Net Zero: “That there is a climate crisis is no longer in dispute…” was the opening comment from the NDA Chair of the Environment, Safety & Security committee of the NDA Board. All invited workshop participants and subject matter experts were in agreement, and there were some strong take-away messages from all sessions, not least of which was the pace of change required, and that each individual and organisation should insist on change and feel empowered to make that change without otherwise waiting for others. “We cannot sit back and wait for leadership from somebody else … we need to encourage Government by showing how serious we are about it”. Large organisations have made a start in assessing Scope 1 & 2 emissions, those caused by sources either owned or directly controlled by the organisation, and heat and power purchased for own use. However, we learned that Scope 3 emissions are potentially more impactful to measure, as these include upstream goods and services procured, or downstream products and services sold and can exceed scopes 1 and 2 combined.
A key message regarding establishing a robust, evidenced and transparent Net Zero pathway, is that offsetting any residual emissions through nature-based solutions, such as planting trees, is finite. We need to be removing carbon from the atmosphere. We learned that research shows ‘resistance to change’ is often portrayed as a bad thing in organisations, but they can also be a reaction to inappropriate means of change. People are not necessarily resistant to change, but resistant to being changed. Organisations are constantly in states of flux, so the key is not how to change them, but how to make the change in the right direction through three types of small but deep, cognitive and structural interventions. Performance metrics are difficult to apply against cultural change as they can have unintended consequences such as ‘gaming the system’. How we judge whether a change has been successful, and whether the positive effects outweigh the negative, varies according to an individual’s position and orientation. “All actions have costs and unintended consequences, but so do inactions. Deep change, even if uncomfortable, is necessary.”
Looking ahead to 2021
Looking ahead to this year, there are several areas to be worked on. The team are liaising with an international group of nuclear institutions to build a global nuclear decommissioning benchmarking capability. This international effort aims to implement the recommendations of a recent Nuclear Energy Agency Report, delivered by a Task Team led by the NDA. Once deployed, the benchmarking capability will enable the NDA to learn from peer organisations in the nuclear industry around the world how to optimise decommissioning scope, approaches and their cost & schedule.
Themes of common interest will continue to stimulate the sharing of insights between sectors, and the next themes that are being explored are Designing for Decommissioning, Sustainable Regional Economies and Governace & Assurance. To find out more about our work, please get in touch or check out the TotalDECOM website material are hosted at the following link: Cross Industry Collaboration – TotalDECOM
Cross-industry Learning is a perpetual journey with no final destination. The journey can however be full of successes - successful outcomes are when lessons learned are sought, applied, captured and shared; new ideas are embraced rather than resisted, and learning is a habit, not a project.
The great thing about cross-industry learning is that it is inclusive - everyone can participate! Remember to think about cross-industry during your day to day wok. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your industry is not as unique as you think, that your challenges have been faced by others and that perhaps colleagues in another industry will be able to add enormous value to your enterprise with a key insight, freely shared. It may be over 2 decades since BT’s “It’s good to talk” commercials hit our screens, but now more than ever it is just as relevant.