This is a guest post from Ele George - a project manager at Bromford. Ele is a sustainable design & construction specialist, a strategic thinker, a keen environmentalist and ‘eco-house self-builder’. She’s a self described optimist, low-carbon technology early adopter, innovation geek, and virgin blogger (until now)

Speaking about climate change and its impact on organisations can be pretty terrifying as you need to say some quite challenging things.

So it has been extremely rewarding talking to Bromford colleagues and the board - as they were so receptive to the fact that we need to make changes, and they were really engaged in how we can move ideas forward.

We’ve begun a conversation about how Bromford can provide assurance that we will meet the 2050 carbon zero targets. This is particularly important as we have to be able to respond to our stakeholders (like the local authorities we work with) when they ask us how we are responding to the climate emergency.

We’ve talked about what we need to start doing now.

We know people want to get involved and I have already been approached by colleagues and customers keen to take part which is absolutely brilliant that so many have ideas and passion. We definitely need to use this existing knowledge that we have in the Bromford business and build up a team of zero carbon champions.

People are really keen to start doing something, but we can’t just throw money or technology at the problem and expect it to work, that’s why first we need to establish our baseline emissions or put simply what is our current carbon footprint: For example;

What is our carbon impact of going up and down the motorway?
What about the combined impact of our vehicles?
How much carbon do our offices use?
How does this compare with emissions from heating our homes; and how does our old and new stock compare?
What about the embodied carbon of the houses we build? (that’s the carbon that results from the bricks and mortar)

But part of the problem is, we really don’t know all these answers yet, which is why we need to establish a baseline AND formulate a plan. When our plan is completed we’ll be sharing it for others to comment upon.

We’ve also begun to discuss the things we should STOP doing now and the things we can afford to leave to others. We identified and explored things like:

Stop being too passive and accepting the homes we buy from developers – we have very limited input into their design & low carbon credentials – is this right? After all we will own these assets and our customers will live in them for many years
Should we stop building in unsustainable locations, like in areas prone to flooding or green fields and away from public transport?
Lots of technology like smart energy networks and gas free boilers are being developed – we need to leave this to the experts but should look to influence their introduction as ultimately we can benefit from their entry into the mainstream

I collaborated with super-sketcher Adam Boyes, to produce a sketchnote of why we need to consider carbon reduction in a holistic way, rather than looking at the issues in isolation.

We can’t solve climate change – we can only change what we are in control of. But there are some things we can reasonably influence – and without a doubt this will be easier to do in collaboration with like minded organisations who want to share knowledge, but also we can share the risk and hopefully, the rewards!

Speaking about the changes we need to make to protect our environment can be a tough gig as it involves tough choices.

It’s a lot easier when I visit schools and talk to children about sustainable design or climate change. Maybe it’s because children are generally open to the ideas of doing things differently and don’t worry about the usual barriers that the grown-ups think up like the cost and risk. Maybe that’s why young Greta and the Fridays for Future movement is so successful. They aren’t put off by the challenge!

Another reason this is a tough gig is because no one wants to hear that they’re failing, that they’re not doing enough. But unfortunately the reality is we aren’t, or we haven’t, done enough.

I know that some people think we don’t have time for this climate distraction… I’ve spent a large part of my 20 year career in the environmental sector and trust me I’ve heard this before. There is never a good time, or enough money for this. There won’t be until climate action is legislated for OR becomes economically incentivised OR is a differentiator to winning work, until then it won’t happen… but guess what, all of this is now happening.

We need to make the TIME, and we certainly now have the MOMENTUM.