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Green Workplaces News May 2014

Green Workplaces News May 2014

  • Green reps conference
  • Plymouth’s green army
  • The union effect: Gt. Ormond Street
  • “Use-IT” software for green skills
  • UCU reps handbook
  • Climate4Jobs
  • Green open homes
  • Right2Water 
  • IPCC: stopping climate change won’t cost the earth
  • Peru unions and COP 20
  • Cuts to solar power are anti-business
  • Sherpa Dorje Khatri

Organising

Green reps conference: “Greening the workplace – the union effect”

Date: Friday 11 July 2014,

Time: 10 – 13:00 with lunch

Venue: Congress House, London.

This is a free event with a buffet lunch provided.

We would like to invite you to the upcoming TUC event Greening the Workplace – building the “union effect”. Register online at:

www.greeningtheworkplace.eventbrite.co.uk

The TUC has invited Labour’s Shadow energy Minister Tom Greatrex MP to open this national conference, which focuses on the achievements of trade union reps in building sustainable workplaces, and the rights and responsibilities they need to be even more effective.

We will launch a new report on The Union Effect by the Labour Research Department’s (LRD), a fresh look at how unions are greening the workplace.

And we introduce UCU’s new Environment Reps Handbook Staff Organising for Sustainability SOS.

Aimed at shop stewards and activists interested in creating sustainable workplaces, the conference will open with a debate on rights and responsibilities of TU reps. We then run two workshops: best practice union projects across the UK; and advice on building green networks in trade unions and in the regions.

Speakers include

  • Paul Nowak, Assistant General Secretary, TUC
  • Tom Greatrex MP, Shadow energy Minister
  • Lionel Fulton, LRD Secretary
  • Sarah Pearce, editor, TUC greenworkplaces newsletter
  • Beverley Hall, International, Environment & CSR Officer, Prospect
  • Keith Hatch, South West TUC
  • Graham Petersen, UCU Environment Coordinator

Further speakers to be announced.

Our chair is Sue Ferns, Director of Research & Communications at Prospect and General Council lead on the environment.

To register online, go to: www.greeningtheworkplace.eventbrite.co.uk

 

Plymouth council staff become the city’s new ‘Green Army’ – and get green reps facilities

by Keith Hatch, South-West Unionlearn

After the last elections in Plymouth, the new council leader, Tudor Evans, made 100 pledges to the city. A number of these were aimed at making Plymouth a greener city and included commitments on expanding recycling, increasing the number of allotments and a long-term aim to become a carbon neutral council.

Pledge 33 was of particular interest to the council’s staff and unions. The council pledged to “Introduce a Green Workplaces Scheme to encourage council staff to work with their managers to reduce carbon, encourage sustainability and save money.”

In March, after negotiations between the council and workplace unions UNITE, UNISON and the GMB, the “Plymouth City Council and Joint Trade Unions Greener Workspace Agreement” was signed off.

The agreement comes under the umbrella of the council’s learning agreement and commits the council to developing a programme of work around carbon reduction. It aims to engage the help and support of the council’s unions in a number of areas. These include: a 30% reduction in city-wide emissions by 2020; increasing the use of public transport, walking and cycling to work; and generally encouraging a “healthier working and living environment”.

To help achieve this, the council is supporting the appointment of trade union green reps to support and engage staff on environmental initiatives and resource efficiency at work. Crucially, the council facilities agreement providing time off for reps will be updated to recognise green reps.

South-West Unionlearn has been supporting workplace unions at the council where possible. Senior union support officer Rob Garrett said: “This new agreement, along with the councils learning agreement, are really positive steps in engaging the workforce. Though it’s early days, the agreements have the potential to make a real difference to the lives of council staff in terms of learning, energy saving, health and wellbeing and input to council policy.”

Rob continues: “Plymouth FC fans are nick named the ‘Green Army’, but this new agreement means that Plymouth’s real Green Army is the council and the thousands of staff that work for them.”

The union effect: Great Ormond Street Hospital

Ahead of the launch of the LRD’s report into “The Union Effect” at this year’s green rep’s conference in July, we catch up with a past GreenWorkplace project at Great Ormond St. Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London

The project at GOSH was one of seven pilot projects founded in 2008 - 2010 by the TUC’s GreenWorkplaces project with support from the Union Modernisation Fund established by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children’s  NHS Trust is a national centre of excellence in the provision of specialist children's healthcare, employing approximately 3,600 people. In line with the then NHS carbon management programme, the hospital had set an initial target of a 15% reduction in its carbon emissions between 2008 and 2012.

