‘How Big is Your Carbon Footprint?’ Best Green Internal Under £50K Case Study
The 2008 Green Award for the Best Internal Communications Campaign under £50K went to Punch Taverns for their campaign “How big is your carbon footprint?”.
The rollout of the 'How big is your carbon footprint?' campaign was planned in conjunction with Punch Taverns’ Carbon Management Programme. In 2007, the company identified potential financial measures and CSR and environmental benefits linked to the implementation of a company-wide plan to actively reduce energy consumption and achieve its carbon emissions reduction target of 17% by 2010.
A large part of this 3 year programme was the 'Energy Awareness Workshops' (How big is your carbon footprint?). These were delivered to all Pub Managers and Business Development Managers. The workshop highlighted the behaviour changes they can make to reduce energy and save costs for their business.
To get the project rolling, the Spirit Group initially installed automated meter reading devices in all its pubs. These AMR devices record ½ hourly data, reporting consumption, cost and C02 emissions.
Following on from the success of a trial in 2006, 46 Energy Awareness Workshops around the country were facilitated and completed over a 6 months period from October 2007 to March 2008.
Each pub was then surveyed for energy conservation, with each report identifying behaviour changes, minor spends and capital spends. In addition, managers were regularly visited, emailed or telephoned to discuss their progress, and energy action targets were set to be used on follow-up communications by the Carbon Team and Business Development Managers.
Campaign Implementation Overview:
The campaign within the Carbon Management Programme 'How big is your carbon footprint?' needed to make a sustainable impact and generate pub managers’ enthusiasm.
The process was started with a teaser campaign. Each Manager was sent an energy saving lamp enclosed within a sleeve, with the campaign marketing logo printed on it. This was then followed by a footprint invite, inviting the manager to attend a workshop. Each invite was personally addressed with the individual carbon footprint calculated.
The Workshop was run, where a DVD was shown which the Group had produced for the campaign. This DVD was then given to each manager to use as a follow-up training tool with their staff.
Other marketing material distributed at the workshops included posters, stickers etc for managers to use as memory joggers 'back of house' in their business.
The campaign’s target audience comprised 813 Pub Managers, Business Development Managers and Head Office internal staff (Both Spirit & Punch Taverns).
The campaign’s budget was £10K. Its results are best shown in two ways. The first, and this was the most surprising, was the overwhelming and continuing support from Pub managers and their staff. Secondly, it’s the financial savings made on energy, based on the records from each pub’s AMR.
Punch Taverns’ utility bill for August 2007 to July 2008 was £26million. Through the Carbon Management programme and the hard work of Managers a financial saving of 6.8% electricity, 17% gas and 18% water was achieved, equating to £1.1million. This gave the company a 34% return on its investment! Based on the above figures the CO2 emissions were not yet available at the time the of the entry submission, but were being calculated then.
The Spirits Group knew that winning this Green Award would reward its employees who where involved in the campaign for their enthusiasm, determination and their continuing hard work.
As environmental issues are increasingly highlighted by the government, scientific advisers and the media, as one the biggest hospitality companies in the country they were honoured to pilot and initiate this campaign. Other hospitality companies have since followed their example.
In response to the question why this campaign is special, the entry read: “Each one of us is responsible as our DVD stated, to do our bit towards reducing our countries' Carbon Footprint. If we have in any way changed the behaviour of our employees and customers and made them more aware of their responsibilities then this work is special.”
What the judges said: Both well designed and simple, the judges thought the winner had a very engaging way of getting employees on board. This organisation made a substantial investment in their initiative and has been rewarded with substantial energy savings. In an industry which comparatively doesn’t face a great deal of scrutiny over its green credentials, the winner has made a real effort to lead the way.
