Sustainability
OUR BEAUTIFUL BOROUGH
Welcome to Solihull! Our beautiful borough encourages visitors from all corners of the globe, whilst still preserving our environment for future generations to share and enjoy. That is why sustainability lies at the core of everything we do.
Solihull has set ambitious targets: becoming a net-zero borough by 2041 and ensuring all council practices achieve net zero by 2030; we are dedicated to making these goals a reality.
Visit Solihull plays a crucial role in creating a sustainable visitor economy. Our recently released Destination Management Plan (DMP) outlines ongoing actions and future sustainability projects. A key objective highlighted in the DMP is to create a green tourism action plan for Solihull’s visitor economy. This plan will draw insights from the Global Sustainability Index (GDS) and recommendations from green tourism award accreditation, which Visit Solihull are currently working towards attaining.
Green Spaces and conservation
Visit Solihull collaborates closely with Love Solihull, who do incredible work in preserving our beautiful green spaces and conserving the borough’s biodiversity.
Solihull boasts 17 Green Flag parks, providing serene and eco-friendly spaces for all to enjoy. Our parks have gained this achievement for their accessibility, pristine upkeeping and vast biodiversity. Solihull’s Green spaces were recently been featured in an online blog by rough guides.
Our natural environment teams are working towards planting 250,000 trees by 2030, supported by initiatives like the Council’s Planting Our Future project and Arden Free Tree Scheme. This will not only help to purify the air we breathe by removing harmful CO2 emissions, but the increased greenery has also been seen to improve moods and reduce stress.
Since 2015, Solihull Council has been committed to hedgehog conservation. Love Solihull collaborates closely with Solihogs, a local charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating our prickly friends, ensuring they can be safely released back into the wild. The park mascot, Horace the Hedgehog, offers top tips on how you can do your bit to help .
EV Charging and Transportation
The next decade is set to be a significant period of growth and change for the people of Solihull. Via Major infrastructure projects such as Arden Cross and HS2, Solihull is set to see up to 8,000 new homes, population growth by up to 11%, an additional 6 billion on our GVA and up to 90,000 new jobs. Solihull Council is working to ensure our infrastructure and services are ready for this predicted rise in demand.
To address future mass transport requirements, Solihull Council, via funding from Innovate UK, are undertaking an ambitious set of Connected and Autonomous vehicle (Self-Driving vehicle) trials. Since 2022, Solihull Council have undertaken 4 real world and feasibility studies looking at how self-driving vehicles could form part of the future transport puzzle. Early 2025 will see the next project deploy a small fleet of driverless shuttles around the NEC campus. Should this trial be a success, driverless shuttles could become an everyday scene on our roads.
In 2020, only 6.6% of cars on the road were fully electric. In 2024, this is set to rise to 16.8%. , the number of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) grows by up to 18% year on year. To support this increased demand, Solihull Council is set to install more than 500 public charging points by 2026. By 2026, all new and replacement council to be zero tailpipe emissions by 2026, with supplies and contractors required to be all-electric by 2030. The UK’s largest EV charging hub is currently located on the NEC campus, ideally located and accessible for all visitors. Find your closest charging station here.
In 2021, Solihull Council became the first local authority in the UK to acquire its own electric, fully autonomous shuttle, funded by a grant from the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP). Following successful trials at Birmingham Airport and the NEC, where the shuttle participated in the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay, it will now return to Solihull roads for a new trial, transporting passengers along a pre-mapped business park loop while engaging with other road users.
Business Support
40% of food is wasted annually, this contributes to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Too Good To Go is an organisation which aims to combat this issue by partnering with hospitality businesses to sell otherwise wated food at a reduced price. Solihull Council?? are proud to report that 16 local businesses use this service regularly.
International Synergies works with local small and medium enterprises (SME’s) to reduce waste through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund funded Circular Economy for Birmingham and Solihull (CEBAS) project. The projects aim is to deliver cost and carbon savings solutions by improving businesses resource efficiency.
The West Midlands Growth Company are currently funding one year’s membership to the Green Tourism Award, with additional discounts for the next two years. This amazing offer is available to all West Midlands-based businesses to help gain a globally recognised sustainability accreditation.