The hospital’s greenworkplace project kicked off at the request of the UNISON branch secretary, Sarah Lewis, with union members identifying the potential to save energy and cut resource use. With work underway to redevelop and refurbish the hospital site, the project presented the chance to make sure staff were involved in the hospital’s sustainability strategy. 

Sarah wasted no time in getting the then Chief Executive of the Trust on board, along with all on-site unions. A Joint Environment Committee (JEC) was set up made up of union and management reps and chaired by Sarah.  Reps were granted reasonable time off to carry out environmental/energy audits, supported by an environmental checklist designed by JEC members.

Key achievements:

The JEC’s annual report in 2011 highlights key achievements:

  • Environmental week: The JEC teamed up with the Bicycle Users Group to organise an environmental week in September 2011.
  • Staff magazine: the JEC had a regular spot in the staff magazine, helping to increase JEC membership by promoting events and the on-going work of the group.
  • Paperless Meetings: The project chosen by committee members in 2011 focused on developing a paperless meetings culture throughout the organisation.
  • Energy efficiency: a highly efficient condensing boiler was installed at one site and energy efficient LED bulbs fitted in areas being refurbished.

GOSH cuts emissions

Energy and resource management has now evolved at GOSH and comprises a high level Sustainable Development Management Committee, supported by the JEC. The environment committee takes forward the objectives set by the management committee, as well as issues arising through the JEC itself.

In 2012, a new clinic, the Morgan Stanley Clinical Building, opened with the trust’s first combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) generator, allowing the Trust to produce its own electricity for the first time.

In 2012, CO2 emissions at GOSH, covered by the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, increased because of the new CCHP unit which burns gas continuously. But crucially, the increase in emissions is offset by a reduction in imported electricity. This means that overall, the Trust is now reducing its emissions per square meter of floor space.

Challenges: keeping a project going

As many green reps will recognise, in times of economic difficulty keeping a greenworkplace project running is no easy task.

It’s fair to say that at GOSH in recent years staff changes have taken their toll, both at senior management level and among staffside reps. The staffside chair speaks of challenges faced: new managers less involved with the project, staff reps leaving the Trust along with a perceived lack of direction in the GOSH sustainability strategy. The TUC also acknowledges the reduction in its own capacity to re-energise struggling greenworkplace projects as funding for the TUC’s in-house greenworkplaces project came to an end in 2011.

Back on track

Nonetheless, a further round of management changes have helped reinvigorate the project. In the past 18 months, the Trust has embarked on a new sustainability strategy developed with the involvement of the Global Action Plan consultancy. As with the initial greenworkplaces initiative, the new strategy is based on extensive consultation with staff and management.

The Trust has set four key objectives:

  • 20% cut in energy use.
  • 15% reduction in CO2 emissions.
  • 35% reduction in water consumption by 2015-16 and
  • zero waste to landfill.

With the agreement of the union, management now chairs the JEC, which is discussing a new round of initiatives to develop a “carbon culture” among staff, such as an online energy awareness carbon app. Crucially for the union, the JEC remains underpinned by the ethos of staff involvement.

“Use-IT” tool for green skills

by Keith Hatch, South-West Unionlearn

Unionlearn support officers are piloting new software as part of a “Mobile Initial Assessment”.

The pilot follows on from work undertaken by North-West Unionlearn to develop a unique ICT based tool. The software, called USE-IT, assesses skills and promotes digital inclusion, health and wellbeing and equalities issues. It also assesses functional skills and green skills.

The green skills assessment consists of 15 questions covering areas around waste, recycling and climate change.

The pilot has been running for the past few months and South-West Unionlearn are finding that USE-IT is a good promotional tool for green reps and union learning reps to use at workplace events. It gives instant feedback and allows reps to sign-post members to other courses or activities. It also has the potential to encourage new green reps to become active.

Union Support Officer Keith Hatch says: “USE-IT in general is very useful for open days, learning centre events and workplace activities as it gives an instant response. The Green Skill element is a great way to generate a discussion with colleagues at work.  We’ve been demonstrating it to reps who have been very interested in exploring ways to use it to engage people at events like Climate week."

Keith continues: “The assessments are quick and easy to do, and very user friendly on the iPad when compared to paper based and some online assessments.”

USE-IT is being launched across the country shortly. If you are interested in finding out more, or arranging for a union support officer to visit your workplace, get in touch with the Unionlearn team in your region at:

http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/about/who-we-are

UCU to launch environment reps handbook

UCU launches its new Environment Rep Handbook, “Staff Organising for Sustainability”, at its annual Congress in Manchester on 29-30 May.

