This article has been contributed by James Swanston, CEO of Carbon Voyage. James chairs the EMA’s Transport Working Group. In another life he was an officer in the Australian Army and now is a Major in the British Territorial Army.
In the early 1970s, work was undertaken to try and address issues around workplace health and safety; while a major report in 1972 advocated self-regulation within industry, the end result was the establishment of legislation in 1974. This has now led to a massive reduction in workplace fatalities and injuries. In the absence of a lack of cohesion within the energy field, the EMA was established to try and address many of the pressing concerns that exist – rising energy prices, concerns over energy supply and the environmental impacts of energy consumption.
While I was not around at the time of the 1974 legislation being implemented, I can imagine that it was a time where two big things happened with staff – some people were dedicated to managing these new processes (creating a new industry group of specialists), but more fundamentally, behaviour change had to occur at all levels within the workplace. Changing behaviour comes with a range of challenges, but fortunately or unfortunately, everyone would have appreciated the threats of workplace health and safety far more than they perhaps do when it comes to energy and climate change issues.
The Financial Imperative
Health and safety is a big issue in the military – we operate in very dangerous locations with very dangerous equipment. As an army officer and a sustainability person, I also see the crucial importance of energy management in the military, both at home and on operations. At a time when there are massive public sector budget cuts, there are clear reasons to look at how energy management and sustainability can not only alleviate financial pressures, but also meet legislative targets and be pro-active in addressing energy security concerns. By way of comparison, the US military is looking to save about £5 billion over the next decade through improving their energy management.
Leadership Begins at Home
The Greater London Reserve Forces’ and Cadet Forces’ Association (GL RFCA) runs a large number of Ministry of Defence buildings and estates in London (one of which I ‘occupy’ with 100 soldiers). From previous work that we’ve done with them, it was clear that there are a large range of opportunities for reducing costs and carbon impacts through a number of sustainability initiatives. A key part of this however is about behaviour change.
At present, we are looking to help with organisational development within the GL RFCA through providing a range of courses that should start to address this. This will link into other personal development courses that exist to provide accreditation to service personnel in leadership and management – because behaviour change is dependent upon leadership and management. One of the values of establishing a common framework for training across the EMA/ CMA is that organisational development and training conducted within the military can have relevance for service leavers and also for reservists within their civilian workplaces by creating transferrable skills; this is clearly important in the context of the major changes around regular and reserve personnel in the military. Through also linking with Energy & Utilities Skills, there will be a wider ability to recognise who has done training when our personnel look for energy-related jobs in civilian organisations.
There are challenges around the issues of return on investment and ownership. It is clear to me and many others, and backed up with many case studies, that sustainability, efficiency and financial savings often go together. However, the people that are required to act in order the generate savings and those who benefit from the savings can often be different people. A HR manager who spends training funds to generate energy cost savings needs to be able get some benefit back. Similarly the individuals whose actions create the savings on the ‘shop floor’ also need to derive some recognition, support or benefit from doing so.
Moving forward, it will be fantastic if the military can be at the forefront of energy management, particularly if it can provide wider benefits to society through transferable skills. What is clear though is that to do this properly in any organisation, a holistic approach to energy management is needed, which is thus about engagement with everyone within an organisation.
This article has been contributed by James Swanston, CEO of Carbon Voyage. James chairs the EMA’s Transport Working Group. In another life he was an officer in the Australian Army and now is a Major in the British Territorial Army.