A Climate Week of Breakfasts

Sunday, 27th March 2011

by: Phil Korbel

Timed to coincide with Climate Week, the Steering Group of MACF made a long awaited follow up to the annual conference by inviting some of the delegates to breakfast.  The idea was to find out what certain sectors within that group had been doing that was relevant to the plan and ask them to play a greater role in recruiting their peers to support MACF.  In short, we wanted to see if we could initiate mini networks to help drive the roll out of MACF – most of all to ensure that it was properly shaped and led by the people and organisations that were delivering it on the ground.

Groups were invited under the broad banners of Professional Services, Housing, Construction, Food and Leisure, with each group being facilitated by a member of the Steering Group.  By dint of the fact that I’d chaired the ‘Buildings’ writing group for the plan I was chosen to work with the Housing group.

If you look at the city’s carbon footprint as a pie – there’s a large slice that can carry the label ‘Housing’ – a slice that gets bigger if you’re just looking at things that Manchester can change (as opposed to e.g. the footprint of the power that we pull off the grid).  There’s also the striking statistic that some 80% of present homes are going to be in use in 50 years – which drives the ‘retrofit’ agenda right up the priority list.  So I was pretty pleased to have a small but perfectly formed group join me for coffee on Tuesday morning.

The group was, unsurprisingly, dominated by social landlords – unsurprising as there’s little competitive pressure against them collaborating and because they have their tenants’ well-being as a core part of their mission.  They were joined by landlord Lance Berry from Didsbury Park Properties, Sally Bridgen from the Housing Federation and Alex Clarke who has charge of some student accommodation in the city.   Sean Owen from the Environmental Business Pledge also attended – as well as making sure that event ran smoothly.   I’m a big fan of the idea of getting the right people in the room to see what pans out and as the hour passed, my guests fulfilled that promise admirably.

Robin Lawlor, Chief Exec of Northwards Housing, led the charge with his summary of the award winning (http://www.ashdenawards.org/UK_2010) initiatives by that organisation.  Sarah McClelland from Good Places Housing talked about their journey – one kick started by the Council’s Environment Business Pledge (http://bit.ly/fxa8c0). She was also very clear that behavioural change was a vital part of the equation – and that in some of the properties where they had installed renewable energy generation, residents’ use of that energy hadn’t changed, yet.  Vic Finn from Parkway Green told us that they were assessing how to move on from their first phase of ‘Decent Homes’ refurbishing to maximise the carbon saving potential of future work.  It was clear that there was a will amongst those in the room to share the benefit of their experience.

I wondered if that generosity would make the jump from the non profit sector to their private sector colleagues and it was clear from this event that it can.  Lance made the telling point that as a landlord that actually owned his properties (as opposed to managing them for a company), that the low carbon investment case was problematic because of the long term investment case.  I was struck by his quandary – he was clearly committed to doing his bit for MACF but at the moment he wasn’t sure that the sums added up.  He also made the good point that when he’s paying the bills like in his serviced flats, the decision is easy as he saves money directly.  The advantage is less clear when his tenants pay for their energy.  He wanted clear, unbiased advice about his options.

Alex told us about some of the competitions they were running between halls of residence to reduce their footprints and Sally pointed out that the Housing Federation was doing a lot to spread good practice and that a lot of collaboration was already happening.  This raised the point of whether a Manchester-specific network was really needed – especially in the light of the good work going on with social landlords as part of the Low Carbon Economic Area.   There was a resounding ‘yes’ in answer to this question with the group feeling that their proximity to each other would make for far easier swapping of ideas.  

We asked the group about what MACF could do for them and, as well as organising a briefing on the Green Deal for the next meeting (in May), they wanted a web site where good practice was collated and laid out in a way that was relevant to them.  They also felt that many of their sector colleagues could be persuaded to join them for the next event.  I for one am looking forward to it.

If you would like to know more about this event please email me.

Phil Korbel is a member of the Stakeholder Steering Group of MACF.  He is Director of the charity Radio Regen and co-Director of Cooler Projects CIC.