The ENWORKS Partnership
North West, UK
PROJECT TEAM & PARTNERS
The Partnership Board includes representatives from:
- Northwest Regional Development Agency
- Environment Agency
- Robinson Keane
- North West Chambers of Commerce
- North West Universities Association
- United Utilities
- Brother UK
- Groundwork UK
- Government Office North West
- Envirolink Northwest
- Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency
- Federation of Small Businesses
- Institute of Directors
CONTRACT VALUE
Approximate total contract value: €14.1m
(£13.0m)
FUNDING
30% ERDF co-financed, 61% NWDA and 9% other (private, in-kind,
local public).
TIMESCALE
7 Years (2003-2010)
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
ENWORKS is a unique business support programme co-ordinating environmental advice, training and support to businesses throughout the Northwest of England.
The ENWORKS Partnership was established to ensure that high quality environmental business support is available to all businesses throughout the region and is delivered in a co-ordinated way, avoiding duplication, increasing synergy and allowing good practice to be shared.
Working across the five sub-regions of Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, ENWORKS co-ordinates local organisations to provide an effective support system to businesses and organisations in both the public and private sectors. Building on a strong track record of business support, ENWORKS has made its mark as the leading authority on business and environment issues in the region.
Key outcomes of the programme have included:
- A co-ordinated regional programme of support delivered to businesses at a local level and tied in with complementary regional and national programmes.
- £20m annual cost savings achieved (and further £40m savings identified) by Northwest businesses through increased resource and energy efficiency.
- An annual reduction by participating businesses in the consumption of;
-
- Materials (2.9m tonnes, 2.4m achieved and 500k identified)
- Energy (CO2 emissions reduced by 40,000t achieved to-date,
136,000t identified) - Water (2.7m m3, 800k achieved and 1.9m identified)
- An up-skilled workforce with the ability to identify and implement continuous improvements over time.
- Business case studies of good practice
- The ENWORKS Online Toolkit, a web-based management tool for both businesses and the programme itself that provides quantified, real-time data on the economic and environmental outcomes of the scheme.
- An evidence base for future policy and programme development through quantifying the impact of publicly funded business support interventions over time.
- External recognition of the programme has included the Economic Development Project of the Year - Regeneration & Renewal, 2007 and the Energy Efficiency -Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, 2007.
CHALLENGES FACED
The ENWORKS Programme is addressing improving resource efficiency within businesses, a proven area of market failure. A key challenge faced by the programme is ensuring the long-term step change of an organisation in improving its approach to resource efficiency. Raising awareness of the benefits of improved resource efficiency and the risks of non compliance can take time, and support is often required to assist the business to bring awareness into action. The ENWORKS delivery model helps remove barriers for businesses in accessing support. The programme is regionally coordinated to reduce confusion and mainstream support, ensuring that businesses have a clearer route to advice. Local delivery to businesses through a regionally strategic programme ensures consistency of support provision, flexible to the needs of the local business.
Managing a delivery partnership with multiple funding streams, including European funding, also provides a range of challenges due to the complexity of the funding. Efficient communication between ENWORKS central team, delivery partners and funders is key to the success of the programme. Maintaining regular dialogue with funders ensures regulatory compliance, whilst effective communication with delivery partners maintains successful project delivery.
INNOVATIVE PRACTICE
A new piece of software has been developed as part of the scheme
- the ENWORKS Online Resource Efficiency Toolkit. It was developed
to provide Northwest businesses with an easy-to-use management tool
enabling them to record, prioritise, track and report on their
resource efficiency improvement opportunities and achievements.
It is a bespoke piece of web-based software, hosted on a secure
site, with multiple access/security levels so it can be used by
individual companies and their advisors, programme delivery
partners, ENWORKS, programme funders and other partners e.g. DEFRA
or Government Office, whilst protecting commercial confidentiality.
All data entered on the Online Toolkit is verified by the business
concerned, meaning it provides a robust and independent audit
trail.
In simple terms, each opportunity for improving resource efficiency that is identified in a business is logged on the Online Toolkit. Each opportunity is assigned a Status - from Initial Scope when first identified, through Investigation and Implementation, to Achieved. The annual resource savings generated by each opportunity - for example packaging materials, electricity or mains water saved - are also quantified and logged, along with any capital expenditure required for implementation. A range of reports is then generated from this simple data input. For example, a business can quickly compare several opportunities in terms of cost savings, payback period, and other business benefits in order to prioritise their actions. They can also quantify how many tonnes of CO2 or raw materials a particular measure will save if implemented, or has saved to date if achieved.
Development of the Online Toolkit began in January 2004, with the first version launched for use in June of that year. The Online Toolkit was built using Mirosoft ASP.NET with Visual C# in the code behind. It is based on an SQL Server 2000 database. SSL is enabled on the web server. It won the Climate Change and Environmental Efficiency award in the UKCEED SustainIT UK eWell-Being Awards 2005.
The Toolkit has gone through several phases of development since its inception and is now able to be used by multiple regions and multiple programmes of activity. It has also attracted external recognition and been adopted by a range of other users in the UK, including Envirowise.
LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENTS
As a publicly funded programme, the legislative requirements and
regulations regarding funding have a direct impact on the ENWORKS
Programme. To ensure compliance, the programme maintains regular
and open dialogue with funders.
The ENWORKS Programme communicates to businesses any legislative
requirements that will impact their operations, and supports the
business to implement change to help them achieve compliance.
LESSONS LEARNT & APPLICABILITY IN OTHER SITUATIONS
Continual evaluation of the programme ensures that lessons learnt are used to continually improve ongoing delivery.
A flexible programme delivery model has provided businesses with access to local support providers through a regionally strategic programme. This has the following benefits;
- Regionally co-ordinated and locally delivered business support
- Standardised yet flexible service adaptable to business need
- Quality assurance framework - individuals and services
- Collaboration not competition, focus on the customer
Continual evaluation of the programme ensures that lessons learnt are used to continually improve ongoing delivery.
A flexible programme delivery model has provided businesses with access to local support providers through a regionally strategic programme. This has the following benefits;
- Regionally co-ordinated and locally delivered business support
- Standardised yet flexible service adaptable to business need
- Quality assurance framework - individuals and services
- Collaboration not competition, focus on the customer
CONTACT DETAILS
Todd Holden,
ENWORKS Programme Director
E-mail: todd@enworks.com)