Climate change blog – launching the ADEPT Carbon Leadership Programme

23 June 2025

In this month’s climate change blog, Simon Wilson, Director of Proving Services discusses the launch of ADEPT’s Carbon Leadership Programme, which is supported by DfT, and highlights the benefits that it offers to local highway authorities.

The ADEPT Carbon Leadership Programme, launched in early June, is an exciting new initiative that will support local highway authorities (LHAs) in their efforts to decarbonise operations and move toward net zero.

This programme is the first of its kind in the industry, providing a structured, research-informed approach to tackling carbon emissions across a complex and often fragmented sector.

What is the Carbon Leadership Programme?

The programme is rooted in the extensive work undertaken by the Future Highways Research Group (FHRG), which identified the lack of consistent, reliable data on LHA carbon emissions as a major barrier for planning and measuring carbon reduction.

Historically, local authorities have faced immense challenges in this area. Inconsistent methodologies, duplicated effort and poor data quality have all undermined efforts to develop impactful strategies and measure progress. The Carbon Leadership Programme which is being delivered by Proving Services will help to address these issues.

How will the Carbon Leadership Programme be run?

Funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), the programme builds on previous initiatives including the FHRG Carbon Research Programme and Live Labs 2.

Our team’s role will be to ensure that the tools and processes developed are not only methodologically robust, but also practical and user-friendly. This is especially important when considering the varying capacities and carbon management capabilities of participants.

The programme itself centres around two key tools:

Carbon Footprint Assessment (CFA)
Best Practice Carbon Assessment (BPCA).

The CFA provides a consistent approach to quantifying carbon emissions across local highway functions, while the BPCA helps LHAs to evaluate their current status and prioritise future actions based on best practice factors.

For each participant, the CFA draws on a mix of existing data, including finance records, operational KPIs, and national benchmarks. Detailed reports are provided that outline their emissions profile across a range of highways activities, including personnel, fleet operations, street lighting, construction and maintenance schemes, premises energy use, and travel. Where detailed data isn’t available, we apply responsibly curated sector averages.

Alongside this, the BPCA assesses up to 78 key performance factors across six main areas:

corporate (structures, policies and strategies)
procurement and providers
premises and sites
staff and contractors
owned vehicles and plant
highways functions and activities.

This framework allows current performance scoring, combined with an opportunity score for each factor, providing an understanding of where each LHA sits currently and prioritises the options and opportunities for rapid carbon reduction in the future.

Our team has also focused on making the programme sustainable beyond its initial rollout. The insights generated are stored in a central benchmarks database, and authorities receive not just one-off reports, but tailored feedback and invitations to future improvement workshops and peer reviews; ensuring the impact of the programme extends far beyond a single year.

For DfT who are supporting the initiative, this programme also serves a broader strategic purpose. It generates a comprehensive, comparable dataset on LHA emissions across England, which can inform national policy, funding allocation, and the evaluation of decarbonisation progress.

Values and benefits

One of the things I value most about this work is how collaborative and inclusive it is. We have designed and developed the Carbon Leadership Programme to ensure that all English LHAs can participate over a three-year rollout, beginning in June 2025. Participation is scalable and structured around practical timelines, self-assessment tools and optional expert support.

As a team, we’ve worked hard to minimise the administrative burden on participants, focussing on ensuring that the outputs they receive are actionable and productive.

A key strength of the programme is the way it links carbon data with organisational practice. Rather than treating emissions as a purely technical issue, the results connect footprint data and best practice performance with policy, procurement, and delivery approaches.

It enables each participant to benchmark their progress, learn from their peers and focus improvement efforts where they will have the greatest impact.

I’ve seen first-hand how this evidence-led, peer-supported model empowers authorities. Many of our conversations with participants go beyond just reporting figures, they’re about driving change, aligning leadership and embedding carbon thinking into core highway services.

Thinking ahead

By improving data quality, highlighting opportunities for action and reducing duplication of effort, the Carbon Leadership Programme will help LHAs deliver greater value for money and accelerate toward their climate targets.

Preparing and launching the programme has allowed me to work with passionate colleagues, forward-thinking councils and partners from across the public and private sectors.

Together, we are laying the foundation for a more sustainable, data-driven approach to managing carbon on the local roads network; an approach that is built on evidence, learning and a shared commitment to a sustainable future.

You can find out more by registering to attend an introductory or training webinar designed to give you greater detail about the programme and how you get involved.

Use the links below to register your interest.