Supporting our grantholders: Environmental Placement

ContractCath Logan23/04/2015

This session

Aims of the Environmental Placement Pilot

• Projects which participated

• Outcomes

• Key successes and learning

New Environmental Placement Contract

Environmental Placement PilotThe Pilot programme was run between June 2012 and June 2013 by Bright Green Business after a tendering process.

BIG Lottery Fund wanted to ensure that through the Pilot programme, projects had:

1. A positive impact on the project’s environmental performance

2. A positive impact on the project’s economic performance

3. Increased awareness of the project’s environmental impact

4. Offered students the chance to gain relevant work experience and skills.

Environmental Placement Pilot9 BIG Lottery Fund supported Projects took part and each had a student (or two students in some cases) placed with them for 8 weeks / 40 days.

• Shirley Project, Inverness• ANCHO, Irvine• Rock Trust, Edinburgh • Voluntary Action Orkney• Glasgow Homelessness Network• LifeLink, Glasgow• Woman’s Aid South Lanarkshire, East Kilbride (2 P/T)• LAMH Recycle Ltd, Motherwell (2 P/T)• Up-2-Us, Dumbarton

Key Successes and Learning from the Pilot

• Students were more beneficial than a consultant • Each business that took part was left with something useful to take forward• All staff / volunteers / users had a stronger understanding of environmental issues. • Flexibility in the placement types to suit each organisations needs was important.

Planning the student projects well, choosing the right candidates and making sure there was someone to support the placement within the company were key aspects of ensuring a successful student project.

All felt that the students brought a new skills and enthusiasm into the business that made the projects even better.

Survey of organisations

The organisations involved in the pilot were surveyed and100% of the companies surveyed said they would recommend this Pilot Programme to other organisations looking to reduce their environmental impacts and increase environmental awareness.

Biggest Benefits of Placement

Quotes from Host OrganisationsDon’t look at this and think it has nothing to do with you – it

does! Use it as a shared, supportive, learning experience, involving service users/customers and staff, which can be incorporated in to the daily activities of your organisation and individuallyWomen’s Aid South Lanarkshire.

Kirsty was able to bring a focus to the environmental issues of the organisation in a way that had previously been lacking. One of the aims was to show how working in an environmentally friendly way could benefit the business and this was achievedThe Shirlie Project.

This has proven to be an excellent project for the organisation helping to put the building blocks in place for an appropriate and sustainable environmental management system where all staff and volunteers are fully aware of both their individual and organisational responsibilities. It will make us a more effective and efficient operation and would not have been achieved without the support from the Environmental Placement Programme.LAMH Recycle

Quotes from Students

“

EPP has benefitted me greatly by giving me the chance to work in a real working environment and taught me how to deal with challenges that you can face. It will certainly help me when I graduate as I have the experience of implementing an Environmental Management System and working with a variety of peopleClare Tait, LAMH Recycle

I have also been able to get a business perspective on being environmentally friendly and have seen first hand how cost effective it can be. I feel I have also bettered my time management and communication skills, improved my confidence in showing initiative and taking a leadKirsty Macdonald, The Shirlie Project.

Through my placement I have developed my communication skills and research skills. I gained valuable environmental knowledge and I became familiar with ISO 20121 and ISO 14001 and hopefully it may also have helped me secure a career with experience being invaluable when applying for jobs.Sean Pearson, ANCHO.

New Environmental Placement Contract

• Scotland Committee, on conclusion of the successful Pilot agreed to a 3 year contract to support 30 student placements over 3 years

• The Business Partnership were successful in tendering for the new contract

New Environmental Placement Contract• The contractor will work with grantholders to

identify their environmental aspects and impacts, discuss the key areas the student(s) with be required to address and the type of person they think would fit within their business

• The contractor will formulate the project specification and advertise to students. A shortlist of students (3 – 5) will be presented and grantholders will interview from this list

• The contractor will provide a mentor to support the student(s) throughout the placement and students will be paid a living wage by the contractor for their placement

• Grant holders will be required to offer accommodation for the student and commit to support the aims of the contract

• We will be issuing a call for Expressions of Interest to current Investing in Communities grant holders for the first cohort of 10 projects (2015/16)

• Each placement will be built around projects and their needs, with a real focus on implementation and achievements for grant holders

Next steps