CASE STUDIES
IOM3
The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a major UK science and engineering institution and a registered charity governed by a Royal Charter.
IOM3 became signatories to the Pledge in early 2020. This case study focuses particularly on reducing their physical offices locations from four to two and transitioning site energy use to renewable energy.
Part One: Site Reduction
What did we do and what has been the carbon impact?
During the Covid-19 global pandemic we quickly realized that returning to the office in the way we had always worked was a thing of the past and made the decision to reduce our physical office locations in the UK from 4 to 2 in the later half of 2020. This reduced our carbon energy footprint by approximately 8.9tco2e by the end of 2021.
What are the key lessons you've taken from the process?
● This was a challenge, one site had a small cohort of our team that would have liked to go back to working from the office post pandemic but the space was just too large for such a small number of people especially with a return to our buildings on a hybrid basis. The second space was home to our library, the move to incorporate this in to one of our other sites was most sensible and provide better access, security and safety but the initial investment of having this moved professionally was expensive.
• Leadership support - Our Chief Executive and Trustee group have been very supportive in making the change to our library and the business case showing the payback within 5 years was worth the effort and investment. Some of the trustees were reluctant to close an additional office with freehold status but the proceeds of the sale will allow greater investment to further improve services at our other sites.
• Be brave. We knew it would be a challenge to get the team on board with closing down a site, they were concerned this meant a loss of their job, we had to make sure they knew the overall goal and that they were valued team members.
Would you recommend this to others?
Yes, in a post pandemic world our team like many others are only returning to their offices on a part time basis and large offices are no longer required.
Collette Marriott
Director of Business Support, IOM3
What is your number 1 recommendation for others?
Changes that affect people are always the most difficult. Fully engage the team in the whole process from early thinking, including them in consultations get their ideas and feedback to gain the optimum level of employee buy in.
Part Two: Renewable Energy
What did we do and what has been the carbon impact?
We wanted to ensure that energy for our IOM3 head office is 100% renewable and move away from a reliance on brown energy. This has reduced our annual energy CO2 emissions for our London office from 25.1tCO2e to 0 in under 2 years.
What are the key lessons you've taken from the process?
• Yes, engaged the use of an energy broker to support us in looking for the most cost-effective renewable energy deals in the market.
• Leadership support - Our Chief Executive and Trustee group have been very supportive in making the change to renewable energy and are keen for us to do more in this area. We are now in the process of changing energy suppliers at our other site and changing the heating and cooling systems in our head office to an air source heat pump to provide resource efficient low carbon heating and cooling and removing our reliance on natural gas.
• Be brave. We needed to engage with other stakeholders in the organisation and finance that initially green energy would be more expensive than our previous providers but that that overall impact both on our carbon footprint and customer engagement would be better.
Would you recommend this to others?
Yes – this was a simple easy way to quickly reduce the carbon footprint of your organization.
What is your number 1 recommendation for others?
Using a broker to support this process especially for SME was very helpful, the cost of the broker is carried by the supplier that you choose so no additional costs for the organization.