Current Projects

Creating liveable, sustainable communities, helping to tackle climate change and biodiversity collapse, supporting regeneration, and providing opportunities for relaxation and leisure. If you live in Sunderland then the North East Community Forest is your community forest.

This 30 year, multi-million pound project will see tens of thousands of trees planted and all new woodland in the region, whether established on land owned by your local council or on a privately owned hillside, contributes to the North East Community Forest and benefits our local communities.

The North East Community Forest is supported by a partnership of local authorities, combined authorities, charities and organisations.

Working together to plant thousands of hectares of trees that will both improve our natural environment and create happier and healthier places for us all to live, work in and visit.

Find out more here.

Read the NECF Annual Report here.

Have you got a digital device at home that you no longer use or want? Maybe in a drawer, on a shelf, or under your bed?

Dig it out and donate it at a drop-off point near you between August and October.

We'll collect all the donated devices from the drop-off points, recondition them and donate them to local people who don't have access to a digital device.

Before we donate them on, we'll make sure every device is data sanitised. This means all data, such as photos and files, will be deleted and removed from the devices.

Find out more at:

Donate your unwanted digital device - Sunderland City Council

Since the North East Community Forest (NECF) was launched in 2021, Sunderland has been planting thousands of trees and becoming a lot greener.  Initially tasked to plant 45 hectares of trees in 4 years, the city has exceeded this goal one year early, planting nearly 47 hectares of trees and hedges that is supporting the overall Community Forest goal to increase tree canopy cover from 18% to 50% by the year 2050.

In just 3 years, Sunderland Council has secured £869,000 of external funding via the Community Forest and planted trees and hedges on 26 separate sites.  With this funding we have planted:
- 17,887 small trees (or ‘whips’)
- 848 large trees (or ‘street’ or ‘public realm’ trees)
- 311 orchard trees on 13 different sites
- 14,523 hedge plants (creating 2,643m of new hedgerow)
- 10.58 hectares of new wildflower meadow
- 30,600 bulbs.

Outside of this funding, the Council has also planted over 28,000 tree and hedge plants as part of other developments including greenspace upgrades, school grounds and roadside verges, bringing the grand planting total to over 62,000 tree and hedge plants. 

The Council has also been carrying out tree replacement works across the city, particularly along urban streets.  Linked to this, a rolling programme of tree plantation management works is also taking place.

Furthermore, we are also working with other landowners across the city to encourage them to plant trees and hedges on their land and to make the city much greener.  By working together, increased tree cover will improve our natural environment, help our city adapt to climate change, will reduce carbon and will create happier and healthier places for us all to live, work in and visit.

Learn more about how we're increasing the tree canopy cover in Sunderland.

For more information about the NECF, click here

Save energy now. Increase your bottom line tomorrow.

Reducing energy costs and cutting carbon emissions is important for organisations of all sizes, operating in all sectors.

By installing energy-efficiency improvements and also implementing behavioural change initiatives the average company could reduce its energy bill by up to 25%.

Organisations that cut energy costs improve viability and future-proof against energy price volatility. Organisations that improve their low carbon credentials often attract more customers.

Through the BREEZ scheme, Sunderland City Council offers eligible local businesses and community organisations a flexible approach to cutting their energy bills and their carbon emissions. The project is funded by UK Government and Sunderland City Council and, subject to the ongoing availability of funding, runs from January 2024 until March 2025. 

Sunderland City Council's BREEZ team provides businesses and community organisations with a free, Energy-Saving Opportunities Review and could also award a 50% grant towards the total cost of installing cost-effective energy-efficiency upgrades and improvements.

For more information, click here.

The Environmental, Green and Sustainable (EGS) Group is a city-wide low carbon youth forum that is run with and for Sunderland's children and young people. This group aims to empower young people through discussing the climate crisis, low carbon and action being taken in Sunderland. After each group meeting, EGS representatives meet with the city's senior leaders at the 2030 Shadow Board meetings to contribute to low carbon discussions and decisions. Young people of all ages take part, including representatives from a mix of Sunderland schools, youth group settings, Sunderland College, and the University of Sunderland.   

