Promoting energy awareness among staff at Swindon

Summary

With energy costs continuing to rise, Swindon Borough Council wanted to promote energy awareness among employees but did not have enough volunteer staff. The council wanted staff to become more energy efficient by changing their behaviour both at home and work.

The solution was to establish a network of individuals throughout the council who could meet regularly to promote and disseminate information.

In January 2007, Swindon joined forces with Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) to promote an energy awareness campaign called Manage Your Energy (MY Energy). This was a year-long programme, which SWEA guided the council through.

Key outcomes for other councils

A network of staff can:

deliver significant behavioural changes quickly across the organisation
bring significant energy savings
bring financial savings
promote good corporate social responsibility.

It is also important to ensure you have corporate 'buy-in' including backing from the chief executive and
directors. The project has been well supported by management and has been consistantly promoted through the council's communications channels.

Advertising for 'green champions' in the staff newsletter proved a very successful recruitment method. Swindon now has more than 60 green champions who actively promote green issues throughout the council.

Background to the council

Before the Green Champions Network, Swindon had established 'green housekeeping zones'.

Towards the end of 2007, the council was accepted onto the Carbon Trust Low Carbon Authority Management Programme Round 5 (LACM5). The Green Champions Network was set up before this and so was well able to help deliver significant carbon reductions throughout the council.

Who was involved?

The Local Agenda 21 Coordinator had set up 'green house-keeping zones' throughout the council in 2003. This helped in identifying staff who might promote green issues.

In January 2007, Swindon combined with Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) to promote an energy awareness campaign called Manage Your Energy (MY Energy). This year-long programme:

promoted energy awareness and good energy habits among staff
reduced the council's carbon footprint.

What we did

In April 2008, the sustainable development officer visited the council's corporate board to present the successes of the 'green champions' to them. She suggested that a member of Swindon's corporate board become a green champion on a rotating basis. The deputy chief executive and group director for environment and regeneration agreed to take on this role.

The Green Champions Network has been extremely successful at re-enforcing energy awareness.

After the initial training, staff took back the information they had learned to their respective teams. They put up displays and posters throughout the organisation. At the beginning or end of the day, staff walked around their building or floor to check whether their colleagues' computers had been switched off.

Factsheets and stickers read:

"Say goodbye to standby: press the button on your monitor to switch off and help cut CO2 pollution."

The green champions put these onto computers that were left on. This was received with mixed feelings but it did enforce the energy efficient message.

The staff network has proved extremely useful because staff are empowered to take actions that affect them and those around them at work. To keep champions enthused, regular network meetings are held and this provides a forum in which to discuss the MY Energy project and other green issues.

The problems and how we tackled them

The project started with an e-survey sent out to staff in the newsletter. This recorded staff opinion on energy efficiency both at home and work. The survey had been developed by an external agency and at first it did not comply with relevant equality standards. To ensure that the survey did eventually comply, advice on the font size, accessibility and questions was sought from the change manager for equalities.

Following on from this, an initial training session was set up for staff to learn about the principles of the MY Energy project and put themselves forward to become green champions.

The MY Energy project was broken down into four quarters, which were:

IT and equipment
IT and peripheral office equipment
lighting
air conditioning.

This was a model recommended to the council by SWEA. Swindon was one of the first councils to pilot this model and it worked well. It gave the champions a quarterly focus, which was manageable and achievable.

Each area was approached in much the same way. Champions were trained through the use of a PowerPoint presentation, Carbon Trust posters and factsheets. They were given all of the information on each subject, in bite-size portions. As a group, the champions agreed what and how they wanted to promote the project.

As a facilitator of the project it was difficult to manage champions' expectations. The best way to overcome this was to be honest and upfront about the project and set realistic targets, which they could all achieve. This was the main barrier faced and at times it was challenging.

Outcomes and impacts

It is difficult to quantify how much energy the council has saved but there has been a measurable change in staff behaviour. The spot checks at the beginning and end of each quarter show a significant reduction in staff leaving computers on.

From June to October, the number of council computers left on or on standby fell as follows:

computers: from 25 to 3 per cent - a drop of 22 per cent
monitors: from 48 to 37 per cent - a drop of 11 percent
peripheral equipment, including printers: 44 to 14 per cent - a drop of 30 per cent
photocopiers: from 50 to 21 percent - a drop of 29 per cent.

What could we have done better?

The interest generated through the Green Champions Network sparked many other environmental debates across the organisation. With hindsight, energy awareness should have been focused on. There is often danger for networks to be pulled in all directions. Swindon has now drawn up and agreed terms of reference for the network. This has given the group clear and goals to aim for.

Better project delivery plans needed to be established before the project, to ensure continuity of delivery. Key milestones and deadlines should have been established at the start of the project. Although this did not hinder the delivery of the project, it would have provided a suitable leadership framework for all to work towards. This has now been addressed and a project initiation document is in the process of being written for future developments of this project.

Next steps

It has been agreed with the champions and management that the Green Champions will continue to promote energy awareness through existing internal communications channels. These include 'Newsround', the councils staff e-newsletter and newsletter, the intranet , and posters, spot checks, displays and quizzes.

Contact:

Gill Chandler
Sustainable Development Officer
Swindon Borough Council
telephone: 01793 463180
email: GChandler@swindon.gov.uk