Agenda item

Agenda item

Embedding a Zero-Carbon Workforce Culture

Report of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation

 

This report provides information on the progress being made towards embedding a zero-carbon culture within the Council (as part of the Carbon Literacy journey).

 

 

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation that provided information on the progress being made towards embedding a zero-carbon culture within the Council (as part of the Carbon Literacy journey).

 

Key points and themes in the report included:

 

·         Providing an introduction and background, noting that the ‘Manchester City Council - Climate Change Action Plan - Work Plan 2022-23’ set out activity to be progressed to support the delivery of the ‘Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) 2020-25’;

·         In 2020 the Our Manchester Strategy was reset, placing a more explicit focus on zero-carbon at the heart of the strategy which subsequently became a priority within the City Council’s Corporate Plan;

·         Providing an update on key progress to date, noting that Carbon Literacy training was developed with The Carbon Literacy Project and was launched in 2019;

·         As of January 2022, the Carbon Literacy Training was a mandatory training course for all Council employees;

·         Senior Leaders in the Council would continue to be a priority group, with steps to ensure that new senior starters (alongside all new starters) completed the training within 12 weeks of their start/move date;

·         Having achieved Silver Accredited status earlier this year, the next target was to achieve Gold Accredited status by 2025 whereby 50% of our employees would be accredited as Carbon Literate;

·         Elected Members were encouraged to complete the training and at the time of reporting, 53 of 96 members had been certified as carbon literate;

·         Recognising that there was an appetite for the Carbon Literacy training to be upscaled beyond the City Council directly employed workforce as part of the next phase of the training;

·         Noting there was an action to develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework for the Carbon Literacy training;

·         Embedding zero-carbon as a Council priority within new and updated policies and strategies;

·         Describing the approach to communications to articulate the Council’s story of positive climate action;

·         A summary of the work undertaken with schools and education settings across the city to support them to develop and deliver actions to reduce their carbon emissions; and

·         Providing a number of Carbon Literacy case studies.

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

 

·         Welcoming the progress reported to date;

·         Welcoming the examples of how the carbon literacy training had been embedded across the workforce;

·         Congratulating the team for achieving the Silver Accreditation status from the Carbon Literacy Project, noting that the City Council was still only one of three Local Authorities to be Silver Accredited alongside Dacorum Borough Council and North Somerset Council; 

·         Was the target of 50% of employees to be accredited as Carbon Literate by 2025 ambitious enough;

·         Consideration should be given to extending the training as a potential revenue stream for the Council;

·         Members should be involved in training of community groups, noting their role as community leaders; and

·         Noting that consideration needed to be given to how training was delivered, noting the need for this to be delivered in different languages.

 

The Head of Organisational Development updated the Committee by advising that since the report had been published 1631 members of staff had completed their Carbon Literacy Training; and all of the officers at the Senior Leadership level would have completed their training by the end of December of this year. She further advised that 79 Councillors had completed the training to date and all of the remaining Members would have completed this by the end of December of this year. She advised that access to this training had been made easier to improve uptake and added that all new starters to the organisation and movers within the organisation were required to complete this mandatory training within 13 weeks of commencing their role. She advised that Carbon Literacy Training for Trainers opportunities were also being improved, with a commitment from managers that interested staff would be released from their role to facilitate this, noting that this was a good personal development opportunity for staff. She added that Carbon Literacy Training would also form part of the new Members induction programme. In terms of the targets for training staff she commented that it was important to recognise the levels of staff turnover, however this target for staff training was monitored and reviewed.

 

The Head of Organisational Development stated that there was an ambition to extend this training to groups and audiences outside of the Council, however this could not be done at the detriment to training the Manchester City Council workforce. The Assistant Chief Executive added that the Council worked closely with the Manchester Climate Change Partnership to consider delivering wider training opportunities, including working with schools.

 

The Head of Organisational Development stated that there was evidence that the carbon reduction had become embedded across teams, noting that this was reflected in conversations and decisions taken by teams. She stated that examples of good practice were communicated and shared between departments. The Deputy Executive Member for Environment and Transport informed the Committee that there was a cross council department working party to consider climate change, recognising that this issue was cross cutting and could not be considered in silos. She added that this group would include consideration of next steps and opportunities for rolling out carbon literacy training outside of the Council.

 

The Deputy Executive Member for Environment and Transport informed the Committee that there was a wealth of programmes and initiatives being delivered across the city to address climate change and consideration would be given as to how to best capture and record this wealth of activity, recognising the comments made regarding the need to articulate and promote examples of good practice.

 

The Head of Neighbourhoods advised the Committee that Neighbourhood Officers engaged in strength-based conversations with residents and community groups to understand their specific requirements and asks to support them develop environmental projects and initiatives. 

 

Decision

 

To note the report.

 

Supporting documents: