DESARROLLO HISTÓRICO.

Through representation on ESC’s board of executives, funders, community partners and suppliers from the Birmingham area (as well as other areas) were able to actively negotiate their own particular interests into the organisation’s characteristics. Observations at board meetings and management team meetings show how different influences and interests described below were discussed and then translated into organisational changes such as increased attention to the skills and training provision of suppliers they work with, recruitment of (perceived) ‘better’ sales staff and improved financial reporting tools, and simplifying surveying methods for better communication with householders. Some examples of these relationships are given below.

Northfield Ecocentre

“We give them customers, that’s the deal. And later on we might help them with other bits of the customer process as well.” – Commmunity member 1

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Northfield Ecocentre is an environmental community organisation promoting and encouraging sustainable living in and around the South Birmingham. It employs two domestic energy assessors and prior to working with the ESC it was already engaged in outreach to households providing home energy assessments and linking households to previous government retrofit schemes Warm Front, CERT and CESP. ESC contracted Northfield Ecocentre to promote and market its services during a pilot phase between January and April 2012, in which its targets were to generate leads leading to twenty retrofits.

Working through community organisation Northfield Ecocentre defined the scale and space in which ESC was working, simply because of the capacity that Northfield had and the location it was in, where it was already doing energy efficiency work with householders:

“Where we work depends on who our partners are. So with Northfield it’s generally South Birmingham, or a large part of South Birmingham” CEO

For example, this resulted in the two competition winners, who were found through the Ecocentre’s outreach, being located in Northfield.

The ESC’s relationship with community groups also changed as a result of working with Northfield as its first community partner. After the pilot period ESC created a simpler ‘deal’ for community groups and also realised that it could not rely on one organisation in an area. Furthermore, Northfield Ecocentre’s close links to householders brought feedback to the board about the frustrations of householders who had been contacted as part of the marketing strategy but left waiting for further information, or who had been given a quote but were confused about the rest of the process, such as who was going to do the works for them. Their presence on the board brought particular attention to the ‘customer

experience’ and influenced changes to the ESC’s strategy which were intended to make the link between the sales and delivery parts of retrofit much smoother for the householder.

Other local networks

A local business network connecting social enterprises involved in energy related work (BSEEN), and the Localise West Midlands (LWM) network of community organisations, businesses and local authority representatives, were also helpful for ESC, making the

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connection between the CEO and Northfield Ecocentre, as well as the local installer members described below, and with local environmental community groups Kings Heath Transition and Balsall Heath is my Planet, who signed up to provide the ESC with

householder referrals.

Local installers

Birmingham based installer members Jericho Construction and New World Solar both became involved with the ESC because they felt that their organisations and the ESC shared a value position in terms of a commitment to developing local supply chains and avoiding working with large commercial entities such as Carillion and some of the big six energy companies:

“We hold a strong belief in integrated local supply chains instead of these big companies screwing the little guy all the time and energy saving co-op really get that. We also believe that jobs are really a way of strengthening communities and preventing anti-social behaviour and we’re really committed to helping

disadvantaged jobseekers – you know, it’s a bit like ‘get a job, or go on the rob’, and I like to think this industry might be able to help stop people going on the rob!”

Installer member 1

These members also brought particular issues to the table and represented the interests and perspectives of installers with practical experience.

“We tell them how it is from the supply chain point of view – this process really needs to be installer led as the advisors just don’t have the technical expertise that we have.” – Installer member 1

However, they also got involved to represent training and unemployment as an issue and make sure this was at the forefront of any strategy that is being developed in the

construction industry.

“One of the main reasons that I’m there is to wave the banner for trade and

employment in industry. Jericho’s core mission is about employment and training and providing opportunities to people who have been disadvantaged in the labour

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market. So I’m there to make sure there’s a strong focus on employment and training in the business as it develops.” Installer member 2

However, one of the key tensions in the relationship between ESC and its installer members is that these installers became members on the expectation that they would get installation work, but this expectation was not realised and both installer members grew increasingly frustrated at the slow progress ESC was making in terms of converting leads to installations, ending up feeling like they were doing the ESC a favour by being on the board of directors and providing advice, without receiving much in return.

“I’m disappointed really… I don’t like to use that word because I’ve been involved since the start but it’s just been much slower than I expected. We trained ourselves up on the technology, got ourselves into the supply chain and then… Where did it all go wrong? I haven’t done a single solid wall [insulation] job since last year when we did the demonstrations, none from Birmingham Energy Savers and none from Energy Saving Co-op either.” – Installer member 2

Midlands Co-op

As the ESC’s main funders, Midlands Co-op had a significant impact. Their presence and contribution contributed to the focus of the business initially being in Birmingham and its surrounds, and also meant that internally in board meetings as the main funder with the biggest stake, the Midlands Co-op board member largely took the lead in holding the management team to account, quizzing the ESC CEO and Chair about progress and

persistently focussing discussions on profit and sales targets. This prompted a strategic shift within the ESC in prioritising sales activity and recruiting staff to support this. However, as the ESC continued to struggle to meet its financial projections and reduce its losses during the latter half of 2013, the Midlands Co-op board member was losing faith in the ESC as an investment. This meant that the decision to continue to fund a struggling business was under pressure in and of itself, and because of additional scrutiny from the broader co- operative group under the conditions of a reputational crisis and group restructuring. The Midlands Co-op’s decision to withdraw funding from the ESC and additionally not to buy the business when it became insolvent ultimately resulted in its demise and the ceasing of trading.

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Birmingham Energy Savers

The relationship with the large Green Deal scheme Birmingham Energy Savers (BES), led by Carillion in partnership with Birmingham City Council was somewhat conflicted. There was a certain dependency on the presence of BES in terms of the awareness of retrofit that it raised in the city-region, but there were some customers, local installers and community groups that were uncomfortable with BES because of concerns over power and

representation. This tension is represented perfectly in this perspective from one of ESC’s community members, who also worked with BES:

“The better situation is definitely the co-op because we are an equal partner and we have a say in the rules. But we wouldn’t be involved in Green Deal at all if it wasn’t for BES. The overall picture in Birmingham would look very different” – community member 1

Generally speaking, both the leaders of BES from Birmingham City Council, and the ESC shared a viewpoint that they supported each other’s goals and aims, but that they were not interested in working together due to fundamental differences in their approaches. Indeed, both parties alluded to ‘healthy’ competition being a positive thing for progressing in retrofit in Birmingham.

“Birmingham is big enough for both models as long as they’re both looking after the customer” – Birmingham Energy Savers manager, Birmingham City Council

“On BES my position on Birmingham Energy Savers has always been very clear – we are trying to achieve the same thing. We will work alongside them but not get subsumed by them. Our structure and our process is better, we just need to prove it.” – ESC CEO

However, this situation resulted in a compromise in ESC’s strategy in terms of how it wanted to work, having identified a supportive council as one of its important strategic priorities in areas it worked in. In Birmingham this was compromised in favour of other factors such as core funders the Midlands Co-op’s preference for working in Birmingham, the strong supply chain presence, and the particular strengths of Northfield Ecocentre. As time progressed, it became evident that there were serious problems in the BES scheme,