The EGS Group has just finished its third academic year of running and has had numerous group meetings as well as sending EGS representatives to the 2030 Shadow Board meetings since October 2021. The EGS chose their own group name, voted on the city-wide hashtag #WearSustainable and have explored numerous topics of interest such local growing projects, sustainable transport, plastic pollution, and greenspaces in Sunderland. Our group members share what projects they have been working on, take part in regular consultations, take part in volunteering sessions, highlight important matters along with others at the 2030 Shadow Board. 

This year the EGS group members chose to focus on Sustainable Transport in Sunderland. The EGS group invited and worked with Sunderland City Council’s Active Travel Team to launch a school transport competition. In May the EGS Group launched the ‘Walk to Win’ Sunderland Walk to School Week Competition. 40 school classes entered the competition and winning schools and classes received prizes, pick out by group members, including a £100 Sunderland Gift Card, Bike Bells, Hi- Vis Jackets, Water bottles and Bike reflectors.

During COP27 Sunderland City Council launched a new initiative called Sunderland Climate Friendly Schools to support Sunderland's schools, children and young people to have the knowledge, confidence and skills required to drive the city's low carbon ambitions forward. This is a two-year programme which is being delivered with Outdoor and Sustainability Education Specialists (OASES) and aims to improve environmental literacy and support schools to take action in tackling climate change, with 10 schools (including some from each Area of the city and a mix of primary, SEND and secondary schools) being selected to take part in the project.   

Now in the projects second year of delivery, all 10 Sunderland Schools have received Climate Friendly Schools Status through working closely with OASES staff and the Low Carbon Team to complete a school audit; set up a climate action team; develop actions; complete a whole-school assembly; and undergo training for teaching staff and governors. School actions are based around 7 climate friendly themes: energy, transport, building, water, food, consumption, and grounds. Examples of the carbon-cutting actions the schools are taking forward include growing vegetables, introducing children to possible future careers in the green economy, promoting a uniform swap shop, installing a water butt to harvest rainwater, creating an energy saving campaign in school, investigating renewable technologies to install and planting trees.   

A Sunderland Climate Friendly Schools network has been formed, which meets termly and is open to all schools. The network cascades information and signposts support and good practice is shared amongst peers.   

Alongside the Sunderland Climate Friendly project, Sunderland City Council launched an initiative to develop a 'Wear Sustainable' resources toolkit. The development was led by OASES and 5 Sunderland Schools who co-developed and trialled the Wear Sustainable Resources for all key stages to learn about Sunderland's Low Carbon Journey. The resources are curriculum linked and enable young people across Sunderland to understand the city's history and heritage and transformation over time to the modern and increasingly sustainable cityscape. 

For more information, click here.

In February 2022, the new state-of-the-art Household Waste and Recycling Facility at Pallion opened, which is five times the size of the former Beach Street facility. It is capable of handling more than 1 million visits annually as the Council seeks to encourage high levels of recycling across the city.

The split-level design makes it easier for householders to use the waste containers, with no steps to climb, and operationally it is possible to change over the waste containers without having to temporarily close the site. The new facility is more efficient, with better services and opportunities to recycle and re-use more waste materials. This is designed to increase the amount of household waste being recycled, to reduce congestion and to be more user friendly for residents.

The site also includes a purpose-built recycling/re-use shop. Re-usable items such as furniture, working electrical items, clothing, bikes, toys, books, CDs, bric-a-brac and other household items can be donated directly to the re-use shop, where donations can then be sold on at low prices to be enjoyed by somebody else.

Details are available here.

