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SCOTLAND has set a goal of achieving Net Zero by 2045, but one company wants to do its bit within the next three years.

See Change, a specialist in project sponsoring, traffic consulting, and sponsor training and coaching, is looking for Land to make it easier to offset its CO2 emissions in order to reduce this offset to zero by 2030.

CEO Carol Deveney started the company three years ago after a career in urban renewal. “My career over the past few decades has been focused on projects that are environmentally sound, so frankly it would have been bizarre for me to run a company that wasn’t at the core,” she said.

Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, the company has grown to include three full-time employees, four associates and two freelance consultants. “You have to do the work that adds value to the world, that’s a core value of business. So, right from the start, we made a decision not to work on fossil fuel extraction projects or with clients involved in armaments and defense systems.

“We are not working with new nuclear projects. We accept the short-term financial disadvantage in order to do the right thing in the long term. Most of our clients are in the public sector, so they typically have an expense policy that states that anyone who works for them on an advisory basis must choose the cheapest means of travel.

“That would mean if I had to fly from Glasgow to London for a meeting, an EasyJet or Ryanair flight would be the cheapest, but I know that it is actually the most expensive for the environment. So we always take the train domestically, and if this means that we have to subsidize the difference, we will actually only compensate for this short-term financial loss because we consider the total cost of living for the environment. ”

This policy has worked well with customers who are often bound by public sector regulations. It creates trust that See Change lives its values ​​and offers a better price-performance ratio in the long term.

This approach to financial cost versus cost to the planet is something that permeates every part of Carol’s business.

Most public sector projects need to add value to the taxpayer, so it is something that See Change builds into its advice to keep the focus on costs over the life of the project. “If you want to see the model change, you have to consider the carbon emissions and also the cost to the people,” said Carol.

She advocates reviewing the commitments on a monthly basis. The plan is to be a net zero company within a few years and any carbon emissions they haven’t cut will be offset by planting their own forest. This offset is also to be reduced to zero by 2030.

With travel restrictions during the pandemic, everyone had to find a way to work remotely, which had a lasting impact on business practices.

The need to print documents and use amounts of paper for meetings has almost disappeared, and Carol has also invested in tablets to further reduce paper usage. But it’s not just about reducing resources. “I think one of the things we do is we actually work with other companies in smaller communities,” said Carol.

“Sustainability, for me, is about the fitness of the local economy.” A £ 1,000 donation to a local school helped fund outdoor learning equipment so children can spend more time outdoors where there is a risk of the spread of Covid is less. Another donation went to the crowdfunding campaign for a Millport gin distillery called ‘Nostalgin’ because it was started by an all-women team trying to raise funds to support the campaign to save Millport’s historic town hall . The sight of the company name on a blackboard on the wall inspired Carol to keep getting involved and the company plans to support plans to release new gin products.

The ultimate goal is to bring about long-term change by consulting See Change. Working primarily on transport projects means that there is usually already an appetite for sustainability to be a priority, but often the company helps them think beyond the obvious.

“Among other things, we encourage them to think about how they can involve marginalized groups in the design process,” said Carol. “The big thing that we make people think about is actually how you create your policies and drive your sustainability instead of just having one sustainability policy that you try and apply to everything. The big push we have is asking questions in your supply chain because at the top of the supply chain it is hired by customers. I know from years of working with large companies in the UK, US and Canada that your supply chain will respond to demands – and if you turn a blind eye, they will accept it. ”

“It’s more than just reducing, reusing, recycling to see it, you have to look at it much deeper and people are generally open to it, it’s really very rewarding. You need to see that these are things that would lead to more sustainable results for you. Not that many people actually come to work, especially in the public sector, and they don’t want to do a good job or see any better world. ”

Where See Change tries to encourage change are practical examples that have worked in other projects. When customers are presented with an option that has proven itself with successful results, it will be easier for them to adopt it. “For a transport customer, we say that when you create a new station you should think about how people could use active travel to get to that station. “Or in the case of excavations, as part of the larger project, we will find uses for this soil instead of paying a lot of money to dump this soil. It costs the customer less and is more sustainable. It’s really common sense. ”

See Change wants to support the positive cultural change in the transport sector by advising on how to build more sustainably

Project sponsors put the public sector on the right track

Ensuring a positive environmental impact assessment for a project is a goal of many public sector projects and a project sponsor can be an effective solution.

It’s a different proposition than a project manager, whose job it is to manage the time, cost, and quality of a project. A project sponsor is there to manage governance, funding, and stakeholders, and often focuses more on the benefits of the results than the results themselves.

See Change is the UK’s only specialized sponsor trainer and coach and has also introduced the concept to the Canadian market. “Before I started See Change, part of my job was doing the environmental impact assessment of a major rail project, and that’s when my interest really got piqued,” explains Carol. “I qualified as an environmental management assessor and am really interested in getting involved in these projects, how things can be made more sustainable, both in terms of implementation and results. Building a railroad used to be seen as a sustainable project in itself, but now, as an industry, people are actually starting to realize that the way you build can be even more sustainable. ”

As many of these practices become the norm, a culture change is underway. “I remember that on a project we did for the Borders Railway, number one on the BBC news website that week was the work we were doing protecting bats,” she said. “It was fun because the exciting news for us about the project was all about the viaducts and all the work we were doing, but from the public point of view they were much more interested in how we manage the ecology sustainably. “That was a big lesson for me as a project sponsor. If it is important to you and you make sure that it is part of the project team’s performance, then it is because you are the customer for the project team. ”

The need for a specialized sponsorship training organization became apparent when Carol bought the service as Head of Professional Sponsorship and started looking for personalities. All she could find was behavioral trainers, nobody specializing in that field. After a period in Canada, she returned to Scotland and started the company she had always been looking for. It seems like a good move as the demand for See Change sponsorship training has been consistently high. “It’s a self-employed nightmare – you never want to turn down a job, just accept what you can deliver in really high quality,” joked Carol.

“It’s part of building a sustainable company. We only work with partners and employees whom we trust and who can deliver the quality. We have to ask people to wait until we have room. ”To scale the business, Carol is working on a digital version of the product that will allow her to train people online in larger groups rather than individually. There are also plans to increase the number of employees in the company.

“We just hired an apprentice graphic designer last year and we have two Kickstarter positions that we hope will become apprenticeships,” she said. “If you can ever create entry-level jobs for people, that is a big part of economic recovery and sustainability. I wish more small businesses knew that you are never too small to make a difference. If you are interested, we are happy to share our experiences with people. ”