Although improving technology plays a key role in making energy more sustainable and reducing carbon emissions, behavioural change is just as important, and in some ways much harder to achieve. The way organisations operate and the way people go about everyday activities has an enormous impact on the demand for energy and natural resources, yet people often find it hard to form new habits and sustain them. Global Action Plan has spentthe last 15 years tackling this problem through various programmes, one of which is Environment Champions, which started in 1997.

The programme aims to help organisations reduce both the energy they use and the waste they produce. This is achieved by building a team of ‘Environment Champions’ within the client organisation, and giving them training to equip them to analyse energy use and waste, and devise strategies for reducing them. Global Action Plan assists the team by producing audit reports for the organisation on energy use and waste production, supplying equipment for awareness-raising events, providing access to specialist expertise and being available to answer questions at any time.

Global Action Plan has trained over 1,200 people in 69 organisations through Environment Champions, and the work has influenced over 86,000 employees. The progress made is currently resulting in an estimated reduction in energy use of over 4.4 GWh/year, equivalent to over 3,100 tonnes/year of CO2. Inaddition to this, Global Action Plan estimates that the programme has resulted in annual reductions in waste of over 1,600 tonnes per year. This represents a further 9,300 tonnes/year of CO2, from the energy embodied in the waste materials and the avoidance of waste disposal. From the viewpointof participating organisations, the benefits go far beyond the CO2 and waste savings and associated cost reductions. They see employees gain from experience in team working and becoming more confident in challenging bad practice in the workplace when they see it.

The savings in energy and waste are not limited to the workplace – many employees say they are also taking the message home to family and neighbours, and changing practices there. Global Action Plan will be reaching an even wider audience over the coming years, as Sky has chosen them to be its charity partner and is making resources available for fundraising and dissemination.

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The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy