Building Your Toolbox: where to start with climate action within your organisation

By Gazelle Buchholtz, Climate Change Coordinator at GCVS

Are you interested in becoming more environmentally friendly as an organisation? Climate change is such a big subject that it can be hard to know where to start, or even what words to use whether it’s “Environmentally friendly”, “eco-friendly”, “green” amongst others. The words don’t really matter. What matters is that you want to do something to help the planet and the environment we live in.

In this article, we’ll talk about some actions you can take, some tools you can use and the support you can access.

Where in your day do you experience consumption and emissions? Image by Steve Crowther from Pixabay

Get an overview

The things we use every day whether it’s energy to charge a phone, food to energise ourselves or transport to get to work, have a cost to the environment. Becoming more environmentally friendly is about trying to reduce that cost. It’s not a world away from budgeting in the sense that you need to lay out all your expenditure and then find the areas you can make savings.

When thinking about the environmental impact of your organisation, you can start with 4 key themes. Here are examples on questions to get started:

1. Energy use related to buildings

   How do you monitor your energy use? Are there improvements you can make to your space or your activities to reduce the use of energy? Where to get a free energy audit and other technical support?

2. Travel and transport

   How do staff and service users reach you? Are there things you can do to support or encourage more sustainable choices?

3. Food and water

   If you purchase food for your activities, are there local, sustainable options?

4. Consumption and waste

   Are there greener alternatives to the products you buy within your budget? Do you have plans for repairing rather than replacing resources like furniture?

   
   

As you begin to work with the 4 key themes, the list of questions will most likely grow longer, and you can use these as the basis for your environmentally friendly actions.

As much as your activities have a cost to the environment, making changes also has a cost to you whether that’s money or time. It’s important not to be put off by the sheer number of things you could do differently. This isn’t about being perfect or doing everything, it’s about doing what you can.

Creating a plan

Once you know you want to act on climate change within your organisation or group, it’s a good idea to develop an environmental policy and plan. The policy is where you set out your commitment and the plan is your how-to that breaks down what you’ll do, how and who’ll be responsible. It can be as simple or as complex as your situation and capacity allows. The policy and plan are two sides of the same coin but they’re both just as important. A good environmental policy and plan should:

• Formalise your commitments

• Structure your work

• Guide your actions and improvements

• Provide clear communication internally and externally about what you’re doing

Starting with the policy, it makes sense to write it to be concise, direct and simple. Zero Waste Scotland has a one-page policy that also ties into their plan, “… our activities and operations will be guided by our Net-Zero Plan, which we will continuously update to reflect best environmental practice.”

As time goes by and you learn more about climate change, arrivals of new insights and tools, and your own experiences, you can always review and update your policy and plan.

Team up

Depending on the size of your organisation, a “green team” might be a good idea. A green team is a working group that takes forward your action plan. It should give staff and volunteers the opportunity to share tasks and ideas while also being in a safe space to share frustrations and find solutions. There are plenty of options out there but not everything will work for every group and it’s important to keep trying. A green team can be a good way to keep momentum going while you explore options that work for you.

If you have a smaller organisation, it could be challenging to create a green team between few people, so it might be possible to approach other groups in the area to share the load with a joint effort. Sharing what you’ve learned across organisations can make things go a lot easier, and you might also find practical solutions that wouldn’t work for you alone. Sharing resources between organisations is a great way to reduce waste. You could also team up to explore collective purchasing, for example solar panels, which might make more sustainable products affordable if cost is a barrier to using greener alternatives.

Wall art by #strathwonderwal

How can we help?

There is a huge collection of online tools available. In our list of resources Climate Action Resources, Tools, Tips and Policies we have selected a few, where you can find specific information on each of the four key themes. For example, Business Energy Scotland offers free energy audits of buildings. This could be an important first step to plan improvements and towards funding applications to help with the costs. Our list also includes a link to a monthly Environmental Grants Directory from GCVS, created by our funding adviser.

As partners in Glasgow’s Climate Action Hub, GCVS offers 1-2-1 support to organisations who are interested in becoming more environmentally friendly. We can:

• Explore your hopes and help you set some goals

• Help you develop and implement an environmental policy and plan. · Connect you to support available from our national partners

• Work with you to problem solve practical barriers

• Make sure you’re connected to the right support from our local and national partners

• Help you develop activities that can engage your wider community

  
  

  We’re happy to have a chat wherever you are in the journey, even if you’re just curious. You can contact us at climate@gcvs.org.uk to arrange a chat.