1 Matt Taylor. Project Officer. Adapt Commercial. UEA LFHE Green Champions in HEI’s and carbon reduction strategy Trev Shields. Sustainability & Environmental Advisor. University of Birmingham Case study Dawn White. Environmental Officer City University London Case study John Bailey. Environmental Manager. University of London Leading Green Champions at Greenwich and the University of London. Workshop Positive recipes for Green Champion success

Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Background Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Project aims and objectives: Determine individual levels of ‘Green Champion’ activity and influence on pro-environmental behaviour change, as an effective means of reducing carbon within their university. Define the role of ‘Green Champion’ Determine levels of influence and involvement? Determine limits or organisational barriers to their activity? Monitoring, measuring and evaluating green champion activity Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Literature review ‘despite a general rise in the use of Green Champion schemes to promote a ‘bottom-up’ approach to carbon reduction, there remains a very limited amount of research on the role of these designated ‘Champions’, and particularly outside the private sector. Encouraging behaviour change in businesses is closely linked to cost savings, commercial reputation and gaining an edge over competitors, therefore the current literature on Green Champions may not be representative of Green Champions approaches in other sectors, such as in HEI’s’ Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Methodology Interview Campaign managers for HEI case studies (UoB, UEA and CUL) Questionnaires sent to participating Green Champions Focus groups undertaken Analysis Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Four common themes emerged that we consider represent the main roles played by the Green Champions Role Model Educator Facilitator Coordinator Findings: Green Champion roles Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Role Model: “I think it’s showing by example as well, as there is only so much you can influence people to do things by telling them to do it. But a lot of things are done because I do them, because if I don’t no one else will.” Findings: Green Champion roles Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Educator: “We need to reach the people who still don’t see how they impact on the environment, how they can make a difference and why they should.” “to go a step further than just reducing my own environmental footprint, I want to promote sustainability issues amongst staff and students through direction action and communication.” Findings: Green Champion roles Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Facilitator: “I’m trying to make it easier for them.” “I think in terms of bringing it together but not actually doing it yourself.” Findings: Green Champion roles Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Coordinator: “Working as a coordinator and a point of contact, in our place its having someone people feel they can feed ideas to and pass them up the chain to see if something can be implemented.” “I get the energy reports, I send them onto the other buildings and ask for an explanation of why it might have gone up or down, I then get feedback which I can then take back to the Sustainability Task Group.” Findings: Green Champion roles Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Findings: Value of monitoring as a facilitator: Participants agreed there was a need for monitoring of their activities because: gave structure to their activities provided evaluation of what works and what doesn’t set measurable targets, gives visibility to activities. access to data or evidence about impacts of activities increased credibility increases confidence in promoting green practice increases leverage in putting greener cases to senior staff. Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Findings: Value of monitoring as a barrier: Participants considered there was a lack of benchmarking to create uniformity through HEI departments Single measure/metric could distort achievements (a false sense of failure) e.g. a metric in an IT department, may not be so useful for the library. Abstract nature of Green Champion activities in promoting environmental awareness and the difficulties involved in attributing specific carbon savings to their actions Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Findings: Factors assisting perceived success Management Support Incentives Formal Acknowledgement Formalisation of the Role and Scheme Involvement in Decision-making Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Findings: Factors absent or hindering perceived success Voluntarism Lack of Management Support Lack of Advice or Training Lack of Communication and conflicting messages within Green Champion Networks University Culture Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Findings: Green Champion types. Focus groups identified a number of key factors that were perceived as critical in either facilitating or hindering success and experienced in different combinations and to varying degrees by differing Green Champions. Reading across all of the variables, we found that we could categorise our sample in four distinct groups Importantly, we found that different types of Green Champion co- existed even within the same University. Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Group Formal / Informal Work Alone/ Part of a Team Level of Management Support Access to Monitoring Data/Feedback Level of perceived influence in the university decision making process Level of perceived Involvement in the university decision- making process Level of Influence on Behaviour Change Level of perceived impact on carbon reduction within the university 1InformalAloneNo SupportLow 2InformalTeamWell SupportedLow Medium 3FormalTeamWell SupportedMedium Low Medium / High Medium / High 4FormalTeamWell SupportedHigh Medium / High Medium / High Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Conclusions The efficacy of a Green Champion campaign and its place in an HEI’s carbon reduction strategy was dependent upon five key factors; Formality of the role Proximity to monitoring Coordination University culture Green Champion type Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

Role model Educator Facilitator Coordinator Conclusions Not everyone is Robin Green Champions: Do different types have different needs? Green Champions place in an HEI carbon reduction strategy

20 UB ‘Champions’ Formal Level Task GroupTask Group, Facilities Managers, College carbon plans, bespoke initiatives eg fridges or fume cupboardscarbon plans Behaviour change as part of CMIPCMIP Grass roots level - Green Impacts Awards Variety of champions & roles Top 10 mistakes in behaviour change - solutions Focus on action not avoidance Seek tiny successes one after another No behaviour happens without a trigger Success? Contribution to 19.7% reduction?

21 Eco Points Scheme How to earn points Ideas & suggestions Volunteering Green actions within department Local communications Meetings, committees, presentations Green Impact Recruiting new Champions Leading on events or campaigns Appraisals Ideas that get rolled out across University Personal ‘green’ achievements Link it to University objectives Leader board Prizes & awards