David Riley is carbon manager of Anglian Water, the largest water and wastewater company in England and Wales. Anglian, which serves more than five million customers in the East of England and Hartlepool, is leading by example in its attempts to meet the threats of climate change; the company has built renewable energy into new treatment works, and rolled out high-tech water-saving devices across its region of operation.

These pioneering measures have brought significant financial benefits – Anglian’s energy initiative achieved a £10 million saving in the three years to May 2009. In addition, the firm has become one of the UK’s most respected voices on climate change – CEO Jonson Cox met Prime Minister Gordon Brown for talks earlier this year, and has provided keynote speeches on the low carbon economy across the UK.

 

'Carbon manager' is quite a broad job title. What do your day-to-day duties involve?

My role is based on the mitigation of carbon emissions - I work on the delivery of clear and consistent reporting and management systems to regulate our carbon footprint, and work closely with our environmental team, who analyse the consequences of key issues such as climate change.

The role also has a strategic aspect – I am challenged to liaise with government departments and our regulator OFWAT, influence proposed legislation through reviews and consultation, and plan for the impacts.

I read that Anglian Water intends to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2010. Is this correct?

We've had to revise our target in recent months, due to industry-wide changes in carbon accounting methodologies. We are currently working on a new five-year target - that's one of my key priorities at present.

However the five-year plan is by no means our only source of guidance and direction on carbon reduction. Indeed we have developed a carbon modeller that measures the operational and embodied carbon emissions associated with new assets; this has been a great help in identifying new designs which minimise carbon impact in terms of their material quantities, and we hope to introduce further modelling tools in future.

One of the key pillars of your company's carbon reduction strategy is the Energy Initiative Programme (EIP). What does this involve?

The EIP started in 2006, and it's based on a team of auditors and energy champions who review our company's energy efficiency and identify areas for improvement. They suggest projects to a central team, who then deliver the initiatives using a pot of central money.

We feel the EIP has triggered a real change of attitude within our organisation; staff awareness of carbon issues has increased dramatically, and we have empowered our employees to make energy-efficient decisions for themselves.

Does the programme extend to your staff and supply chain?

Absolutely. As part of the EIP, we have communicated our goals and ambitions with our supply chain and encouraged them to reduce their emissions wherever possible. Several of our suppliers are taking major steps to reduce their carbon footprint, which is great to see.

To raise awareness of carbon issues among our staff, we're currently running a ‘Why Travel’ campaign which encourages staff to think about their travel plans and reduce where possible. To cut down on unnecessary meetings, the campaign encourages our employees to maximise conference calls and video conferencing.

We have also run a number of energy conferences for staff and suppliers, and to build on these events we are presently running energy and carbon workshops across the business; as well as raising awareness, these workshops promote energy saving initiatives and carbon-saving opportunities.

How do you promote the efficiency message among your customers?

We get the water efficiency message out via billing literature, local events, information on our web site and a mobile education unit. We also complete planned projects where we install water-saving devices such as shower heads, flow regulators and cistern devices, which give our customers demonstrable evidence of the benefits of water efficiency.

And of course you have your smart electricity meters, which have become key to your carbon reduction drive. Can you tell us a little more about these?

We install the smart meters on smaller sites, and use them to provide accurate breakdowns of energy usage against historic estimates. This allows us to trend site performance and identify incorrect invoices through our suppliers.

The smart meters are having a major impact – we have already installed 500 this calendar year.

Is carbon efficiency a major part of your construction and renovation programme?

It's massively important to us, and each of our new-build structures is designed with carbon efficiency in mind.

Through our capital delivery partners, we designed and commissioned an innovative low carbon waste water treatment works at Sutton St James; the works were constructed with recycled material, and the site has a very low energy requirement in comparison with traditional works. Furthermore, our Kings Lynn sludge treatment centre is now self-sufficient in renewable energy.

How important is industry best practice to your carbon-reduction strategy?

Industry bodies are playing a key role in promoting carbon reduction - we can't praise them highly enough.

One of the most important innovations has been a bespoke greenhouse gas workbook, introduced by the water industry in 2006. The workbook is designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions; it also assesses the total carbon footprint and normalised outputs of all drinking water treated and pumped, and all waste water treated. This guidance allows each company to understand their direct and indirect emissions, pick out performance trends and identify which processes emit the largest proportion of emissions.

Your CEO, Jonson Cox, recently attended high-level talks on climate change with Gordon Brown. Why was Jonson selected for this accolade?

Jonson was chosen because he is involved in a number of high-profile climate change initiatives, and he was one of the founder members of the Corporate Leaders group, which has played a key role in raising awareness of climate change.

What did Jonson discuss with the Prime Minister?

I believe they primarily discussed adaptation issues, and looked to share and gather information for the upcoming COP15 meeting, which is aimed at promoting water issues. It was clearly a very productive meeting.

Strategic Approaches To Engaging Staff

Just a few years ago many people held the view that climate change was not their business. Some even denied it was happening. Today, the view in many organisations is that governments should tackle climate change and all they need to do is comply with legislation.

