Introduces building a renewable infrastrucutre.

1. Building a Renewable
Infrastructure Framework
Sustainability East
Date: 20th / 21st June

2. David Webb / Sheryl French
Context and Introduction to CRIF

3. Catherine Howe
Complex problems need complex
solutions

4. What do we want to achieve
today?

5. What do you want to do?
• Learn from the CRIF • Discussion how to
Experience create a strong
• Explore best practice evidence base
ideas • Talk about planning…..
• Discussion Allowable • Discuss the potential for
Solutions the Green economy
• Talk about how to bring • Talk about how joint
people with you when work could work better
engaging

6. The Context
• After years of debate about the impact of
climate change we need this debate to start
changing mainstream behaviours
• The economics of the situation are now a
realistic lever for change
• You don’t want to just consult – you want to
engage people in change

7. Social Change: 18 year olds
85% Access the internet at home
61% access social networking sites at home
50% of their online time is via a mobile device
20% of this time is spent on social networking
95% of them feel confident as an internet user
And they trust the content that they find far more than other groups
They are used to having information and people at their fingertips
Source: OFCOM 2010 (
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/cmr/753567/UK-internet.pdf)

8. But its not just this demographic

9. New cultural values?

10. Behaviour Change
• There are two main options with respect to
behaviour change:
– Framing the options in a way which makes the
‘good’ choice more likely (yes…its nudge)
– Working with communities and networks to
embed behaviour changes in the local context
• Of the two, the second is more sustainable

11. What is a RIF?
• A Renewable Infrastructure Framework
provides:
– A technical baseline of the potential for
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Generation
– An estimate of the inward investment potential
for the area
– Practical steps to start to deliver this
infrastructure
– A delivery network to undertake these steps

12. Why do you need a RIF?
• Because large scale infrastructure projects are
hard – they are complex and they involve
diverse stakeholders
– You need an approach which will accommodate
the existence of diverse interests and views
– Building trust is essential and needs to be a stated
objective and not just a by product

13. Why do you need a RIF?
• Because to move forward you need to have a
common place to start
– Without a shared evidence base you are
hampered from starting to act – you debate the
facts not the actions
– Bringing people together around evidence
highlights areas of agreements and gives a factual
basis for disagreement

14. Why do you need a RIF?
• Because focusing on investment potential
unlocks capacity in the area
– Green Tech has the potential to be a high growth
industry with or without government support
– Energy security concerns offer up investment
opportunities and a catalyst for action

15. Why do you need a RIF?
• Because creating a network means you have
someone to take the work forward
– You can’t make this kind of complex change
without involving actors – over time – in your long
term purpose
– This needs a network of relationships and trust
and not just a single structure

16. Jonathan Galton
How the RIF Approach can help

17. Sheryl French
Who are the Stakeholders?

18. Catherine Howe
Project Methodology

19. What do you need in place to get
started?
• Senior political and non-political support
• Someone to champion the project
• The right project team
• An understanding of the level of ambition in
your area

20. Project Team
• We suggest:
– Well known and respected Officers who can
operate at senior and tactical levels in the area
and across organisations
– Highly credible technical experts who can describe
the technical baseline and investment potential
– Community engagement and communication
support who can help you shape the project
dynamically

21. Step 1: Find your Network
• We suggest a co-productive approach:
– Start by researching the groups, individuals who
are already active around this agenda and bring
them together
– Start this research online – its more cost effective
and more likely to help you reach beyond the
usual suspects

22. Step 2: Understand your context
• Be honest about the challenges that you face:
– If the political context is difficult then say so
– If you face local challenge then acknowledge it
– Describe and communicate this context to all the
participants
– Understand the level of technical knowledge in
the conversation
– Understand the level of ambition and targets

23. Step 3: Bring your network
together
• This is not a consultation – we suggest
building this framework with the people who
will use it
– Hold open meetings for the networks that you
have found
– Use these to shape the project approach
– Make sure they test and examine the technical
approach for the baseline

24. Once you get started:

25. Step 4: Create a technical
baseline
• The technical baseline has a number of
elements:
– It describes what is possible technically
– It filters this with respect to local planning
behaviours
– It describes different ways to reach your targets
– It describes the potential for inward investment

26. Step 5: Discuss it. A lot
• If you want people to use your RIF they need
to be involved in creating it:
– This is not a consultation – have open meetings
with a community led agenda
– Make sure that the baseline is agreed and
accepted – create the burning platform
– Use these events to start to describe the
implementation plans

27. Step 6: Use Digital
• A digitally led engagement strategy gives you
a complete and open record of your face to
face meetings and events
– Create a blog and talk about your progress and
what you have learned
– Create a record of your events so that people can
see that you have listened
– Acknowledge the contribution of the network

28. Why Digitally led?
• Its cheaper – costs per transactions are lower, set-up costs are lower and
amendments are low cost
• You reach more people - Digital will help you reach a different audience
to the usual suspects of engagement
• You need to be agile – you can adjust to changes of circumstances far
faster with a digitally led strategy
• Its easier to talk about difficult issues online – it gives voice to people
who are not confident in person and find meetings difficult and it can
provide an anonymous voice for difficult debates
• It fits your values – with a lower carbon footprint
• It lasts – you want to leave an ongoing conversation as a legacy of the
project

29. What does your online presence
look like?

30. Step 7: Bring it back together
• You should at this point have an accepted
technical baseline and suggestions for
implementation steps from the network
• You need to:
– Shape these into an action plan
– Start to communicate the process of political
agreement and the way to unlock resources

31. Step 8: Gather Commitments
• As you enter the decision making phase of the
project ask the network to commit to
implementation actions:
– Gather pledges and start to work in the
implementation
– Get public statements of the level of ambition
– Make it clear what the decision making process is

32. Step 9: Make Commitments
• Co-production is about all groups acting. As
you get pledges from the community you
need to start creating firm commitments from
political decision makers
• Ensure that you know how you will support
the network after the RIF is adopted
• Demonstrate some kind of reciprocity

33. Step 10: Make it happen
• At the end of this process you have not only
the RIF but a network of people ready to use it
• Don’t think of the end of the project as the
end of the process – look beyond this to the
network you have created
• Make sure that you know what happens next

34. Daniel Archard
Create the right information

35. Ian Walker
Providing reciprocity

36. Catherine Howe
Planning Exercise

37. What to do?
• Map the important people and organisations
in your network:
– Who are the decision makers?
– Who are the influencers?
– Who are the gatekeepers?
– Who are the experts?
– Where are the politicians?
– Who is missing?

38. An example….

39. Scope the project
• What will the major challenges be?
– Be Honest!
• What are your greatest assets?
– They may not be within your organisation
• What other initiatives can you connect to?
– Do you need to start something new?

40. And finally…..
• How will you create reciprocity? What do you
offer to the people who take part?

41. Catherine Howe
FEEDBACK AND WRAP UP

42. Interested in finding out more?
• You can find out more on the Sustainability
East Website (
http://www.sustainabilityeast.org.uk/) or by
contacting project partners:
• http://www.public-i.info (Catherine Howe)
• http://www.vercoglobal.com/ (Daniel
Archard)