Crystal Faraday: So far, so good David Bott

Initiatives to date….

In March 2005, the UK Government issued a cross departmental strategy document It has sections on sustainable consumption and production, climate change and energy, protecting natural resources and enhancing the environment and a fairer world But… …most importantly it has a section called “ensuring it happens”

Which bits of government are involved? Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Department of Work and Pensions Department for Transport Department for Culture, Media and Sport Foreign and Common Wealth Office Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department of Trade and Industry HM Treasury Department for Education and Skills Department of Health Department for International Development Home Office Ministry of Defence

..and are relevant to industry? Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Department of Work and Pensions Department for Transport Department for Culture, Media and Sport Foreign and Common Wealth Office Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department of Trade and Industry HM Treasury Department for Education and Skills Department of Health Department for International Development Home Office Ministry of Defence

What do DEFRA and DTI do? Resource Minimisation –Envirowise –Market Transformation Programme (MTP) –The Carbon Trust Waste as a Resource –Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) –National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) –Environment Agency (EA) New Technologies –The Technology Strategy Board Technology Transfer –The Faraday Network (  Knowledge Transfer Networks )

To which they added The Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) programme Which takes the extra landfill tax the government aims to collect over the next 3 years and puts it into the existing programmes Year 1 –Envirowise £12m –MTP £2m –Carbon Trust £3m –WRAP £4m –NISP £2m –EA £2m –TSB £50m

Not forgetting… Sustainable Development Commission Environmental Industries Unit National Non-Food Crops Centre The Technology Strategy Board And DEFRA’s core activities

What are Faradays? Government funded - through DTI and EPSRC –Promoting active flows of people, science, industrial technology and innovative business concepts to and from the science & engineering base and industry. –Promoting the partnership ethic in industrially-relevant research organisations, business and the innovation knowledge base. –Promoting core research that will underpin business opportunities. –Promoting business-relevant post-graduate training, leading to life-long learning. Four are closely associated with sustainability –Mini-Waste - waste reduction –First Faraday - land remediation –Pro-Bio - biocatalysis –Crystal - green chemical technologies

9 Seminars & Workshops (on Feedstocks, Separation Technologies and Batch to Continuous Processing) Facilitating the Uptake of Green Chemical Technologies Green Chemical Technology Roadmap (and three launch workshops and Green Product Design workshop) £10 million EPSRC Funding in 4 calls

Scorecard The government’s goals are good, and it has made an effort to stop “initiative overload”, but it needs a more delivery oriented approach The various trade associations and learned societies that represent the chemicals and chemistry using industries are trying to work together Of the 3224 chemical companies and the larger number that use chemistry, it is difficult to judge how many are engaged The general public are not convinced by any of this!!

Why it’s not easy….

It’s an old question…..why don’t people buy the (our?) new products that are better (for the environment)? They do - or at least some of them do. Actually some of them do quickly, others take a little time to be persuaded, and others will always hang back. It has been looked at by many in marketing, and they have some observations we can use

The Diffusion of Innovation Rogers

Innovators - first 2.5% of individuals in a social system to adopt an innovation Venturesome and eager to try new ideas Have more years of formal education Have higher social status Have substantial financial resources Able to cope with high degree of uncertainty Contacts outside peer group May or may not be respected by peers Early Adopters - next 13.5% of individuals in a social system to adopt an innovation Respected by peers More integrated part of the local system Opinion leaders - potential adopters look to them for advice and information Change agents Role models for other members of social system Early Majority - next 34% of individuals in a social system to adopt an innovation Deliberate before adopting new idea Adopt new ideas just before the average member of a system Interact frequently with peers Rarely hold positions of opinion leadership Provide interconnectedness in the system's interpersonal networks Late Majority - next 34% of individuals in a social system to adopt an innovation Approach innovations with caution and scepticism Adopt new ideas just after the average member of a system Adoption may be due to economic necessity or peer pressure Unwillingness to risk scarce resources Uncertainty about innovation must be removed before adoption Laggards - last 16% of individuals in a social system to adopt an innovation Hold on to traditional values Resistance to innovations Last to adopt an innovation Near isolates in the social networks of local system Suspicious of innovations and change agents Rogers

The Chasm Moore Moore suggested that everyone after early adopters needed a different strategy …because they think differently from the first to take up technology

The Other Chasm It turns out that after the Early Majority there is another break in behaviour The Late Majority need more of a push and the Laggards need a big push

You need a phased approach Innovators supply the new ideas and technologies –We just need to sit back and enjoy the show! Early Adopters take up these ideas because they recognise them –So all you have to do is communicate what is out there The Early Majority need a bit of persuasion –Standards (either governmental or supply chain) will make them move The Late Majority need threats as well –Legislation will finally get them to change The Laggards will never “get it” –And will die from the Legislation!

What have we learned? This takes time - be patient!! Too many initiatives confuses everyone! Consistency is really important You need to tell people what they want to know… …not what you want to tell them! You need to listen to every stakeholder you can imagine… …and then be prepared to discover there are some that you didn’t!! The Force is with us!!

And lots of thanks to.. RSC - Alejandra Palermo, Jeff Hardy CIA - Suzan Gunnee IChemE - Trevor Evans Crystal Faraday - Neville Hargreaves, John Whittal, John Hudson DTI - Russell Laverty, David Golding