But governments haven't kept up with the warnings from scientists. The climate is changing faster than ever. Emissions are continuing to grow and yet carbon needs to be taken out of the atmosphere. The issue is pervasive and within a few years it could become a make or break test. All organisations, however large or small, will need to stop adding to the problem and find ways to become a part of the solution.

As well as drastic cuts in operational emissions, companies will need to develop low carbon products and services and adjust business models as decarbonisation becomes a strategic imperative. To be fully effective in this, staff will need to understand the issues and objectives, and support action.

We believe that the best way forward for any organisation is to look at first principles. Here are our top six:

• Get real in the boardroom
• Make it strategic
• Map control and influence
• Work with the culture
• Encourage champions
• Link to development

Get real in the boardroom

As climate change and carbon have encroached on the management agenda from various directions – building services, fleet logistics, marketing opportunities, environmental management – managers have had to get up to speed with new requirements. But now there is no excuse for not having a coherent joined-up view in the boardroom. Operational efficiencies, compliance with CRC, emission reduction targets – these are a start and all require staff engagement – but a reactive stance is likely to mean regular revisions and updates and pleas from staff for "a level playing field". Boards need to look beyond these basic steps and formulate more proactive strategies. Staff will be sceptical if they are being asked to make small changes while bigger challenges are overlooked.

Make it strategic

This issue is not going to go away. Positive leadership means thinking through the issues as they relate to the organisation and putting in place a strategy that starts to align the thinking and actions of the organisation with a low-carbon future.

When BT invited employees to look at their own carbon footprint, a high level strategy was also being developed. When TNT asked us what leadership would look like for a global freight express business with 130,000 employees, we helped shape an approach which built on the strengths of the “TNT family”. Alongside work on transport and buildings, a key strategy was to build employee understanding and creativity around climate change and carbon – successfully carried forward through the Planet Me initiative.

Map control and influence

While there are obvious benefits to having consistent messaging to all staff, the level of engagement required to prompt action may require more than the usual internal communications campaign.

In larger companies internal audiences may be segmented by level, role or function with multiple channels for messages. But the key for achieving carbon-related action often comes down to the control or influence over direct or supply chain emissions that particular employees have.

Sometimes KPIs need to be adjusted so that carbon objectives are aligned. In local authorities, decision drivers in procurement and sustainability functions are often in conflict. At one government department we found that 87% of emissions were determined by 3% of the people – and most of those were contractors.

This again brought the focus on to procurement. In this context it made no sense to suggest to staff that they could all make a huge difference. Focused and practical workshops with the heads of contracted services – IT, facilities management, security, catering and cleaning – delivered maximum value from a limited budget and got actions underway.

Work with the culture

While standardised methods and processes can make sense in terms of efficiencies, and is encouraged by consultancies and the Carbon Trust, it can fail to achieve the intended effects. Particularly if some kind of behavioural change is intended, it is crucial to understand the working culture.

Managers often take the view that staff just need to be told what to do. Posters, stickers and dictatorial messages abound. Often these are worse than a waste of time and expenditure. Instead of harnessing the interests, creativity, motivations and commitments of employees, they often stimulate nothing more than resentment and cynicism.

Similarly, while campaigns based around becoming “carbon neutral” brought benefits to a few pioneers, today offsetting is often seen as greenwash. Carbon markets are tainted by association with bankers, media stories about tax fraud and other credibility problems. In these circumstances, it really helps to understand "what makes people tick", to engage with the real values and culture of an organisation and to develop an approach accordingly.

We often find that video can be very effective, both in capturing the true feelings and perspectives of employees through “vox-pops” and in helping management understand the subtlety of approach that can be needed.

Encourage champions

Many organisations have chosen an approach that uses volunteer 'champions’ to help embed behavioural change in the workforce. These champions are often given an opportunity to build on their own experience and values and, with appropriate support, this can make a real difference. At Transport for London, integrating understanding of climate issues and sustainability with the development of communication skills has empowered champions and enhanced their effectiveness in helping progress towards corporate goals.

Link with development

HSBC shifted towards sustainability with a decision in 2004 to become “carbon neutral”. The scope of the bank's thinking quickly moved beyond managing emissions and purchasing offsets to look at how to integrate sustainability into investment decisions.

This broadened the purposes of staff engagement from emissions management to encompass more central business decisions, new business opportunities and the deployment of capital. We designed and delivered a module for a new global Group Development Programme. This enabled fast track graduates from around the world to explore the issues and identify potential low-carbon business opportunities for the bank. As well as examining potential carbon-related risks, this gave creative and forward-looking staff the opportunity to consider future scenarios and new business models.

Whether you are considering engaging staff in climate change for the first time, or your initiatives have "run out of steam", we encourage you to go back to first principles and identify the keys that will unlock the talents and enthusiasm of your own staff. While your “top six” may be different to ours, sharing your learning with other companies can help us all to turn the tide on climate change and reduce the risks for everyone.

Peter Martin and Antony Turner are directors of CarbonSense, an independent think tank and innovator in the field of carbon strategy and climate change communication. CarbonSense also provides research, consultancy and training for business and public sector clients.