Working to address climate change is one of the Policy and Influence Team’s priorities. Below you can see the work we do at Macc surrounding this topic, and learn more about how you can take action towards a sustainable future.
We are not experts in this field but understand the urgency of the matter. We’d like to help others while are on the journey ourselves. If you want to get in touch to discuss any of the matters concerned on this page, to connect, or to give any feedback/ideas for improvement, please email [email protected].
To receive updates on climate policy developments in Manchester, sign up to P&I Shorts where we share updates from Manchester City Council’s Environment, Climate change and Neighbourhoods scrutiny committee meetings.
We try to reduce our jargon; however, it cannot always be avoided. Please refer to the glossary at the bottom of the page for some definitions of climate-related language.
Macc's Climate Action Sub-group
Here at Macc, we are deeply committed to addressing the urgent climate crisis and taking meaningful action towards a sustainable future. To ensure we do this, Macc has formed a Climate action sub-group, where a group of staff members meet up to discuss what we can do to mitigate climate change, and how we can share our learnings from our environmental journey.
As a result of this group, Macc has recently entered onto the ‘Become Green Together’ programme, which is a training scheme in environmental sustainability for voluntary and community organisations.
The climate action sub-group is working on Macc’s Climate Policy Statement, which will outline Macc’s stance on climate change. This statement will be part of our ‘What Macc Stands For’ series. You will be able to find the statement here soon.
The sub-group has also produced a climate action strategy, which identifies what we can do on personal, internal (within Macc) and external (influencing the wider sector) level to reduce our impact on the environment.
Become Green Together
As part of the Become Green Together programme, we have been given access to the Smart Carbon Calculator which calculates our carbon footprint according to the relevant data that we input. We also work closely with their main partner, Investors in the Environment (iiE), that provides us with step-by-step processes to analyse our environmental performance and helps us set up a framework for making improvements across our whole organisation. By the end of the programme, we seek to achieve iiE Bronze accreditation after the assessment of our Environmental Management System (EMS) Evidence Pack.
How your organisation could take climate action:
We appreciate that many of us are lost when it comes to taking action towards reducing our organisation’s carbon footprint, so we have written a guide to help you start on your climate action, utilising iiE’s knowledge and resources that has helped with our own journey. This is for guidance only; some steps can be taken simultaneously, or you might find some steps are useful to complete before others. The most important thing is to start!
- Appoint your Green Champion, who will have lead responsibility for looking over the implementation of environmental actions.
- Form a Green Group that will help embed accountability and drive forward environmental improvement across teams and departments. (Even if you are a small organisation, developing a Green Team and getting everyone involved in supporting the climate action will help you promote and make a successful campaign easier to deliver and achieve the required results).
- Elect a lead (your Green Champion)
- Recruit those with an interest in the environment. Try to ensure good representation across company to get staff engaged on climate action
- Make sure the group meets regularly. Meetings’ agenda should focus on action plans
- See where staff have interests and ideas. Make sure there is opportunity for staff to feed in and engage with the group
- Conducting a staff survey might help identify staff attitudes towards the environment, what their motivations are and their eagerness to support the organisation in an environmental journey
3. Learn about the risks of climate change, understand the impacts of your organisation and potential greenhouse gases emissions.
4. Keep a copy of your work. Evidence is essential. This will be useful for funding applications, reports or any other assessments.
5. Create an Environmental Policy. It will show your organisation’s statement of commitments for reducing your environmental impacts and should drive sustainability throughout all areas of the organisation. It should be relevant to your current practices or service, by considering the impacts they have on the environment, either directly or indirectly. You can refer to this template from Community First Yorkshire or check out examples by NCVO and Voluntary Action Harrow.
- Be concise, write clear objectives
- Make the policy accessible to the whole team, share on your website and public-facing spaces
- Review regularly (annually)
- Make it relevant to your organisation and your practices
- Make commitment to legal compliances
6. Be sure to get top-level commitment. It is best if the strategy for the organisation and the environmental commitments are signed off by the management.
7. Identify the quick wins first. Whether this is through changes to actual structures or equipment, or making simple changes to process or behaviours, by implementing the quick wins first and making changes immediately, you can encourage continued action and potentially recruit others to get involved.
Top Ideas:
- Set up recycling at work, if there isn’t already
- Getting a smart meter
- Commit to ethical/sustainable responsible suppliers
- Consider hybrid working, reduce commuting by moving meetings online
- Choose plant-based/vegetarian catering for your events
- Increase your staff’s environmental awareness, promote sustainable practices
8. Have a clear strategy of what the group is trying to achieve. Demonstrating a clear strategy with achievable goals that focus on individual areas could make the entire process more manageable and easier for staff to take up.
- Make sure your set targets are achievable
- Credible and specific targets
9. Measure your current environmental performance and resources. This will allow you to identify priority areas for impact reduction. Consider the resources that have significant impact, and how easy it is to measure them. The more you measure and manage, the better your environmental improvement will be. Site energy use, and transport fuel are the first things people think about (often referred to as Scope 1 & 2 emissions) but your sources of indirect carbon emissions (scope 3 emissions) also need to be identified. These can include 3rd party transport; energy ‘embodied’ in your raw materials, components and packaging; staff commuting & homeworking emissions; emissions associated with waste management. There are many different online carbon footprint calculators, you can check out Smart Carbon, and Climate Stewards.
- Start with energy and water
- Continue on to waste, travel, paper or raw materials
- It is useful to record data at least quarterly (and perhaps include that action in your Action Plan!)
- It is useful to record data at least quarterly (and perhaps include that action in your Action Plan!)