BetterPoints is a FREE to use award-winning behaviour change platform targeting modal shift to active and sustainable travel. The app tracks your travel movements via GPS using your smartphone and rewards you with points for using more sustainable modes of transport like walking, cycling and using public transport.  

Points can then be exchanged for rewards such as discounts in local shops, free coffees, vouchers or charity donations.  

The campaign in Sunderland will run until the end of June 2025 (and hopefully beyond, subject to additional funding) and will see points awarded, to anyone aged 14 or over, for active or sustainable journeys made around Sunderland, Washington, Hetton and Houghton.  

Better Points currently has 2,969 users (July 2024) in Sunderland and has reported significant CO2 savings, with a total saving of 220,382 kg of carbon dioxide between March 22 and May 2024. Active travel can include walking, cycling, running, or using an e-bike, while using public transport like the bus, metro or train counts as sustainable travel. 

Rewards are in the form of BetterPoints (digital currency), BetterTickets (prize draw entries) or direct vouchers and prizes. BetterPoints can be redeemed for a wide choice of vouchers in our catalogue of high street and local retailers, coffee shops, sports venues and cinemas. BetterTickets prize draws are daily, weekly or monthly, to win BetterPoints or sponsored prizes.  

Local Companies taking part can either offer gift-vouchers, discounts or sponsor prize draws, such as Sunderland University and Sunderland College who offer reward incentives to students.

Recent Prize Draws include:  

- An Electric Bike
- Free Coffee`s in a number of local cafes 
- £20 Sunderland Gift Cards  
- £20 Nexus Pop Cards   
- Everyone Active Gym Passes  
- Bonus Points  

Download the BetterPoints app here: BetterPoints Sunderland.

As part of Sunderland's work to reduce Consumption and Waste - and save residents and businesses money, the Council launched a Refill scheme for Sunderland on 16th June 2022 for World Refill Day. This will help the city to reduce single use plastic waste by working with Not-for-Profit organisation 'City to Sea' who lead the Refill campaign. 

Refill provides a platform to connect residents and their communities to places they can eat, drink and shop without single-use plastic packaging. The free Refill app has been downloaded by over 480,000 people globally and Sunderland is the latest scheme to join the campaign. 104 Refill stations were already registered within the city at launch, and there are now 130 Refill stations across the city. Refill Sunderland will provide a platform for new stations to register and will help promote them. 

To see where the stations are located download the Refill app click here.

If you would like to register as a refill station click here.

Links with Nature is an ambitious £2.2million project to improve the quality and to increase access to greenspaces across the Coalfield area of Sunderland.

The project, managed by Durham Wildlife Trust, is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sunderland City Council (including the Coalfield Area Board), Northumbrian Water’s Blue Spaces Programme and North East Community Forest. It aims to improve habitats and nature recovery as well as enabling local people to enjoy and gain health benefits from spending time in natural greenspaces. Thirteen different sites are being improved and there is a programme of activities to run alongside, which will provide local residents the opportunity to volunteer, exercise or learn more about their local wildlife.

For more information click here.

The £10m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot fund is intended to encourage large scale, ambitious and commercially sustainable projects that leverage significant private sector investment to support the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Sunderland secured £493,568 grant funding towards a £822,612.70 project supporting the delivery of 219 fast charging outlets for residents at Riverside Sunderland and on-street locations. This included funding for 115 wall-mounted charge-point sockets at Riverside Sunderland Multi-Storey Car Park as well as residential on-street charging / an EV Community Hub supporting 104 outlets at 20 locations across the city.

The Council are busy engaging with ward councillors and residents citywide on the EV Community Hub proposals. Once site locations are confirmed, the Council will move forward with plans to appoint a charge-point provider and start deployment to benefit residents who either own or are looking to purchase an electric car.

On-street Residential Charge Point Scheme Round 1 (OCRS) works were completed in March 2023 (grant worth £69,300 initially secured in January 2021). This saw 10 EV charging points for use by residents where off-street parking was unavailable at Harbour View in Roker, Morgan Street in Southwick, Ocean Road in Grangetown, Aldenham Road in Lakeside Village and Market Street in Hetton.

