through combinations of on-site generation, purchasing GreenPower and/or direct renewable energy power purchasing agreements. Similarly, emissions from waste and vehicles can be reduced through proven technologies such as composting and electric vehicles, respectively, while residual, harder-to-abate emissions, such as those from flights, can be addressed using offsets. Despite these surface-level similarities, the details matter. How each net zero opportunity is designed and eventually implemented can provide a pathway for delivering additional complementary social and environmental value. Through this project, we explored a number of opportunities applicable to the campuses of the three participating universities, particularly UTS and Curtin. Several of these opportunities were further developed into case studies, which are included in the full report.
Process for developing a net zero plan Over the course of the project, we devised, applied and refined a process for developing an institutional net zero plan, as illustrated in the diagram below. Good strategy development should begin with a thorough understanding of an organisation’s character—i.e. its history, identity, goals, values, and purpose. This understanding is used firstly to aid with generating project ideas and stakeholder engagement, but more importantly as a means of defining ‘performance metrics’ for evaluating and refining project concepts. This is followed by a process of deep stakeholder engagement, through which a number of project ideas are generated. Project ideas from other sources, such as from other net zero strategies and existing organisational partnership and linkages, can also be added to the process. These project ideas are then grouped and filtered, reducing them to a manageable number of partially interrelated project concepts. Using the success metrics previously defined, an impact assessment tool can be developed for evaluating project concepts in terms of their ability to generate additional value beyond simply reducing GHG emissions, such as alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The impact assessment tool is used both to rank project concepts, but also to help refine concepts during the process of transforming project concepts into business cases so as to maximise this additional value. A key part of the process is the parallel development of a ‘net zero narrative’, tailored for the organisation in question. The purpose of this narrative is to help explain not only what the net zero plan will entail in terms of projects and their business cases, but how they fit the organisation’s mission and purpose, and why the organisation should embrace them. The narrative development process is informed by the success metrics and the organisational character from which they are derived, in addition to the project business cases themselves. The narrative also helps to inform the business case development process. In the final net zero plan, these two pieces—the net zero narrative and the project business cases—come together, each supporting the other. The final stages of the process involve further stakeholder engagement to refine the net zero plan, before the complete plan is approved, adopted and implemented. While our initial aim was to test the process through completion of the UTS net zero plan, work on this plan remains ongoing at the time of project completion.
The Green Wave: Adding value through net zero energy strategy
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