Green or lean for local authorities why not both?
David Tryon
Director, Alsbridge plc
‘Going green’ is one of the hot topics at present and there is often talk of the higher monetary cost of many environmentally friendly solutions. But I would contend that local authorities in particular are missing a trick here and that ‘going green’ can in fact be good for business as well as the environment.
Many of us on the slightly cynical side have looked at the justification for re-cycling and bi-weekly bin collections as being driven as much by a council’s desire to save collection and processing costs as by the positive impact that it undoubtedly has on the environment. So why not take this a stage further and apply the same logic to the rest of the business of the council?
For instance, how many council desks are unoccupied for large parts of the working week whilst being heated (or cooled) and powered? My experience is that most local authorities still operate on the basis of one to one desk to staff ratios whereas the private sector realised many years ago that ratios of six or seven to ten are perfectly workable so long as they are under-pinned by the appropriate level of IT capability and effective cultural change programmes to help staff move to flexible working arrangements such as ‘hot-desking’. In simplistic terms, this represents a potential for 40% energy savings straight off but from a financial perspective this doesn’t just save energy costs but also up to 40% reduction in the property portfolio.
The concept can be extended further so that staff can become not just flexible but mobile – i.e they are able to work from whatever location they happen to be in. This might be from the office of a complementary public service provider such as a PCT, from a supplier location, or even from a citizen’s front room. This allows for significant reduction in unnecessary travel so providing considerable environmental benefits. However, working in this way also provides significant financial benefits – not just from an estates perspective, but also through productivity increases and improved staff working experience (who enjoys wasting time driving into the office just to pick up E Mails or work allocations?).
There are many other initiatives that can produce both significant environmental and financial benefits. Video conferencing has now evolved to a level where it is almost as good as being in the same room as the person you are talking to. Increased use of this functionality clearly further reduces the need to travel around the country, but it also reduces the expense of travelling both in monetary and productivity measures. Similarly, moving towards storing data centrally rather than on desktop PCs allows for the introduction of energy efficient ‘thin clients’ on the desk top whilst also allowing significant reductions in the cost of bulk data storage (compared to local data storage),enhanced security and protection for that data.
All of the above depend on appropriate levels of IT to support their implementation but this is not bleeding edge technology and has been well proven and established for many years in most non-public organisations. Indeed, some in the public sector are now enthusiastically embracing these concepts and have implemented the appropriate and extensive cultural change programmes to embed these new ways of working into their organisations. I met one CEO of a County Council recently which has reduced their estate from 53 buildings to three by implementing flexible working. Should this not be a benchmark for others to aspire to and should not we, as citizens of this planet and council tax payers, be demanding that all local authorities start to move in this direction?
About the author
David Tryon is a Director with Alsbridge plc, the independent advisors on outsourcing, shared services and offshoring. David can be contacted on +44(0)20 7242 0666 or email david.tryon@alsbridge.eu.
Contact
How can Alsbridge plc help you?
Please get in touch to discuss your business needs.
Europe Head Office:
+44 (0)20 7242 0666
Email: enquiryEUR@alsbridge.eu
US Head Office:
+1 (214) 696 6410
Email: enquiryUSA@alsbridge.com