The regional Levelling Up Fund Round 2 proposal, focused on EV infrastructure, has been successful. As well as supporting buses to be converted to electric (as referenced in public transport section), Sunderland has received £667,000 to support the delivery of three rapid charging hubs.

The council continues to actively seek and bid for government grant funding to assist with the uptake of electric vehicles, with a focus on charge-point provision in locations where off-street parking is either limited or unavailable.

Work is also progressing at the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP) to deliver a 100% renewable electricity ‘Microgrid’ that it is anticipated will save 55,000 tonnes of carbon annually, working closely with industry partners. This will enable more cost competitive energy delivery, coupled with renewable energy to be generated on a phased basis, to meet the energy requirements of companies locating at IAMP. The microgrid development represents a significant opportunity for private sector investment, including in renewable energy, to create an environment whereby electric vehicles are being manufactured at scale from green energy. Significant progress has already been made on the Microgrid development, which is expected to be energised and operational from Q.2 2026.

Sunderland City Council continues to explore the possibility of using renewable energy in the form of minewater in the city centre, as well as district heating opportunities citywide (see Sunderland Central Heat Network). Further detailed desktop analysis of former mine workings close to the city centre has been completed, with the Coal Authority considering Wearmouth Colliery among the top mine source heat opportunities in the country. An outline business case has been prepared for this project and engagement with partners is currently ongoing. The Council secured Green Heat Network - Transition Scheme Funding for pilot boreholes unfortunately, owing to increases in construction and steel prices, the cost of pilot boreholes exceeds the current budget, however operational wells remain within the expected budget range of the future district heating project.

Sunderland is one of 28 pilot cities continuing to assist the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) with their methodology for Heat Network Zoning. As part of the Energy White Paper Government announced plans to introduce Heat Network Zoning to accelerate city scale district heating opportunities. In autumn 2021 DESNZ consulted on proposals for implementation in England and primary legislation was introduced as part of the Energy Act 2023. The overall aim is to develop heat networks in zones where they can provide the lowest-cost low carbon heat to the end-consumer in England through a combination of regulation, mandating powers, and market support. Sunderland's involvement in the pilot programme alongside the other pilot cities will inform the development of any national methodology that is introduced in the future, and the outputs are helping inform Sunderland projects such as Sunderland Central Heat Network.

Sunderland City Council is pioneering an innovative approach to procurement and delivery of city scale district heating. Following significant changes in the district heating and energy market, including the energy crisis and announcement of Heat Network Zoning, which sparked renewed interest from private sector operators, Sundland City Council began working on an industry reforming procurement strategy. In March 2023 Cabinet approved the change in delivery approach and in April 2024 the Council, after further market testing and extensive background work, the Council formally announced its Joint Development Agreement opportunity, seeking a funder/operator to work with the Council to finalise the business case, and ultimately deliver and operate a heat network for central Sunderland. The opportunity comprises of the initial Sunderland City Centre Heat Network, with expansion opportunity to deliver the strategic ‘Zone’ of Sunderland Central which was identified through the Heat Network Zoning Pilot work with DESNZ.

In a bid to reduce emissions and increase sustainable and active travel among the council's workforce, a mobility hub is being established. 10 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles were purchased and have been made available to staff since March 2022. It is expected that in the future the hub will also be of benefit to the 10,000 people who will go on to work from Riverside Sunderland, as well as the 2,500 residents who will live in the area when the site is fully developed. Linking with the solar energy project for St Mary's Multi Storey Car Park (where the vehicles are located) will create an opportunity for the Electric Vehicle miles to be powered by renewable electricity.

