Anna Kuratnikova is a client Support officer at Salix, here she shares her advice to those organisations delivering decarbonisation projects
As a client support officer at Salix, I have the privilege of witnessing the full range of our clients’ decarbonisation projects – from small primary schools to ambitious multi-million, multi-site estates. Over three years at Salix, I have noticed one pattern: the most successful projects are not only those with a winning technical solution but also those with a well-built team and a proactive approach to stakeholder management.
You’ve got the technical part covered. You know your building specs, the most efficient heat pumps, the best insulation on the market, your heat emitters, and cash flow. But do you have the people?
Any organisation can slip up and fail to successfully decarbonise their sites to the desired level simply because they were not successful in engaging with their consultants, board of directors, funders, employees, and neighbours. The list of stakeholders is vast but not limitless. I separate them into three groups: people who give you money and permits, people to whom you give money, and people affected by the project.
As project managers delivering a decarbonisation project, it is paramount to have your board of directors and funders on side. The most successful projects I’ve seen did not start with receiving a Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme grant; the work had been ongoing for a long time beforehand. There needs to be a real ambition for sustainable changes, and that has to come right from the top of an organisation. No matter how good a project manager, if the general appetite for sustainable changes within the organisation’s leadership team has not reached the required level of urgency to propel transformation, the project might struggle.
On the other hand, approaching the project with your stakeholders in mind has shown remarkable results. We know of projects where close attention was paid to mitigate the financial burden of expensive projects for short-of-funding schools. The whole building approach with the addition of insulation, solar PVs, and batteries ensured an enthusiastic buy-in from school governors. Careful technical handovers with detailed staff training allowed for the smooth running of low-carbon heat systems and increased the satisfaction of the project with students and teachers, who in turn showed acute interest in the project and its relation to climate change.
Of course, at Salix, we very much appreciate the paramount importance of decarbonising your buildings. However, we require an open communication channel and reliable, regular information to reassure us that the project is adhering to the scheme criteria so we can release your Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding.
Over our four years of delivering the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, we have found one of the bottlenecks in so many projects is the underestimation of the importance of timely engagement with your local authority to seek your planning permit and with your Distribution Network Operator. This is fundamental to securing sufficient energy supply. The most successful projects we see are the ones that make sure they establish relationships and clear channels of communication and escalation with the planning authorities and Distribution Network Operators in advance. The most successful project managers have a good understanding of their planning rights and are confident in communicating the effectiveness of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme as a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero-funded initiative vital to decarbonising the public sector.
Let’s discuss the people you pay – your contractors, consultants, and surveyors. These people are vital to delivering your project. Not all organisations we see have enough internal expertise and capacity to manage a complex decarbonisation project in-house. It is essential that you have a solid relationship with the external teams supporting you in delivering your project. Make sure that issues are raised in time, reporting is to a good standard, and that you are confident you have all the information about the progress of your project. A good practice adopted by some Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme grant recipients is to include conditions of the grant in their tendering packages and reach a balance in quality/cost assessments of the tender returns.
The last category of stakeholders is the least predictable. As many estates managers jokingly share with me, they are the least liked people in the building. This is because it is their job to shuffle people around during works, and this often causes disruption on site. They’re the ones occupying parking spaces for construction site needs! Most estate managers take it with a pinch of salt and characteristic resilience because the temporary inconvenience is inevitable for the benefit of long-lasting positive effects. The ultimate challenge, though, is to keep positive relationships and clear, proactive communication with everyone affected by the project. Even one unhappy neighbor engaging with the local media can create delays and sour all the positive effects of the hard work.
We have seen brilliant examples of organisations proactively engaging with their local community. This means warning them in advance about the upcoming construction that might be potentially disturbing for a number of weeks. In the overwhelming majority of cases, a proactive approach is appreciated, and the goal of decarbonization is supported by most. Every project has the potential to engage local communities, increase knowledge, involvement, and interest. I have witnessed educational organizations incorporating newly installed heat pumps into their curriculum, interested parents inquiring about the technology and considering installing it at home, and students passionately talking about the effect of their schools’ initiatives on their future.
Working with the daily flow of forms, reports, and applications, it is so easy to forget that the ultimate goal of sustainable schemes is to reduce our impact on the environment and improve people’s quality of life. The main success factor of these projects is also people, their passion and collaboration, ability to relate, and focus on a people-oriented approach.
Identifying crucial stakeholders and engaging with them in advance gives your project a head start in the environment of very strict deadlines. Tailoring your engagement to each group of stakeholders supports you in the race against time with climate change.
Don’t forget your people are your most important asset.
This article appeared in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of Energy Manager magazine. Subscribe here.