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 Devon Air Ambulance Trust, which works to end preventable death, disability or suffering from critical injury or illness by providing exemplary time-critical care.
Area of focus: measuring carbon emissions and forming an emissions reduction plan; staff and community behaviours; governance and strategy.
Can you describe the actions you have taken? How did you identify the problem and implement a process?
DAAT operates in aviation, so our commitment towards tackling the climate crisis might initially seem contradictory. It is vital that we maximise our income to best facilitate our mission, and therefore we must balance measures to counter our environmental impact with the obligation to ensure the best quality of care to our patients.
However, the climate crisis has significant implications for Devon’s communities and is already impacting our local environment, infrastructure, economy, health and wellbeing. Many health professionals across the board agree that the climate crisis is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, with air pollution at the top of the list of deadly health impacts and the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK.
DAAT has taken a number of early steps along our journey towards meeting our Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship goals. We continue to scrutinise every aspect of our organisation to identify creative approaches towards climate mitigation and adaptation.
Our initial work included:
- In 2019, our first response to the inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report was to add climate change to our corporate risk register, which led to identifying Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship as one of our strategic focus areas. We hope that this focus will help us design and implement a climate change emergency commitment through sustainably managing our resources; scrutinising our investments; supporting a ‘green’ ethos and philosophy, and promoting greater environmental awareness.
- Forming a cross-departmental ‘Green Team’, to take a collaborative approach to mitigating our environmental impact and advancing our collective ambition.
- The Green Team also assembles and distributes an in-house ‘Green Horizons’ seasonal newsletter that reports on our organisational progress towards meeting our strategic ambitions. The newsletter shares ideas that colleagues can bring into their work and their personal lives.
- The Green Team is supported by a board committee for Environmental Sustainability and Stewardship to represent their work at a strategic level.
- We have carried out several staff surveys to capture the views of our team on these issues. In 2020 we shared a staff survey to engage colleagues in forming shared solutions. In October 2021 we undertook a fuller survey of both staff and volunteers, to understand their response to our Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship objective. This survey was evaluated and responded to by our Green Team.
- Improving knowledge across our team via a talk from a member of our board, who is a meteorologist at the Met Office and explored with us how as an organisation we can mitigate our impact, as well as establish where parts of our organisation stand already, and where we stand as a county and a country.
- In spring 2021 our board endorsed the Devon Climate Emergency Declaration and agreed our own commitment, which recognises the risks of climate change for Devon and the communities we serve.
- Enlisting a specialist independent consultancy to audit our emissions. This included emissions sources such as vehicles, utilities and waste, as well as staff travel. This annual audit will help us to work on further reductions and mitigations and allow us to report publicly on our progress.
- Reviewing our investment portfolio has resulted in a commitment to monitor the climate impact of our portfolio and report on this quarterly to the board. We will continue to work with the investment manager to ensure that environmental sustainability and stewardship remain key criteria in selecting investments.
What has been successful? What would you most like to celebrate from the action you took?
We are beginning to normalize viewing our decisions across the organisation through a climate lens. Whether we are thinking about fundraising, merchandise, our investment portfolio, or the fuel for our aircraft, we are starting to participate actively across our work to ensure we can achieve our mission while treading more lightly on the planet.
What has been most challenging? Have you had to change your approach in any areas?
One key challenge for us has been convincing some members and supporters of the relevance of environmental sustainability to our mission. We have learned that regular and positive communication is an effective tool to bring people on board, and help people embrace a green ethos that is relevant to their role. Helping all colleagues and volunteers to feel as though they have a chance to get involved in developments, and ask questions and challenge assumptions is important, irrespective of position in the organisation. Engaging colleagues on our environmental sustainability and stewardship journey and implementing changes is an iterative process that we plan to measure as we progress.
What did you learn from starting work in this area? What learning points would you most like to share with other leaders?
Our key learning is that there really are no areas of the organisation which we cannot review through a climate lens. We have learned that we need to exercise caution in some areas, for example ensuring supply chains and the production processes behind new resources do not undermine ‘green credentials’ on the surface. Most importantly, taking small steps is better than taking none!
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?
Broader, deeper impact could be accelerated through collective action across the sector, whether the environment is an organisation’s core purpose or not, with regards to lobbying power for example.
