EEDA - East of England Development Agency

All the regional development agencies have been tasked with implementing an accredited environmental management system, such as the international standard ISO 14001 or the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), by 2010. EEDA set a target to implement a system to both of these standards by August 2008. This required a change in behaviour and attitude within the organisation, an ongoing necessity which is being achieved through our internal communication campaign, designed to raise awareness among staff. The campaign is called ‘be green with envi’.

The logo was adopted for the campaign and circulated widely throughout EEDA’s offices. The brand was strengthened with the short, supporting key message: ‘small changes making a difference’. A group of Energy Champions from volunteers across the organisation help disseminate messages and collect information; which feed into this campaign.

Awareness raising workshops were established for staff and held throughout 2008, with a target of at least 80 per cent of staff to receive the training by December. 142 members of staff attended the awareness workshops which is approximately 62 per cent. During 2009 the workshop will form part of our formal staff-training and induction and those that did not manage to attend an awareness workshop will be required to work through the on-line induction process.

Following the launch of the communication campaign, workshops and lunchtime learning presentations, in a survey 92 per cent of staff felt they had increased their understanding of waste, recycling and energy efficiency.