The Council worked with the Digital Catapult on an Innovation Challenge through its Internet of Things programme, which has been set up to focus on innovation with local authorities.  Sunderland is home to the Digital Catapult North East & Tees Valley centre, as part of the wider national Digital Catapult (the UK authority on advanced digital technology). This initiative was to develop and pilot a digital product or service which can improve energy efficiency within Council buildings, through the use of sensors and real-time data. The challenge was launched in summer 2021 with the proposal to begin with two test sites and to provide a solution which would be scalable. 

Nomad Energy Solutions Ltd were the successful SME and began their pilot focused on Evolve (one of Sunderland City Council's Business Centres) and the Council's Leechmere Centre.  Based on their analysis during the pilot period, they prepared a report which provided short, medium and long-term suggestions for improvements.  The trial has so far saved 111 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, with the potential to achieve a further 76 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per annum from recommended longer-term measures. Following the success of the Innovation Challenge, a scale-up phase of the project has now begun and it is expected that further emissions savings will be achieved as more buildings across the Council's estate are included.

A ‘School Streets’ trial scheme was launched in April 2022, with streets temporarily closed to tackle problem parking. A trial street closure was operated at St Bede's Catholic Primary School Washington to address road safety concerns and improve air quality.

St Bede’s Catholic Primary School Washington is now a permanent School Street following the successful trial of the closure. This will be monitored and the Council is currently exploring opportunities to extend and expand the School Streets approach following assessment of pilot.

The Council is supporting schools to achieve the Bronze Food and Nutrition Charter Mark, which was initially rolled out in 2021 as an element of the Sunderland Healthy Schools Award. Any Sunderland education setting can apply to the Bronze level, which was rolled out in 2021. There is significant focus on environmental sustainability including plant-based and planet-friendly diets, waste minimisation and seasonal eating among other initiatives. There are now 5 educational settings accredited at bronze level across early years, primary and secondary. The silver level is expected to be developed for the 2023/24 academic year, with the gold level to follow in 2024/25.

In 2015, Sunderland City Council signed up to the original UK100 pledge to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050. Due to significant progress made by local authorities in recent years, UK100 published a new Net Zero pledge which raises the ambitions of councils and cities, to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 2045 respectively. In March 2022, Sunderland City Council reaffirmed its commitments to UK100 by becoming a signatory of this Net Zero pledge. Signatories are known as the 'Net Zero Local Leadership Club' and are working collaboratively to ensure net-zero targets are reached as soon as possible. UK100 brings together ambitious local authorities to share knowledge, collaborate, and petition the central UK government with their collective power (over 100 Councils have already signed up to the revised pledge). UK100 works closely with elected representatives and policy experts to develop solutions to the challenges local leaders face and build public support for the net-zero transition. Through reaffirming commitments to UK100, and increasing our targets accordingly, this reflects increased ambition by the Council and city.

Having signed the European Covenant of Mayors in 2009 to commit the city to Carbon reduction targets, Sunderland was happy to be selected to participate in the programme's peer learning project. The European-funded programme brings cities together to learn from one another on climate and energy actions and to build long-term relationships. 

Sunderland was one of 11 cities (and one of 5 'expert' cities) from over 100 applications to be selected take part in the project which is coordinated by the EUROCITIES network of 200 members from 38 countries. The peer learning projects share research, experience and ways of working to a more sustainable future. 

In October 2021 Sunderland hosted an online 4-day event with colleagues from Vitoria Gastéiz in Spain and Parma in Italy to share learning and expertise. Topics discussed included transport, energy and green infrastructure. Sunderland led discussions on community and partner engagement, highlighting the city-wide cooperative approach, our joint 'Low Carbon Framework' and our ambitions for the whole city to be carbon neutral by 2040. 

Sunderland colleagues and elected representatives gave a number of presentations over the 4 days as well as taking part in joint sessions. The online 'visit' culminated in our European partners participating alongside young people's 'Environmental, Green, Sustainable (EGS) representatives in October's city-wide 2030 Low Carbon Shadow Board's meeting.