Break- out sessions

Below is a selection of the comments from the break out sessions held at individual tables. The notes are of individual delegate's comments and do not represent the views of the 100 Months Club;

• Use the BITC May Day event in Manchester - there were 100 people at last year's event but the delegate felt that the format didn't help them to change their actions so format is changing this year - voting on actions - will then do follow-up calls to see they are following through
• Create a knowledge management forum - post best practice/successes - should this be the MayDay network or perhaps a more local network?
• Get the three big business organisations in the region working together - CBI + BITC + NW Leadership Forum - leading to streamlined, concerted action
• How to effectively track activity/progress? Easy to get pledges from businesses and employees, much harder to follow them up and track impact
• Need greater flexibility in the planning guidance -hard to achieve energy savings of more than single figures within specific buildings - could we use whole borough measures?
• How can we apply the Merton Rule to retrofitting - this is critical - 70% of housing stock?
• Need Local Authorities to support tough decisions across the region about e.g. waste management - combating NIMBYism in relation to e.g. local power generation/recycling facilities
• ‘Mass science campaign' such as that run in Sweden to support attitudinal change - so that people understand the need for change e.g. understanding ‘embodied energy'
• People came to the event for networking, the minister, the topic, the opportunity to discuss this issue with people at a similar level in their organisation, to find out what other organisations are doing
• Need to recognise the difference between private cost to company and social costs to community and the tension for companies in working these through. For example, Manchester Business School wants to become a Green Leader within the university but all the eco options and the best technologies are more expensive
• Tax regime is not in place to reward energy reduction in existing buildings (both in domestic and commercial buildings)
• There needs to be clearer tax incentives so companies can measure sustainable/low energy but more expensive options against tax breaks
• There needs to be an organisation that advises companies on these issues - Manchester Knowledge Capital was set up to provide a guide through the different challenges for companies in negotiating regulations and government requirements. It was good initially but seems to have lost its way a bit recently - no-one appears to be able to help when contacted
• The "hypothecated tax" of the climate change levy does not appear to be rewarding good performers
• Budgets running for one financial year is a real problem, particularly in building industry. Organisations struggle to spend all the money allocated in one year, particularly when co-ordinating lots of organisations together/busy people - arranging meetings can mean that months pass and if the job isn't completed by the end of financial year, the money is taken away making it very frustrating and stressful for the people involved
• More collaboration is needed between businesses
• There has been no clear leadership around climate change. Leadership on climate change would be better as industry led. The Climate Change Commission is supposed to take a lead but there is a general feeling that climate change action is not happening in a co-ordinated way.
• In Scotland, the New Towns Commission required organisations in the same area to talk to each other which leads to fruitful collaborations. For example, developers of a school found out that they could use the nearby brewery's heat and water to heat the school. They would never have known about the brewery if they had not been required by regulation to find out about nearby premises.
• One way of approaching this challenge is to think about it as three distinct challenges;

1. the ethical - responsibility to the planet and people,

2. self-interest - opportunities within communities to leverage the enthusiasm for action, for economic and social gain

3. global leader - for Manchester to become a global leader in reducing the harmful impact of climate change, through reducing emissions, producing green innovations and increasing sustainable living

a) Use the existing mechanisms / levers within Greater Manchester

• • Use the imagination and enthusiasm of the 16-19 year old students within FE
  • Emergency Preparedness staff and networks - training and awareness.
  • Human Resources - introduce sustainable development into job descriptions and performance monitoring systems.
  • Congestion charge - must encourage low emission vehicles - penalise high emission vehicles
  • At a minimum work towards a "cessation of growth" in aviation (this was not a unanimous point on the table)

b) National and Regional policy.

• welcomed the "mini-Stern" project for the City Region
• Establish and promote “environment innovation” awards for the NW.
• Policy makers (national and RDAs) need to drop the focus on "economic development" and replace with "sustainable development" targets and goals.
• Develop Greater Manchester wide "sustainable procurement" guidance.
• national government should ensure that there are "level playing fields" by removing obstacles to including "sustainability" issues in regulation covering local authority procurement
• also level playing fields with regard to the housing standards applied to Social Housing and commercial housing standards e.g. increase standards for commercial housing to the higher Social Housing level

• the ‘student army' of 200,000 should be used to make a low carbon revolution happen.
• Manchester should become a pot-boiler for low carbon solutions unlocking new global markets.
• the 'point' of older, post-industrial cities was discussed and how climate change casts that in a new light.
• climate change adaptation, the heat island effect and the ocean of glass and steel that is being created in urban landscapes at the moment.
• the high level think tank should be continued to make sure that at the highest level of corporate Manchester is fully engaged in the plan to make the city the greenest in the UK.
• major technical innovation AND a campaign on behavioural change HAVE to be conducted hand-in-hand.

The above points were made by a spokes-person from each table for Hilary Benn to respond to.