The official launch will take place at a joint fringe meeting with the National Union of Students on Friday 30th at 1 p.m.

The handbook is intended as a resource for existing reps and to help recruit more. A copy will be available on the website from June. If you’re a UCU rep, copies will be sent out to all reps and branches.

Belgian Climate Coalition launches Jobs4Climate Campaign

The Belgian Climate Coalition, a network of about 70 trade unions, environmental organisations, north-south movements and youth movements, have launched a new media campaign - “Jobs4Climate”.

The campaign aims to promote job creation through sustainable investments and to raise awareness of the economic, social and environmental benefits of strong climate policies and investing in energy transition.

The coalition maintains that energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable public transport and the development of a smart electricity grid has the potential to create 60,000 decent, direct and indirect jobs in Belgium. To make this a reality, the coalition is calling for worker education and training programmes, and research and development strategies to exist alongside these new opportunities.

The Climate Coalition, formed in 2008, has a track record for innovative campaigns designed to educate and mobilise the general public on climate issues.

Starting with their first “Big Ask” in 2008, the campaign mobilised 6,000 to take part in a video. This was followed by persuading 12,000 people to simultaneously perform in their “Dance for the Climate” campaign. Finally, the coalition organised the hugely successful “Sing for the climate” - initially aimed at getting 24,000 people singing - the campaign resulted in more than 80,000 participants singing in 180 locations. A month later, 725 schools repeated “Sing for the Climate” with 300,000 students on national sing@school day. You can watch the final video clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGgBtHoIO4g

To get the low down on how they went about building these national campaigns visit: http://www.singfortheclimate.com/EN/about.aspx

The Climate Coalition believes that an ambitious climate policy would reduce air pollution and dependence on costly fossil fuels – in turn boosting the economy in the medium and long-term.  It is hoped that the new Jobs4Climate campaign can be every bit as successful as its forerunners.

Green Open Homes Network

The Green Open Homes Network is a national network for low carbon homes. It aims to support low-carbon open homes events across the country through free resources and advice.

The network is currently running a small award competition for organisations that want to run events before the end of 2014. The competition offers the chance to apply for between £500 and £2,000. Grants will be awarded based on meeting application criteria on a first come, first served basis.

Green Open Homes is funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and delivered by the Centre for Sustainable Energy in partnership with Bristol Green Doors. The network benefits from advisory support from Forum for the Future, the National Trust, Transition Network and the Association of Environmentally Conscious Builders.

Policy

Stopping climate change won’t cost the earth

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dismisses fears that slashing carbon emissions will bring down the world economy.

The report, produced by 1,250 international experts and approved by 194 governments, concludes that a transition to a world of clean energy is affordable without sacrificing living standards.

It doesn’t cost the world to save the planet,” says economist Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, who led the IPCC’s team.

The report finds that cutting energy waste and diverting hundreds of billions of dollars from fossil fuels into renewable energy would cut only 0.06% off expected annual economic growth.

The report also states that the cheapest and least risky way to deal with climate change is to ditch all dirty fossil fuels in coming decades.

“It is actually affordable to do it and people are not going to have to sacrifice their aspirations about improved standards of living,” said Professor Jim Skea, an energy expert at Imperial College London and co-chair of the IPCC team. “It is not a hair shirt change of lifestyle at all that is being envisaged and there is space for poorer countries to develop too”.

Furthermore, the IPCC economic analysis does not factor in the benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions: reducing air pollution, like the recent episode to plague the UK, and improved energy security. These benefits could outweigh costs.

Sharan Burrows, ITUC general secretary, commenting on the report said: “The latest report from the IPCC gives renewed confidence that the world can still avoid catastrophic climate change with rapid and sustained cuts to carbon emissions”. Burrows continues: “The report shows that the world has the capacity to meet the challenge. Governments need to cease their prevarication and rise to that challenge now.”

Emissions soaring

The IPCC report also warns that carbon emissions have soared in the last decade and are growing fast but that rapid action can still limit global warming to 2C, the internationally agreed safe limit. But to do this investments in zero and low-carbon energy sources will need to triple or quadruple by 2050.

Current pledges to cut emissions by the world’s governments make it more likely that the 2C limit will be broken. The report warns that delaying action any further will increase the costs. The more we wait, the more difficult it will become.

Energy revolution needed

The IPCC predicts that an energy revolution ending the dominance of fossil fuels will be needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change at the lowest cost. This will require a significant political and commercial change.

