Sustainable Development Action Plans - good practice for regional

public sector agencies

Sustainability Awareness - Civil Service West Midlands 22ndth February 2010

Dr Simon SlaterExecutive Director

simon.slater@swm.org.uksustainabilitywestmidlands.org.uk

Who we areWe are the sustainability adviser for the leaders of the West Midlands.

– Government recognised ‘regional sustainability champion body’

– Our Board is private sector led and cross-sector representative

– We are a not-for-profit company, that works with our members in the business, public and voluntary sectors.

Our role is to act as a catalyst for change through our:

– policy advice to leaders – developing practical cross-sector solutions with our

members, and– share success through our communications.

The Regional Sustainability Challenge

• The Productivity Gap - £15 billion plus – productivity & worklessness

• The Carbon Gap – need to focus on transport, waste, decentralised energy, energy efficiency

• Quality of Life Gap – health inequalities, basket of indicators such Index Sustainable Economic Welfare – vary across region

• Confidence Gap – poor promotion within and outside region of good practice

• Leadership Gap – varied understanding on sustainability as overall framework for action, business often ahead of public sector, regional governance ‘unfinished & uncertain’

Our Vision

By 2020 businesses and communities are thriving in a West Midlands that is environmentally sustainable and socially just.

By 2012 our leaders are clear on what this looks like, have set milestones and their organisations are making strong progress.

‘Low carbon vision’ begins to set out what is possible now in terms of energy, transport, construction, demographic change to reach 2020…just add leadership and next steps

 

SWM public sector programmePolicy Advice

• Roadmap 2020 on how to achieve vision - SD appraisal of regional strategies and monitoring of progress.

• Supporting Sustainable Development Action Plans for regional public sector organisations e.g. AWM

Cross-Sector Projects• Low Carbon Task Force – productivity agenda through low

carbon economy evidence base.• Green New Deal – employment agenda through procurement,

retrofit , green space, graduate brokerage.

Sharing Good Practice• City Region & Business Futures – good practice network for 14

strategic local authorities and leading large business• Regional Awards Service - e.g. Low Carbon Economy Awards,

Top 50 Green Leaders

What is a Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP)?

• Requirement within the UK SD strategy 2005 for Government Departments and Executive Agencies to:– Have an SDAP in place and to report progress annually to

the Sustainable Development Commission

• The SDAP is to cover:– What does SD mean for your organisation – including

delivery of UK SD strategy– Business case of key SD priorities - to cover whole

organisation e.g. Policy and operations– Sign off by Board & Director level responsibility for actions– High level annual actions, monitoring, evaluation and

reporting

The SDAP – why bother?

• Regional operations partly covered by SDAP of Department and Government estate action plans

• But a clear SDAP for a regional public organisation helps:– Demonstrates leadership– Provides a framework to make sense of a range of initiatives– Systematic approach to benchmarking & prioritisation– Helps integrate and mainstream actions & make better use

of resources– Improves internal and external communication with staff and

stakeholders on impacts of SD activities

Case Study: Advantage West Midlands (AWM)

SWM helped with benchmark review of AWM SD performance:– some good projects, – overall poor policy, operations,

offices and staff capacity.– bottom of RDA league table,

SDAP launched covering actions around:– Policy function – Economic Strategy– Operations – Land & Property,

Business Support, Project Funding– Staff and Offices

Launch of ‘Future Advantage’ January 2007

John Edwards AWM CEO, Sue Prince, AWM SD Board Champion, Jonathon Porritt, SDC

Case Study: AWM – Three years later..SWM helps with SDAP annual reviews & advice

• Policy: ‘Connecting to success’ UK’s first low carbon regional economic strategy

• Land and Property: SD standards recognised by Carbon Trust and BRE ‘best in class’

• Projects: Over 70% of all funded projects make overall carbon reduction – carbon target milestone met of 125,000 tonnes in 08/09

• Business Support: range of R&D, waste, energy, transport initiatives

• Office: Majority of waste recycled & Energy Performance of Building improved.

Case Study: AWM – Three years later..SWM helps with 3 year review

• Feb 2009 AWM top of RDA league table on overall SD performance

• Recognised as good practice by National Audit Office, Sustainable Development Commission, Forum for the Future.

• Contributes to AWM ‘Midlands Excellence’ award for continuous improvement

• National Benchmark used to share good practice between RDA’s

• New AWM SDAP to focus on communications, ongoing staff training, delivery of regional economic strategy, internal office procurement

Case Study: AWM – key lessons?The SDAP approach works if:• Support from top – annual reports to Board• Systematic approach to benchmarking &

stakeholder engagement• Clear business case, priorities, actions,

and monitoring• Cross-organisation delivery led by Senior

Manager to work within structures & systems & ‘personalities’

• Peer sharing of good practice

SWM seeking to pilot SDAP approach with SDC with other regional bodies...

Want to know more?

www.sustainabilitywestmidlands.org.uk

• Join us - Sign up for monthly e-newsletter• Projects - look up SDAP for regional organisations or other SWM activity• Resources – reports - look up Vision 2020 and Benchmarking of RDA’s • Resources – help from others - look up Energy Saving Trust (Homes) &

Carbon Trust (Business)• Resources – regional award winners – current good practice can you

recommend any new examples?

If you are interested in piloting an SDAP for your organisation contact:

simon.slater@swm.org.uk

Sustainable Development Action Plans - good practice for regional

public sector agencies

Sustainability Awareness - Civil Service West Midlands 22ndth February 2010

Dr Simon SlaterExecutive Director

simon.slater@swm.org.uksustainabilitywestmidlands.org.uk