Elaboración e interpretación de tablas

implemented green practices or initiatives. The aim was to capture any common changes and to form similar patterns of changes which occurred within the sample. Surprisingly, there were a lot of similarities that can be grouped broadly into five major categories. These categories are: policy and principles; awareness, empowerment, and buy-in; publicity; structure; and working stream and practices as illustrated in Figure 5- 2. Each of these major categories of changes is discussed in the subsections below.

Figure 5-2 Changes associated with the implementation of green initiatives/practices The Figure above presents the five categories of common changes associated with green transition within the participants’ companies. Descriptions and examples of these changes are presented next.

Changes Policy & principles Publicity Working streams & practices Structure Awareness, empowerme nt, & buy-in

114 5.4.3.1. Policy and principles

AR1 from the architect group stated that “in your article of association and the manifesto of the business that you start with that [referring to green] as a first principle positioned in every respect and that what we are trying to do.” He argued that if a company starts with that mind-set it will be more beneficial than absorbing the green agenda as it comes. Therefore, green has to be the principle for doing business in every respect. Companies need to position themselves as a green organisation which means making the green agenda internally driven therefore it becomes the mainstream practice of a business.

A green journey is usually initiated as a reaction to growing risks which can be regulations and uncertainties and it is characterised by discoveries. From the interviewees’ answers, the internalisation of green issues can be achieved by two decisions or approaches. Firstly, an ethical decision responding to the overwhelming scientific data about climate change and environmental degradation. Secondly, a market decision to seize the green opportunities and demonstrate proficiency levels in offering green solutions. Alternately, a company may internalise the green issues by a combination of the above two approaches.

5.4.3.2. Awareness, empowerment, and buy-in

There was consensus that relevant training and in-depth knowledge related to green issues were major changes in companies to increase the level of awareness among managers and employees. For example, the architects AR1, AR2, and AR4 have done different training to achieve lower environmental impact buildings such as looking at offsite construction and code for sustainable home assessor training. In addition, the training has to be updated to respond to the market demands because green issues are still evolving and developing. AR1 pointed out that architects need to change their approach to designing buildings in order to achieve a green building. They need to adopt a “fabric first” approach where they will establish “anchor information” related to performance of the building envelope, for example a U-value for the windows and roof can be established early in the design stage and has to be fixed until the construction stage. In addition, the participants felt there was a lot of collaboration between the internal business units both vertically and horizontally. The contractors gave examples where they have received bright ideas from their staff. They highlighted

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that staff were empowered to participate in the green transition. C3 from the contractor group stated “Most great ideas which may save money may improve the business, do not come necessarily from the sustainability team. We kind of help empower people but most of the good ideas and abilities come from staff. Basically they see a problem or challenge and they want to do something about it and they are empowered to do that.” This approach can be seen as empowerment for staff who can promote the green solution and this allows them to participate in finding innovative solutions.

An interesting finding of this study was that the professionals who are involved in green practices tend to think differently and find new ways to improve the environmental performance of their companies. They seem more eager to learn from others who are already mature enough when it comes to green.

5.4.3.3. Publicity

Within the sample, it was evident that companies were actively publicising and communicating the benefits and the outcomes of being green. The publicity was carried out internally by the company to get more people on board, and externally with clients. The participants highlighted that they started to promote the green solution to clients and that when a client approaches them, they offer a standard offer and also a green offer communicating all the benefits associated with the latter. This approach has helped clients to make an informed decision. Typical comments were: “we then publicised: this good for our environmental strategy and we said to people what we did and what the savings are.” Client (CL4). CL3 confirmed the same point: “I suppose it is better communicating the outcomes of sustainability to an organisation and if you are able to do that, it will increase people’s buy-in from the organisation, so it is a way of self- generating enthusiasm”.

5.4.3.4. Structure of the company

The company structure was changed by establishing a specialist unit or environmental/ sustainability officer’s position to drive the agenda with some sound professional approaches. Some companies have a dedicated unit and others have a dedicated individual. This merely depends on the size of the company. Not only can there be the specialist unit or individuals, but also some voluntary roles within the staff, such as an environmental champion and then it is made part of each individual’s job description. This view is echoed in other empirical findings in companies in which sustainability

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practices are contributing to profits and so called “Harvesters.” The findings reported lessons learnt, such as: Harvesters usually change the organisational structure or adopt new structures and establish the position of sustainability officer (D. Kiron et al., 2012). The participants reported another change in the structure where the operational units or individuals responsible for environmental sustainability have to report at the strategic level. In many cases there will be a strategic board manager to look after the operational levels.

5.4.3.5. Working stream and practices

Another vital change rests on changing the working stream and practice. The changing working practice can be by adopting a collaborative approach and embracing technology. Technology has a vital role to play in the changing process, such as sensor technology which can help achieve more efficient consumption of energy and water and influencing behaviour to promote a low carbon culture and efficient practices. The architects have provided an example where they adopted offsite construction as a new method of design because they believed it will provide better environmental performance.

In addition, one of the clients explained the way his company has changed the way of procurement, where they started to procure only from suppliers who match specific criteria, to ensure those suppliers are committed to the green agenda.

Furthermore, one of the contractors pointed to the change which results from adopting new ways of environmentally friendly practices. For example, his company is adopting zero waste and circular economy practices, therefore his company started to approach buildings differently and looked at ways to recover and demolish buildings in a way that is aligned with these new practices.

Companies started to change the way people work and operate by introducing more flexible working patterns to reduce the travel miles and by investing on online facilities for collaboration.

According to CS1, best practice will be by establishing key performance indicators and making them part of business measures and then developing some sort of carbon/environmental accounting which will be within the overall accounting system of the company. These measures are vital to move to a green solution or approach.

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Based on the aforementioned answers, the following can be suggested on how companies may change as a result of adopting green practices:

 Companies have to accept that moving to GBMs will bring significant changes to the way companies work

 Companies not only need to change themselves in response to environmental considerations, but they also need to become more collaborative with stakeholders inside and outside of the company

 The change starts from the strategic level (policy) to the operational level but it may be triggered by the people at the operational level

 The changing process needs to be constantly developing and companies need constantly to review their approach and find alternatives or best ways to deliver the green solution.

A key observation among the sample companies is that when these companies started to offer the green solution to clients, they started working on their own carbon footprint. Some of them moved to paperless documentation, some adopted the application of ‘re- use, recover, recycle’, and others changed their lighting to LED and converted their building to highly insulated buildings. This can be seen as an embedded benefit of the green solutions.