We believe that the organising of Carbon Counting @ work needs to develop. We also believe that there are many people and players who can contribute. So we are asking you to do just that.

This page is going to be set up as a 'Wiki' page. this means it will act like Wikipedia, so people can make constructive contributions.

How Wikipedia works

Organising Carbon Counting @ Work

Individual or Together.

We know there are a lot of people and players are involved, and want to be involved, in the reducing our negative impacts on the environment. But much publicity is aimed at what you can do as an individual, rather than developing their roles in relation ship to what others are doing.

There are lots of individual "Carbon Counters" (see "Count" in top menu above). We want to develop ways that many people can enter data, that can be used to calculate, interogated and analysed by others. We want to explore the role of web-based systems to organise this collective response.

We know that among there is a lot of knowledge, experience, understanding and skills in these areas, which should be developed together. We will need to work together to link the various players, some measuring, some collecting, some counting and some reporting. We have set up the Carbon Club (above) to give you ideas of how this webby working together could happen.

Learning

There are two big worlds of learning - that of 'Thinking' and that of 'Doing'.

There is the world inhabited by scientists, academics, environmentalists, journalists and politicians, who discuss and decide about issues. This is the world of education that plays a vital role in thinking through issues and then determining what needs to be done. In this "Carbon Counter", you will find the educational learning in the left hand column - as "Issues".

The other world is the world at work where people do things with the environment - chop, chip, clip, cook, & cut it. This is the world of vocational learning, which is a matter of showing what you ‘ can do’ . Tasks define the skills needed. All at work have a part to play - managers, technicians, supervised workers, trade unions, and local Colleges. This vocational side is spelt out in this"Carbon Counter" in the top menu, as the Toolkit.

Learning and skills about the environment is an ideal way of bringing these two learning worlds together. At EP@W we have been involved in a series of projects and programmes all about these relations..(epaw.co.uk), including VRQ level 2 on Env Effectiveness, EASE, EPP. We have worked out the relationship of skills for H&S with environment. We have produced online learning materials for Awarding Bodies, and now produce learning support materials for major retailers for their suppliers to improve their environmental and social performances. All explore the dynamic between the two worlds of learning – ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’

Organise

The main reaction to climate change is what you can do as an individual. Which is well for those who can afford the time and money to do something. But many people with limited time and money may also want to do something. And the ideal place for that is a work. There are lots of good projects and standards, but very little at analysing the various roles that people could have while at work, so that by working together they can achieve much more that individual actions.

At present, there is very poor organisation for environmental benefits. Often Environmental teams are tagged on to existing systems, often people are expected to get involved voluntarily and are not recognised properly over a longer term, so good initiatives fizzle out. We need to build our organisations in terms of the environment throughout our organisations – from top management, through accounts, and HR to the shop floor. We need to work out how the ideas and the thinking translates into what people can do throughout an organisation.

We can use the existing laws – eg health and safety, management systems, such as ISO 14001/EMAS, and vocational learning standards (level 1-5) to determine what people should be able to do at work to make a contribution.

Using these work based models we can see that managers make policies and organise personnel, while autonomous workers can be expected to translate policies into procedures and carry out environmental risk assessments – just like they do for H&S. Supervised workers will be the front line for measuring and monitoring impacts, and could be turned on to point out all sorts of improvements that cannot be seen from the Ivory towers.

Carbon Counting

How can this world of learning for workplace organisation be used to map out who could/ should do what regarding Carbon Counting

Level 2 The great strength of carbon counting is that the issue is measurable Supervised workers will be the ones who take the readings of the various measures from electricity meters, and can monitor what is working. They can also suggest improvements, to show where there could be savings - predicted to be as much as 90% in energy usage. More on Level 2 Functions

Level 3 – Supervisors, union reps and technicians need the skills of collecting, counting, calculating, and computing the figures that will be used by others to determine priorities.

Level 4 – As it involves measuring, it is easier to manage. Managers need to use their experience of management systems to organise staff into steps that people can follow to work out the overall footprint.. Increasingly, they will learn about standards of reporting and disclosure that require new managerial skills.

The role of these groups in relation to a range of other ‘external’ players – suppliers, advisers, community, needs to be clarified.