Reviewing the future energy options, the IPCC:

  • Favours renewable energy due to its falling costs and large-scale deployment in recent years.
  • Nuclear power is included as a mature low-carbon option, but the report cautions that nuclear power has declined globally since 1993 and faces safety, financial and waste-management concerns.
  • Carbon capture and storage is also included, but the report notes that it remains untested on a large scale and may be expensive.
  • Biofuels could play a “critical role” in emission reduction but the report warns that the negative effects of some biofuels on food prices and wildlife remained uncertain.
  • Shale gas fracking could mean lower greenhouse gas emissions for the transitional period where gas competes with coal, if gas losses and additional energy needed in fracking itself can be kept relatively small.

This is a big “if” for fracking. Natural gas, or methane, is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Over the first ten years of its life in the atmosphere, the “global warming potential of methane is 108 times that of CO2. Small percentages of methane (around 3%) were observed escaping from fracking wells sampled in the USA. Even at these leakage levels, the greater potency of methane suggests that shale gas is no different from coal in its effect on global warming.

The report says that there is a gap in our knowledge concerning the fugitive methane emissions, the neat methane gases that escape into the atmosphere during shale gas production, as well as other adverse environmental side effects.

Investing in zero and low-carbon energy sources will be critical. “These investments are critical for fighting climate change, as well as for tackling other major social priorities, such as unemployment, says Burrow “We know that millions of jobs can be created in the renewable energy, building efficiency and public transit sectors. Governments must send now the right signals and show their commitment to a climate sound and job friendly transition”

Unions fight for sustainability and justice in Peru

Unions in Peru, CATP, CUT and CGTP, have teamed up with Sustainlabour to work together on solutions to the environmental challenges and labour abuses their country faces.

The partnership is supported by the UNEP’s Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE). PAGE, formed as a response to Rio+20, recognises that the green economy can act as a vehicle for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Peru is set to  host the next climate change summit, COP 20, in December and unions are co-ordinating with more than 50 NGOs and social movements, including environmentalists and indigenous peoples, to push for progress at the summit. They see the event as a turning point with the potential to set the stage for a sustainable future for Peru.

The unions are also developing specific activities for workers to push sustainable development further up the union agenda. This involves organising training activities and national seminars to be undertaken with Sustain labour.

The work programme aims to provide workers with the skills to help them think critically about environmental challenges and how to build environmentally friendly models of production that respect both cultures and workers’ rights.

Peru’s fast growing economy - economic indicators show growth close to 6% over the last 15 years - is based largely on the extraction sector and the country faces serious social and environmental conflicts. Sectors hit hard by a lack of environmental regulation and poor rights at work include mining, fishing, water management, agriculture and forestry, and energy.

Extractive activities generate many social problems: pressure on indigenous peoples and communities, and impacts on health and the environment.

But workers from these and other sectors are coming together to transform their industries  into greener, safer and more decent operations.

Unions are calling for greater transparency and better monitoring of compliance with labour and environmental regulations.

The unions believe that they should be able to develop strategies for union action that influence both practices and conditions in their workplaces, as well as local, regional and national policies.

The Peruvian union movement will be organizing a people’s summit and trade union related events with the ITUC and TUCA to coincide with COP 20 in Lima. Luis Isarra from the Peruvian water union FENTAP says: “We plan to be very visible and we urge unions from around the world to attend”.

Right 2Water

On 19 March, the European Commission (EC) published its official response to the first successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). The ECI called on the EC “to implement the human right to water and sanitation in European law.”

The EU’s response recognises that austerity policies across Europe are leading to an increase in water poverty with more people unable to pay their water bills. In Spanish Jerez, 200 families were disconnected after a private water company took over the services. Last year, a neighbourhood in a Hungarian town of predominantly Roma people, was disconnected. The EC stresses that such disconnections are illegal.

EPSU, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, has been working hard with its partner, the Right2Water, to campaign among its union membership on this issue. The EU’s response stresses the importance of the human right to water and sanitation. It clearly states that “water is not a commercial product” stressing its fundamental value as a public good. But as EPSU points out, that’s as far as it goes.

“The reaction of the European Commission lacks any real ambition to respond appropriately to the expectations of 1.9 million people” says Jan Willem Goudriaan, vice-president of the ECI Right2Water and deputy general secretary of EPSU, “I regret that there is no proposal for legislation recognising the human right to water.”

The ECI also asked for a legal commitment that there would be no EU initiatives to liberalise water and sanitation services. But there is nothing in the EU’s response on this. It makes no commitment to explicitly exclude these services from trade negotiations such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

But there are some positive aspects in the EC’s response. It recognises that providing water services should generally be the responsibility of local authorities, confirming the trend towards re-municipalisation across Europe. The EC sees this as the safest way to keep water out of internal market rules, one of the main demands of the ECI.

