EVERY day, Oxford consumes 12,000 tonnes of food, fuel and building materials and pumps more than 2,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere.

Two reports out this month shine a stark light on Oxford's often wasteful consumption and avoidable emissions.

Environment reporter Pete Hughes caught up with Oxford City Council to find out how the authority is trying to persuade some of the city's biggest polluters to get onboard the green train to sustainability.

ELEVEN years ago, Oxford City Council set itself a target: to cut the entire city's carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020.

Figures out this month reveal that by working together, businesses, councils and housing developers slashed CO2 emissions by 27 per cent – 280,000 tonnes – between 2005 and 2014.

That still leaves 13 per cent – 135,000 tonnes to cut in six years.

Councillor John Tanner says: "If we carry on in the same way we are we will just miss our target, which would be a big disappointment."

He has now thrown down the gauntlet at the city's two biggest single carbon producers: BMW and the NHS.

The board member for environment went on: "I would hope that the car factory, the hospitals, households and car drivers will do that much more to make sure they all play their part.

"The biggest users of energy are definitely the car factory, so they are also the biggest producers of carbon.

"That costs them money and I know they are as keen as we are to save energy, costs and carbon."

The Mini plant has already made major cuts to its consumption and emissions: last year it installed one of the largest solar panel arrays in the UK on its rooftop – 11,500 panels in an area the size of five football pitches which generate enough electricity to power 850 homes and save about 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

It is also using LED lights, a water harvesting system to supply its toilets and this month the company was named the world’s most sustainable automotive company in the annual Dow Jones index.

City council's environmental and sustainability manager Jo Colwell praised the firm's efforts, adding: "BMW do some amazing work because they understand the relationship between cutting carbon and cutting bills."

In fact, it is Oxford's industry and business sector which has made the biggest dent in CO2 emissions over the past decade.

Between 2005 and 2014, industry and commercial organisations in Oxford chopped their emissions 31 per cent from 564.2 kilotonnes of CO2 a year to 389.9 kilotonnes.

As for the hospitals' contribution to emissions, they are currently embarking on the biggest single carbon-cutting scheme in the city.

Oxford University Hospitals trust is laying a one-mile pipeline between the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals in Headington so they can share heat, which will cut about 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and save the health service around £460,000 each year.

The scheme has caused uproar in Headington because it will mean 18 months of roadworks.

But Mr Tanner said: "These pipes and trenches that are annoying residents are going to make a big difference and I hope people will be patient."

There is an even bigger heat sharing scheme in the pipeline: the council is working with Oxford University to investigate the feasibility of creating a massive underground heating pipe network in the city centre for university labs, offices and shops to spread the warmth.

The Government has just this month awarded the council £50,000 to draw up detailed plans for the scheme which could cut all users' carbon emissions by 20 per cent.

Mr Tanner admitted that the area where progress was slowest was transport, adding: "We really need to get more people using hybrid vehicles and electric cars."

That is why, from the beginning of next year, the council will start rolling out electric car charging points on residential streets across the city, in the hopes of encouraging more people to plug-and-drive.

Just this week, Mini unveiled what it called the first plug-and-charge car model by a "premium brand" at its German plant in Munich, expected to go on sale in the next 12 months.

It could even be that one day Oxford residents drive to work in an electric car made in the city then plug it into an Oxford City Council charging point outside their own home at night.