6 Actions to Embed Carbon Management in Your Organisation
The Scottish Government has an Internal Communications Team which translates the external messages that the SG communicates to the wider public into useable messages for the core SG staff. The Scottish Government has a draft communications strategy for the Carbon Management Programme and this is a live document that will continually change and be developed as our organisation changes.
To enable the Scottish Government to fulfil its carbon reduction targets the Internal Communications Team have been tasked with developing a robust strategy for communicating carbon reduction messages to staff. This strategy needs to incorporate all the external messages that flow from the centre. Since entering into this phase of the Carbon Management Programme it has highlighted a need to think much wider when communicating to staff.
During the Implementation Workshop the Programme Board and the Carbon Management Team completed the embedding matrix, which illustrates our current position and the step changes required to achieve our aspirations for the organisation over the next two and five years.
6.1 Corporate Strategy - embedding CO 2 saving across your organisation
The Scottish Government is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and the Scottish Government Internal High Level Group Chaired by the Permanent Secretary will take responsibility for delivering the CMP. The Internal High Level Group will start with business travel.
Currently we have an Environmental Guardian network in our target buildings and they are champions in all environmental matters for the SG and relay this message to staff in their area. In each building there is a quarterly Environmental Working Group meeting which is chaired by a Senior Manager to discuss building-specific issues and ideas to help reduce our carbon impact. Under the CMP we will be revamping the Environmental Guardian network (see page 17).
The Environmental and Travel Management Team take forward awareness-raising campaigns through intranet articles and screen saver promotions. The coordination of the SG Travel Plan also sits in the Environment and Travel Management Team and all promotional activities connected to travel are developed and taken forward by the Travel Plan Coordinator.
The Scottish Government Travel Plan launched in December 2007 details 49 measures and actions to promote and facilitate more sustainable travel by staff and visitors. It looks at the corporate body - how we travel to work, how we travel in going about our business, and what incentives we as an employer offer to staff to travel more sustainably, if indeed it is necessary to travel at all.
The Travel Plan currently covers the five main buildings in the SG estate including the infrastructure, facilities, and mode of travel to those sites. The plan is due to be reviewed and a new version written during 2009/10.
We have a comprehensive marketing and promotion campaign which ran throughout 2008 and will be rerun during 2009 which focussed on a specific mode of transport over a month. A staff travel survey has recently been carried out and the results of this will inform the new Travel Plan.
6.2 Data Management - measuring the difference, measuring the benefit
Internal Reporting
During 2009 Facilities and Estates Services will be reviewing the reporting process to look at how best to get real carbon information to Directorates. We are aiming to give staff information on how they can improve their working practices to reduce our carbon footprint.
External Reporting
Each year we produce our Annual Report which is externally validated and published. Information from our M&T system and our Property and Maintenance contractors underpin this document. Through our contract with Dalkia we have a dedicated Energy Consultant who produces annual energy surveys for the whole estate. Actions from this are discussed at the Carbon Management Team meetings which are held quarterly, in advance of the Programme Board meeting.
6.3 Policy Alignment - saving CO 2 across your operations
- The Scottish Government are currently developing a Green Procurement strategy;
- The introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment will incentivise emission reductions;
- A review of our Travel and Subsistence which will look at business travel rates is scheduled for 2011 however there is a small review due 2009. This will look at potential changes which will lead to a reduction in our carbon footprint;
- The promotional activities for the Travel Plan will be focussed on modal shift in 2009. This will start with cycling to work in June.
6.4 Responsibility - being clear that CO 2 is everyone's job
There are 100 voluntary Environmental Guardians across the Scottish Government estate. The High Level Group met in December and agreed that Facilities and Estates Services should revamp and re-launch the Guardian role. This will include providing the Guardian with better training and focussed objectives.
The Carbon Management Plan will form a key part of the new Guardian role and will help inform the objectives that will be aligned with it.
Through time it is envisaged that all Directorates will be given CO 2 allowances which they will manage themselves through a reporting tool or intranet page. Work has already started on developing the reporting tool and once we have a better Monitoring and Targeting system in place more data will be available to individual Directorates.