10. Creating an action plan will provide clarity and focus, demonstrate progress, as well as give a sense of achievement. Community First Yorkshire have put together a step-by-step guide for writing your action plan.
- Set out actions to achieve targets that you set out in your strategy
- Assign actions to different staff members
- You need deadlines; short term, long term and some on-going
- Include start and completion date
- Do not overload too many actions at the same period. Perhaps focus on different topics per quarter
- Review and update the action plan regularly
11. Ensure good communication and engagement. Share your progress. Publicise staff involvement and activities through social media. Keep talking with all staff about the successes or intentions of the Green Group.
- Make it relatable
- Avoid greenwashing – make sure you can back up anything you promote
- Make sure to explain why you are doing it and why it is important
- Share your policy statement on your social media/website
- Present progress with senior management/board
- Ensure engagement with staff
- Include any pledges of change at work or in personal lives
12. Validate efficiency savings from improved technology/actions and keep going!
Resources
Financial Support
The National Lottery Climate Action Fund - Energy and Climate
More Information
Carbon Literacy Training
Carbon Literacy is relevant climate change learning that catalyses action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Literacy Project define being 'Carbon Literate' as having “an awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.” Please see some opportunities for Carbon Literacy training below, either for an individual or for your organisation.
- Carbon Literacy Training from Change Agents UK
- Carbon Literacy Training from Elevate GM
- Carbon Literacy Training from the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education
Practical Information
Climate Psychology Alliance is conducting Climate Cafés. It is a simple, hospitable, empathetic space where fears and uncertainties about the climate crisis can be safely expressed. Click here to learn more and check out their calendar for upcoming sessions
Find Climate action events across Greater Manchester, collected by Friends of the Earth Manchester
Check out Bee Net Zero’s guide: 10 Steps to Net-Zero by Bee Net Zero
NCVO’s Fuelling Positive Change Divestment Campaign
Climate Action Hub from Charity Digital has lots of tips and resources for the charity sector
Many toolkits and guides on community action from In Our Nature
How charities can find refurbished tech, and check your website’s sustainability through Website Carbon Calculator
Check your carbon footprint: WWF Footprint Calculator
Podcast: The state of climate action in the UK charity sector – how to bridge the gap between climate concern and climate action
Podcast: Measuring the impact of your efforts to be greener – how voluntary organisations can measure the results of their climate initiatives
Personal tips & fun, climate positive things to do in Manchester:
Choose Click and Collect. Many city workplaces report that half of all deliveries are personal parcels for staff. That is a whole lot of extra vans clogging up the city. Instead, choose to have your parcels delivered to a Click and Collect location near your home.
Try meat free Mondays (and maybe Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays too). Meat is a massive contributor to global emissions and climate change (FAO), and our demand for meat has caused hugely unsustainable farming practices around the world. By cutting down the amount of meat we eat, even just a little bit, we are helping to reduce emissions and encourage more sustainable ways of farming. Plus, veggie life can be just as healthy, nutritious and tasty!
Use natural ingredients for cleaning purposes. It will cut down on plastic packaging and will protect streams and rivers from chemical contamination. Check out 6 DIY cleaning products.
Know the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates. Use by is about safety, and foods can be eaten up until the use by date, but not after. Best before is about quality, and food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best in terms of texture or flavour. However, in many instances, food will taste the same after its best before date.
Improve your home’s efficiency. Whether it’s by using heating controls or smart meters to make sure you don’t use more heating than you need; insulating and draught-proofing your home; or by switching to energy-efficient lighting and appliances.
Repair your stuff at Boiler House Repair Café. Bring damaged or broken items (electrical items, clothes, furniture, bikes) and have experts help to fix them for free.
Check out Manchester's food groups. Manchester is home to an ever-growing variety of cafes, grocery shops, restaurants and growing spots that provide lots of locally sourced, healthy and planet friendly goodies for you to tuck into. Click here for some top picks in the world of veggie and vegan delights.
It all adds up. There are around 67 million people in the UK. If we all continue as we are, climate change will get worse. But if we each reduce our own energy consumption, even just a little, that would add up to a huge reduction in our national carbon emissions.
Climate Action Glossary
Anthropogenic refers to something that is caused or influenced by humans.
Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) as well as the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live.
Carbon footprint is the impact upon the climate of an actor or human population in terms of the net greenhouse gases emitted.
Carbon neutral means that any carbon released into the atmosphere from any actor’s activities is balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.
Carbon offset is a credit for emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases that can be purchased to compensate the greenhouse gas emissions of another actor.
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing, securing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Circular economy is an economic system based on the reuse and regeneration of materials or products, especially as a means of continuing production in a sustainable or environmentally friendly way.
Climate action refers to efforts taken to combat climate change and its impacts. These efforts involve reducing greenhouse gas emissions (climate mitigation) and/or taking action to prepare for and adjust to both the current effects of climate change and the predicted impacts in the future (climate adaptation).
Climate change refers to a large-scale, long-term shift in the planet's weather patterns and average temperatures.
Climate justice argues for a fair distribution of environmental goods and environmental bads between actors.
Ecosystem consists of interacting organisms, their communities, and their physical environment.
Environmental refugees are people who must leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change and global warming.
Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature.
Greenhouse effect is an atmospheric warming effect caused by the trapping of solar radiation in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases are gases in the earth’s atmosphere that trap heat, including carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour, nitrous oxide and ozone.
Greenwash is a pejorative term used to suggest that an actor is deceptively portraying its policies or products as environmentally sustainable.
Net-zero is similar to carbon neutral but is expanded beyond carbon emissions to all greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere. As with carbon neutrality, to reach net zero the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere must be equivalent to the greenhouse gases being removed from the atmosphere.
Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.