EPSU also welcomes the commitment of the Commission to promote universal access to water and sanitation in its development policies, and to promote public-public partnerships.

EPSU expects that the review of the Water Framework and Drinking Water Directives will provide opportunities to realise the human right to water and sanitation in the EU. The Citizens’ Committee expects to be considered as a major stakeholder.

Meanwhile, EPSU continues to support its affiliated unions fighting against privatisation of their water companies in the run up to the European elections. EPSU are asking political parties and their candidates to commit to proposing legislation to implement the human right to water and sanitation, and not to liberalise water and sanitation services in the EU and beyond.

Cuts for solar power are anti-business

by Philip Pearson

The Solar Trade Association (STA) fears the government will deliver further cuts to solar energy support in the near future. Changes to support are already affecting many small and medium solar companies.

Solar farms were hit hard by cuts to Feed-In Tariffs in 2011. But, with the cost of solar power falling dramatically, solar farms were funded under the alternative Renewables Obligation, and solar companies began to rebuild.

Here, a representative of a small STA member company, who needs to remain anonymous, explains how his firm rebuilt from scratch but is already being hit by the prospect of further government cuts to solar power support.

“As a small firm, we are exactly the type of business that will suffer the most under any dramatic changes in government policy. Our worries centre on changes to the Renewables Obligation (RO) and the government’s new system of energy contracts, known as Contracts for Difference (CfDs).

We lost a year’s work back in 2011 when the government did the U-turn on the Feed-in Tarrifs. We then rebuilt the business from scratch in July 2012, and are only now just establishing ourselves again in the commercial solar market. We have currently 100 MW of grid connections secured with early planning development, and another 200 MW under grid and planning validation. It has taken all this time with limited funding (after the losses suffered in 2011) to reach this point.

Just when the company is starting to re-establish itself in the market, and looking for additional funding to staff up, we have now been hit with this uncertainty.

We were under negotiation for additional funding to take on more staff, but this has now been thrown up into the air, probably resulting in us having to scale back, not meet our current targets and reduce our employment level accordingly. We were in the process of vertically integrating to reduce costs by moving into the installation market. However this has now also been shelved.
Added to which we have been looking to use some of this funding to branch out into the commercial roof market and community programs. However this may not be possible due to the uncertainty and resulting reluctance for investment.

Therefore, the damage has already started for us SME’s, let alone planning for the future in 2015 and beyond.

Under the current uncertainty and government proposal for change we will most certainly lose out to larger more establish corporations, even though we follow STA’s best practice guidelines. Our first project which has just been submitted for planning permission includes the following:

  • 3 public consultations
  • Lower grade agricultural land
  • Limited visual impact with mitigation measure to local neighbours
  • Local community benefit fund
  • Continued sheep grazing
  • Environmental Management program in conjunction with consultation with the wildlife trust
  • Education area onsite with local program
  • Insect hotel and bee hives
  • Construction Bond and Reinstatement fund

It has taken considerable time, delay and expense to implement this best practice approach, which is our policy for all solar sites. However, if we are forced to compete with large corporations who will be looking to price us out of the market, we would not be in a position to dedicate resources at this level. This will no doubt result in lower quality sites with less public support. It’s not something we want. However, to survive, we may not have any choice but to do so.

Great care has been taken by the STA to define good practice in solar farm developments. Detailed guidance has been set out by the National Solar Centre on visual impact and avoiding high grade farming land. More recently the STA worked with The National Trust, RSPB and others on turning solar farms into biodiversity hot spots.

But right now the future for SME’s in UK Solar doesn’t look very bright from our prospective.”

Sherpa Dorje Khatri

Nepalese Sherpa Dorje Khatri, leader of Nepal’s trade union of Sherpas and a committed defender of the environment, was reportedly among 12 people killed in one of the worst disasters on Mount Everest.

In 2011, Khatri planted the ITUC flag on top of Everest as part of a global mobilisation by unions pushing for action on climate change leading up to the Durban Climate Summit, which he attended.

Khatri spent untold hours organising fellow Sherpas into their union to achieve decent wages and employment rights. This dedication was matched by his work to show the damage caused by global warming to Everest, known as Chomolungma in his local language.

Dorje Khatri’s ITUC interview and video in Durban can be viewed here: http://www.ituc-csi.org/from-the-summit-to-the-seaside-

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