-engine-ecosia-solar-plant/