Introduction

Leeds City Council employs over 35,000 people spread throughout the city including offices, schools, depots and leisure centres.  In 2005/06 the Council’s estimated carbon emissions were 78,790 tonnes of CO2  and its annual spend in electricity alone exceeds  £10million.

Objectives and target audience

The key objective is to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions through behavioural change. Initially the project was targeted at all council employees to encourage as many participants as possible.  The focus has now moved to targeting the team managers who haven’t as yet an Energy Guardian, especially those in high density buildings.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Originally £20,000 was allocated to launch the initiative and cover the cost of materials such as “turn it off” stickers.  After the launch approximately £1500 has been spent in Energy Guardian network meetings and newsletters.

This is very much a solus initiative within Leeds City Council, driven by the Environment Policy team.

Process –

There are 2 key processes that underpin the project:-

Recruitment – we focus on maintaining awareness of the initiative to attract volunteers and increasingly we are targeting managers to appoint an Energy guardian for the team. They key is to ensure that the role is voluntary and that the individual is naturally interested in climate change issues.
Materials are used to recruit at managers’ conferences and the news section of the LCC intranet.

Support- the initiative needs to support the energy guardians in their role through the supply of tools and information.
Tools include:
•    Stickers to remind people to switch off lights and PCs, leaflets and posters;
•    Networking meetings with guest speakers and workshops;
•    An energy guardians resource site on the council Intranet;
•    E-newsletter to all energy guardians with news and sharing of best practice.

Results –

Currently we are limited in the overall results we can report but this should improve as energy consumption monitoring improves over the next few months. Feedback from the energy guardians collated in September 2008 listed the following successes:
•    Increased recycling of paper and card;
•    Reduced use of paper by initiating double sided photocopying;
•    Apex House reduced it’s electricity consumption by 7% after introducing initiatives such as behavioural change, reduced lighting wattage and timers;
•    Timers on the water boilers have reduced their potential energy consumption by over 50%.

Unexpected results
•    Additional  focus on recycling;
•    Energy guardians are encouraging colleagues to take energy saving behaviours home;
•    The guardians feedback reports of increased composting, cycling to work etc.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

Critical Success factors :
•    Regular updates, meetings and communication to maintain the impetus.
•    Support for the guardians from their senior managers to facilitate volunteering.
•    Resource to co-ordinate the network.
•    The guardian is encouraged to develop a plan that fits with their team rather than implementing a “one size fits all” policy.  For example, a school would need an energy guardian plan compared to a large office.

The concept could easily be transferred to another organisation, whether public or private sector .