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Contact: Denise Fitch 03000 416090
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Apologies for Absence Additional documents: |
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Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in items on the agenda Additional documents: |
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(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
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Corporate Parenting Panel - Minutes for noting PDF 215 KB Minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2019. Additional documents: |
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Chairman's Announcements Additional documents: |
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Questions Additional documents: |
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Report by Leader of the Council (Oral) Additional documents: |
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'Kent's Future, Our Priority' - Kent County Council's 5 Year Plan PDF 536 KB Additional documents: |
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Corporate Parenting Annual Report - 2018-2019 PDF 124 KB Additional documents: |
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Children Young People and Education Directorate - Top Tier Restructure PDF 137 KB Additional documents:
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Pay Policy Statement 2020-21 PDF 124 KB Additional documents: |
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Treasury Management 6 Month Review 2019/20 PDF 324 KB Additional documents: |
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Independent Person (Standards) PDF 111 KB Additional documents: |
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Update to Members' Allowances Scheme PDF 205 KB Additional documents: |
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Motion for Time Limited Debate 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/
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