CLIENT: British Council For Offices
PROJECT: Towards A Zero Carbon Office
BUSINESS NEEDS
The mission of the British Council for Offices (BCO) is to research, develop and communicate best practice in all aspects of the office sector. It achieves this by disseminating research, providing guidance and a forum for discussing and debating relevant issues. It has for some time had as an objective reducing energy consumption in and carbon emissions from offices.
It wants to have a better understanding of where UK plc is on the journey towards a zero carbon existence with particular reference to the workplace. It wants to know whether with better communication between the supply and demand sides of the industry and shared knowledge of the technologies and techniques available and occupiers’ organisational and human behaviors, the two groups could make the process of reaching the goal more effective and therefore quicker and, if so, how.
CORPRA'S ROLE
Corpra was appointed to carry out this research for BCO. The work has been undertaken in three stages. First, a literature review of existing research on climate change, sustainability and their impact organisations and people. Second, interviews with Senior Executives in the Public, Corporate, Third Sector and Not for Profit sectors to obtain first- hand knowledge and experience across a wide range of organisations by sector, market and size of the challenges and issues arising in introducing and implementing environmental strategies and policies. Finally, we are synthesising all the data and analysing it to produce trends, similarities and differences. Our findings are expected to be published by BCO in advance of The Copenhagen Summit.
OUTPUT
We are at a fairly advanced stage in making sense of the data and are continuing to interview to test some of our preliminary findings. One of the key findings emerging is that reducing energy consumption, carbon footprint and waste in response to undeniable climate change is all about changing human behaviour. It is the biggest change programme that mankind has ever faced. Yet progress is hampered because very few organisations are treating it as a major change programme, are not employing full-blown change management techniques and are not using qualified and experienced change managers to direct, manage and facilitate.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE OR SHARE YOUR VIEWS PLEASE EMAIL: pwinter@corpra.co.uk
