“The people and financial benefits that this process has delivered is something we should be sharing across the whole of government as this is what it’s all about“
attack: ensuring sustainable travel options were considered first; focusing on those teams with the highest carbon footprints; and responding to the overwhelming message from employees not to tell them what to do, but to give them flexibility in selecting the right type of travel for the right job. Only then they would commit to reducing carbon. And they did. Travel was reduced by 25 per cent in
the first year. “They very quickly got into low cost carbon mindset,” explains Hinds. “The classic case was the weekly team meetings that people drove to were replaced by teleconferences.” The development of an in-house Meeting Planning Tool has supported further changes as it produces a matrix of the best Natural England office venue in terms of time and carbon. Endorsement from above helped to drive
this strategy, not least by all the directors publishing their carbon footprint online each month. “That gave the overriding message that we were all in it together,” says Hinds. These and other success stories were showcased on Natural England’s intranet site. “It helped show that travelling by public transport was acceptable and not scary.” There were little upfront capital costs as
the introduction of VC in major offices and teleconferencing co-incided with the renewal of the company’s telephony system.
Step 2 In 2010, having made great strides
in its carbon journey, Natural England was keen to quantify all the soft benefits that employees were noticing as a result. “There was a recognition that we were making financial savings, creating a better
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
• 55.5% cut in operational carbon emissions, with a 41.5% cut in travel carbon emissions
• £2.1million in efficiency savings from more sustainable business travel
• £1,800 returned per tonne of carbon saved • £700,000 estimated benefit from improved staff productivity and reduced subsistence costs
• Protecting jobs with resource efficiency • 89% of overall reduction in travel was estimated to be travel avoidance measures, especially from car travel (predominantly from grey fleet) • 11% modal shift to rail
work/life balance and being more productive. As an evidence-based organisation we wanted to analyse that,” says Hinds. “Our focus over the previous few years had been all about the carbon and we couldn’t fail on that front as it relates to our credibility as an organisation.” Asking around for a supplier that could
do this led to SOS (Sustainable Opportunity Solutions) coming on board.
Step 3 SOS is an Edinburgh-based company that was formed in 2008 by Paul Adderley, MD and principal advisor, combining his accountancy skills with his environmental knowledge, to help corporates make the business case for sustainability. SOS used its sustainable travel assessment
tool to model the financial gains from Natural England’s carbon reduction achievements. The tool also enabled Natural England to assess the financial gains from an optimal carbon reduction programme. SOS analysed the underlying travel data
over a long period of time to ensure that it was the right data, analysing 45 months worth before providing the results. Whereas the modelling tool helps corporates develop the business case for optimising carbon reduction programmes, the company's online travelHUB (currently in demo version only) helps business implement their programme on the front line. “By connecting carbon budgets with productivity and costs, travelHUB helps a traveller make sense of how their travel decision supports the wider business goals. It basically highlights the best way to get around,” explains Adderley. Of the three financial results, one stood out:
“We were benefitting from a very surprising £700,000 in improved staff productivity and reduced subsistence costs,” says Hinds. “We thought that figure was going to be more like £50,000-£100,000. “When you look at that achievement, you
think we’ve achieved our overall operational 50 per cent target to reduce carbon and reduced our travel by over 40 per cent, but so what? The actual carbon saving is a miniscule amount compared to the rest of the public sector, but how we achieved it and the people and financial benefits it brings is something we should be sharing across the whole of government as this is what it’s all about.”
Step 4 Natural England is continuing the carbon reducing work too, but Hind realises that, “As a business, we’ve almost got to the point where we’ll begin to squeak if we reduce our travel more.” Instead, they are looking at technology to move forward and last year introduced a new Carbon Travel Budgeting System for the year and integrated it into corporate performance management system. Carbon is now an additional item to assess at employees’ quarterly reviews. “It gives them greater ownership,” explains Hinds. Other goals on the horizon are to replace Natural England’s vehicle fleet. Some have already been converted to run off used cooking oil but the downside is finding fuel storage space. No doubt, they’ll find a fresh approach to overcome this obstacle too.
“As a business, we’ve almost got to the point where we’ll begin to squeak if we reduce our travel more”
BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM
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