Over the past two years, South Gloucestershire Council and Patchway Town Council have been taking a different approach to managing selected grass verges and green spaces at specific sites across as part of the Live Labs 2 (Greenprint) project.
This spring, the new cutting season re-starts in Patchway on the green spaces and verges included in the project.
Greenprint showcases the power of innovation and collaboration in addressing environmental challenges. Through experimentation and investigation, the project is paving the way for a more sustainable future in highway verge maintenance.
Last year, during the second year of the project, the project collected 377 tonnes of grass from across 36 hectares of Council maintained grassland in South Gloucestershire - equivalent to over 50 football pitches.
The table below shows the weight of cut grass collected in Patchway during the 2024 season, with the dates of each cut carried out in the green spaces and verges included in the project:
A browser map of the Greenprint plots included in the project during the 2025 season can be viewed at South Gloucestershire Map Layers WebMap2511
(Click on the three horizontal lines in the top left-hand corner to reveal the Map Features – Live Labs plots are coloured red; all the other plots are coloured violet. Clicking on an individual plot will reveal its identity – including the plot number and site code).
Collecting the grass cuttings, rather than leaving them on the ground as traditionally done, has several benefits:
Reduces carbon emissions from decomposing cuttings
Increases carbon capture within the soil
Enhances the biodiversity of the verges and green spaces
As part of the project, we are trialling converting the cuttings into energy to generate valuable resources such as biofuel, biomethane, and biochar - turning waste into wealth.
As the third year of the project starts, we will be sharing more information about the achievements of year two and the focus of year three. During year three the impact of our trials on costs and carbon emissions will become clearer to help inform the decision about whether the changes are scaled up or made permanent in future.
A key goal of Greenprint is to create a scalable system toolkit, or 'green print,' that other local authorities can use to implement this carbon-negative green infrastructure management model in their areas, paving the way for a more sustainable future in highway verge maintenance.
Greenprint is part of ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK, which is a three-year, UK-wide £30 million programme funded by the Department for Transport, (DfT), that aims to decarbonise the local highway network.
For more information about the project, visit www.southglos.gov.uk/greenprint
Published 19th March 2025
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