Environmental Business Support in the UK : Providing Added Value to Business Progress Towards Sustainability? Frances Hines BRASS Cardiff University

Structure of Paper/Presentation Research background Context and definitions of environmental business support Functions of environmental business support Successful environmental business support Barriers to achieving success Environmental business support and the integration of environmental behaviour into business Evaluating the added value of environmental business support

Research Background Two projects (1 complete and 1 ongoing) IEEP EU Commission project on EBS to SMEs (reviewed UK support and develop 2 detailed cases) Welsh Assembly Government funded project “Critical Evaluation of Environmental Business Support in Wales” (12 months)

Why Research? Financial Issues – quantity of funding Outputs and outcomes…. Complexity Sustainability – environmental, social, economic Evaluation models and tools Limited research in this area but lots of investment

Methodology (EBS Wales Project) Literature Review Mapping – structurally/spatially/service Stakeholder interviews (with all EBS organisations / vertically and others) Large scale business survey – EBS clients and non clients Evaluation of inputs and outputs – model and tool development

Environmental Business Support : Context and Definitions UK Context (but other countries have similar approaches) Environmental Business Support? – Government or other source funded agencies, projects or programmes that provide direct (hard) and indirect (soft) support about environmental issues to businesses with the aim of achieving a range of environmental objectives

Function of Environmental Business Support Hard Support : financial assistance or resource assistance i.e. equipment, machinery, labour to, for example, reduce waste, water use, energy, increase efficiency, develop supply material feedback loops, etc etc Soft Support : information, consultancy or management assistance to achieve some of the same objectives, but also to improve management processes, procedures and systems

What makes environmental business support successful? Cost – benefit Real reductions in negatives i.e. waste Real increases in positives i.e. use of recyclates Accessibility to businesses Consistency Added value Quality Finite need (i.e. if they get the job done then they need no longer exist) Accountability

Successful case…. Envirowise offers UK businesses free, independent, confidential advice and support on practical ways to increase profits, minimise waste and reduce environmental impact. Envirowise budget for this year/next year £18 million Provides knowledge transfer and workshop events On the ground support – site visits to tackle specific problems Electronic and hard copy advice, tools and information (363 issue publications to date) Keeps very detailed records Passes clients onto other organisations

Barriers to achieving successful environmental business support Cost-benefit ratio Lack of consistency Duplication Quality Lack of integration i.e. consultancy Poor knowledge transfer – between EBS to EBS and between EBS to client

Problem case…. Green Dragon Wales EMS standard 5 stepped approach (BS8555) 740 organisations certified (but…) Case studies supplied (outcomes and outputs?) Evaluation??????

Integrating environmental behaviours into business - issues Tendency towards consultancy (funding objectives) Ends up as bolt on Training of businesses / employees key but does not always take place Short term support but long term change? Outputs and outcomes – a key dilemma…

Evaluating the value of environmental business support : some key issues No current tools for evaluation really exist Most current evaluation relates to funding targets Evaluation can also be anecdotal Evaluation tools need to be user-friendly but evidential Evaluation needs to be able to provide opportunity for comparison and benchmarking across sector and over time

Current Evaluation Method Thoughts… An interrogative model… Covering all aspects…. User-friendly top end with quantitative evidence underlying Weighting of aspects Possibility of criteria based reference statements….

CBRS 5Passing client details between EBS agencies is carried out on day of receipt. Discussion is always held between agency and other agencies about best way to tackle client needs. Complete electronic record retained. 4Passing client details between EBS agencies is carried out during week of receipt. Discussion held between agency and other agencies about best way to tackle client needs if agency consultant has time/resources. Brief electronic record retained. 3Passing client detailed between EBS agencies is carried out within one month of receipt. Discussion held between agencies only on request of receiving agency. Some brief electronic details retained as record but not consistently. 2Passing of client details occurs irregularly (with no time constraint attached). No discussion between agencies. Some hard copy records kept. 1No passing of client information.

Conclusions Much more critical research needs to be done in this area More theory needs to be applied i.e. network theory, stakeholder theory, theories relating to knowledge transfer and so on Much more thought needs to be given to outputs and outcomes Evaluation tools are desperately needed to justify investment into sector