The Prince's May Day Network
Business collaboration on climate change in the North West
Northwest England
PROJECT TEAM & PARTNERS
- Business in the Community
- British Telecom
- The CBI
- Brother UK
- The Co-operative Group
- The North West Business Leadership Team
- United Utilities
- NWDA
- The Carbon Trust
- Enworks
- Envirowise
CONTRACT VALUE - £130,000 over the two years
FUNDING - NWDA
TIMESCALE - 2 years
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
This project aims to co-ordinate business engagement on climate change and brings together Business in the Community, the CBI and the North West Business Leadership Team in order to engage with businesses across the memberships of all three organisations.
Key objectives:
- Create a business to business Network that provides opportunities for companies to access information and gain support from experts and their peers that enables them to effectively address the mitigation and adaptation aspects of climate change.
- Engage businesses in the Prince's May Day Network, BITC's national campaign to mobilise businesses to take action on climate change through the May Day Journey.
- Support businesses to take the May Day Journey by calculating their carbon footprint, reporting that footprint, setting a reduction target and then working with employees, customers and suppliers to help them reduce their emissions.
- Provide a conduit to communicate relevant messages from BITC and the CBI nationally and for gathering feedback for national programmes on climate change.
- Reduce the 'noise' around climate change in the region and develop consistent, clear messages for businesses.
- Develop a regional programme that supports businesses to achieve their pledges working with delivery partners such as the Carbon Trust, Enworks and Envirowise.
- Develop further partnerships to encourage businesses to sign up provide networking opportunities at sub-regional levels and with sector specific alliances.
PROJECT TARGETS & LEGISLATION
The project has targets to refer 100 businesses to resource efficiency support organisations, with 60 of these companies having carbon management plans in place, by March 2010. However, a recent steering group meeting agreed to raise the ambitions of the Network and we are now looking to recruit 1,000 members to the Prince's May Day Network by summer 2009 (this is currently well beyond the scope of the targets of the current NWDA funded project). We are now working on how to achieve this growth in membership and support our partners to engage businesses through their own Networks.
LESSONS LEARNT & APPLICABILITY IN OTHER SITUATIONS
We have learnt that when working in partnership it is important to allow plenty of time to involve everybody in making decisions and formulating plans. This has meant that the project has taken longer to become established but has also meant that we are able to develop a more effective and tailored programme that is relevant to businesses and ultimately add more value.
INNOVATIVE PRACTICE
The level of partnership working and the development of new partnerships across the region are the key innovations within this project, as well as the co-ordination between regional and national operations of BITC and the CBI. This is helping us to develop an effective presence in the North West, ensuring that the work of the Prince's May Day Network is useful and relevant for different geographical areas and industry sectors and helping to ensure that the regional perspective on climate change is reflected at a national level.
CONTACT DETAILS
Gudrun Cartwright,
Tel: 0161 2337750
E-mail: Gudrun.cartwright@bitc.org.uk,