Nomination of Environmental Practice @ Work (EPAW)

Contact: Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, FRSA: charlie@epaw.co.uk

Nominated by Prof Tim Lang, FRSA

EPAW has developed a pioneering Environmental Practioner Programme which consists of 100+ hours of free online learning activities which have inspired and will continue to inspire others at work to promote sustainable development1 The programme has been piloted in many small workplaces in North West England and through several larger companies working in partnership with a national trade union. EPAW aims to encourage implementation of sustainable development through:

    Recognising what work people can do to promote sustainable development;

    Rewarding employees with a nationally recognised qualification.

EPAW is a ‘bottom-up’ programme, believing that while senior management can set policy goals, it is not they who will deliver change at the coalface. EPAW targets people at work who have the flexibility to move around (e.g. supervisors, team leaders, union reps, as well as skilled workers and technicians). These people are the ‘drivers’ at work, who are relied on to transform policies into practice. By improving their underpinning knowledge and understanding of sustainable development issues and developing the necessary skills, participants can promote sustainable development in their work places. Environmental practitioners are able to work towards the ideals of Agenda 21[2] that highlight working together in partnership based on the principles of the “Rio Declaration [3] ” [4] , the first of which says “Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development”.

The Environmental Practitioner Programme was developed  to publicise 10 years of global stakeholder best practice for employees across the world. The authors helped write or deliver the UN’s International Labour Organisation Programme “Workers Education and the Environment”, the Commonwealth TUC Course “Trade Unions Handling Environmental Management Systems”, followed by “Environmental Awareness” training in companies and “Introduction to EMS” training for ISO14001, and finally the WHO European Healthy Workplace programme “Health, Environment and Safety Management in Enterprises”. Environmental Practice builds on the experience of these to provide Underlying Principles [5] and puts this wealth of knowledge into the hands of people who can put them into practice at work. Participants demonstrate how to reduce the environmental impacts of their work activities whilst balancing social and economic considerations. Participants learn to recognise sustainable development tools [6] at work, find sustainable development indicators [7] , set sustainable development targets to assess existing policies, and work with partners to make proposals to develop more sustainably. Some participants have been rewarded [8] for these skills by achieving a nationally recognised, vocationally related, qualification.

EPAW is simple. Anybody who has access to the internet, can go to the learning materials now at http://www.epaw.co.uk/. The materials are freely available online and take users on a journey through their environment at work, leading from environmental awareness through environmental risk assessment and good environmental practice to sustainable development. Users can pick their own route through the extensive text, (750+ screens), work-place activities, interactive games and quizzes, search engine and site map. Throughout the site, links are made to other relevant websites to help people find out about sustainable development @ work.