In this series of case studies, sector leaders outline some of the steps they have taken to drive climate action in their organisations. This doesn’t mean they have completed everything, but that they have picked a place to start, which unblocks fear and drives action in other areas. We hope this series gives you lots of ideas for climate action in your own organisation. If you would like to submit a case study to keep this series going, please email Maisie.hulbert@acevo.org.uk.
This week, we hear from Reach Volunteering’s CEO Janet Thorne. Reach is the leading skills-based volunteering charity in the UK, connecting people, skills and good causes and the biggest source of trustees for the voluntary sector in the UK.
Area of focus: board acknowledgement and engagement, emissions reduction plan, changes to services and supporting community climate action, energy efficiency and water efficiency, forming an emissions reduction plan, travel, staff and community behaviours.
Can you describe the actions you have taken? How did you identify the problem and implement a process?
At Reach, we couldn’t see at first how to link climate action with the goals of the charity. We connect people who want to volunteer their expertise with social purpose organisations that need it. Shifting the focus to recognise that the climate crisis is humanity’s biggest challenge, and therefore the biggest challenge to civil society, helped us to see climate action as a core concern of Reach’s work. Making this link to our vision and mission helped validate our work in this area, and securing a strategic commitment from our board was much easier than anticipated.
I drew up a paper proposing that the board acknowledges the climate crisis and its importance for civil society; and which proposed two simple actions:
- Undertaking our own eco audit and steps to reduce emissions; and
- Exploring how we can support other charities through our services.
In practice, the eco auditor found that there was little we could do to reduce emissions as we are a small charity without an office, staff travel, etc. We’d already switched hosting to a supplier that uses only renewable energy. However, our strategic commitment has allowed Reach to have some ambition beyond reducing our carbon footprint and start exploring how we can work with others to help other charities take action. Just taking that first step – whatever that is – can help kick start useful conversations and build momentum.
What has been successful? What would you most like to celebrate from the action you took?
It is VERY early days, too early to celebrate, but it has already led to more conversations within the staff team about climate change – exposing how little some staff feel like they know about the issue, and how they’d like to know more. We are currently reviewing our vision, mission and values, and I’m finding that developing an intentional approach to climate action, and EDI, is really helpful in focusing us on what kind of society we want to help build. So it feels like it is already beginning to catalyse some change.
What did you learn from starting work in this area? What learning points would you most like to share with other leaders?
It can feel a bit awkward to get going. It’s such a vast, complex area, and it’s easy to feel like you don’t know anything about it and can’t make any significant difference, so why raise it with the board or do anything at all? But just raising it does start generating some momentum, so it’s worth holding your nerve and going for it.
How could the sector more effectively collaborate or share knowledge in this space? Can ACEVO or other membership bodies support this work in ways which would have helped you?
I think that articulating the links between cause areas and climate crisis might help more charities begin to understand climate action as core to their purpose, and not just another thing for the to-do list. This is really key to catalysing tangible action beyond commitments – understanding the devastating impact that the crisis will have on the communities we work with, the opportunities for positive and fundamental change, and our role in tackling it. We’re all stepping into the unknown on this one – think how the pandemic has played out. And like the pandemic, the only sane approach to the climate crisis is collaboration. I think that we need to pool practical approaches to cutting carbon emissions, share expertise about impacts on our different communities and develop joined-up narratives about how to understand the climate crisis and the changes we need to make. ACEVO has shown some great leadership in getting this conversation started.
