Prioritising carbon reduction in UK public sector flood and coastal risk management

The UK construction industry has seen an overall increase in CO2 levels from 1990 to 2017 (Statista, 2020), with UK public sector Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) having contributed to this increase. The establishment and development of organisational systems and culture is well documented within current literature, along with the influence it can have upon the embedding of new initiatives. The UK construction industry has demonstrated little progress on embedding low carbon practices. This study investigates the prioritisation of low carbon, in the context of UK public sector FCRM construction, through the implementation and development of a whole life carbon planning tool (WLCPT). The research adopts a main survey and action research activities as its research strategy within a UK public sector FCRM organisation. The survey was undertaken within a leading government organisation, where its role in implementing, prioritising and promoting low carbon is investigated and a number of action research activities have been undertaken to improve practice, with the outputs from the WLCPT utilised for analysis. The main objectives of this study (survey) investigated whether demography of participants (OB1); organisational change (OB2); organisational leadership (OB3); quality of training (OB4) and organisational culture (OB5) influences low carbon prioritisation. The action research objectives of this study investigated whether cost (OB6), quality of implementation of a WLCPT (OB7) and type of training (OB8) influence tonne of carbon and whether low carbon promotion influences organisational culture (OB9). The key findings infer, null hypotheses cannot be rejected, there is no relationship for OB1, OB3, OB6, OB7 and OB8. For OB2, OB4, OB5 and OB9, the null hypotheses are rejected; there is a relationship between the variables within this study. This research study has made an original contribution to knowledge, through ‘research in action’ how a WLCPT can be implemented within a client construction organisation and its supply chain; how continuous improvement can be undertaken; what works, what doesn’t and the reasons why. This key contribution builds upon limited information currently available on how to implement low carbon initiatives and tools, providing an insight on how to make the implementation of a WLCPT more efficient, building on knowledge by promoting and sharing a common message. The action of implementation to build up knowledge, is through the contribution to publicly available information in terms of a WLCPT, training, case studies and factsheet. Along with a ‘collaborative democratic partnership’ with the organisation and its supply chain is evidenced; how they were part of the cyclical process outlined; how they engaged with the choice of research and the knowledge, becoming part of the knowledge solution. Through the ‘sequence of events’, approach, trial and error and review to problem solving in a complex adaptive organisation, the maturity of the organisation on the journey is not only about evidence through outputs, but practical steps to implementation with learning outcomes. This thesis reflects the changing nature of low carbon solutions within UK public sector FCRM construction and the role the author has played in its development. It offers an understanding of challenges in implementing new systems and processes within an organisation and its supply chain, and is directly related to wider learning across industry. The processes of thinking, acting and making sense of author’s work, the narration of the processes and the changes that have taken place in author’s actions, show how low carbon knowledge can support a Complex Adaptive System (CAS), providing practical evidence to support complexity theory; this utilises continued improvement loops of positive and negative feedback that is always being reformulated, reworked and continually improved upon, in order to achieve the aim of the study. The gaps and imitations within this study challenge the thesis findings, whereby the process of quality of implementation of WLCPT and type of training are diminished due to the consistency in governance and compliance at both project and contract level. The action research outputs also challenge the results for OB6 whereby the unit ‘tonne of carbon’ does not influence cost. The basis of the test is the utilisation of the organisation’s cost data and outputs from the WLCPT, where the initial and final cost and carbon data is analysed. The initial cost estimate is primarily based on initial budget allocation and not a defined or formal cost estimate, therefore the results identify no relationship. However, evidence from the WLCPT supporting documents, utilised for knowledge sharing and training, identify through case studies a clear correlation that low carbon does leads to low cost and therefore a relationship is identified.