Peter A. Strachan

Wind Energy Policy, Planning and Management Practice in the UK: Hot Air or a Gathering Storm?

Strachan P. A. and Lal D. (2004) Wind energy policy, planning and management practice in the UK: hot air or a gathering storm?, Reg. Studies 38, 551–571. This paper is set within the context of the growing international wind energy industrial sector. The central focus is concerned with evaluating the UK Government and Scottish Executive’s renewable energy strategies, which to date have culminated in a distinct lean towards onshore wind energy expansion. Our interest in this area stems from the international debate on wind power which is now gaining momentum as a result of global and European climate management initiatives, and in particular from the fact that there has been much public opposition to new wind farm developments in the UK. The British experience differs to that in Denmark, and appears more akin to that of the Swedish experience, with the UK presenting an interesting case of the difficulties associated with implementing a ‘renewables’ strategy based on wind energy. The research focus in this paper is different to that mostly favoured in the international wind energy literature which typical focuses on the science and technology of wind farms or on providing an evaluation of technology-push and demand-pull public policies. Drawing on a thorough review of EU and UK governmental documents, the international wind energy literature, press reports, and recent empirical research undertaken in Scotland, our research considers the social impacts, including the public and perceived environmental impacts, of wind farm developments. Our principal research findings indicate that the UK Government and Scottish Executive are now facing a storm of protest from anti wind farm campaigners, and the extent of this opposition is now damaging the efficacy of the UK’s national renewables wind energy strategy. Clearly, this should be of concern to both the UK Government and Scottish Executive and, drawing on international experience from other countries, we conclude with strong policy recommendations towards the enhancement, the exploitation and the acceptance of wind energy in the UK. Areas for future research are also outlined.

ISO 14001: a case of cultural myopia

Under pressure from governments, public opinion and customers, organizations are setting more challenging environmental agendas. To deliver on these agendas managers and staff must refashion business strategies and production processes. In this context, ISO 14001 has been welcomed for appearing to detail the managerial and work arrangements that will enable corporations to exercise effective control over the implementation of environmental policies. The putative benefits of these arrangements include the identification of the obstacles blocking policy implementation – especially organizational barriers, the specification of realistic and monitorable goals and the means to align policies and programmes with those goals. In fact, far from enabling organizations to pursue what for them are groundbreaking environmental strategies, the management principles and systems detailed in ISO 14001 compound matters. The organization culture projected by these principles encourages risk avoidance, places a premium on tradition and precedent and discourages originality and creativity. ISO 14001 should be revised to incorporate participatory and more flexible systems of management: research suggests that such systems are more likely to trigger the required conceptual dynamic. Copyright

Managing transformational change: the learning organization and teamworking

The area of organizational learning and the learning organization is of burgeoning interest among progressive business organizations, educationalists and consultants concerned with transformational change in turbulent business environments. A key feature of this approach to learning and managing change is a focus on teamworking. Reviews the organizational literature and identifies the role of teamworking in building a learning organization. A challenge facing contemporary business organizations is to redefine and change their organizations in such as way as to be consistent with the learning organization notion, but many difficulties remain to be articulated in the design of such organizations.

Achieving environmental excellence through effective teamwork

For many forward‐looking organizations establishing and maintaining good environmental management and the ability to demonstrate such practice has been achieved through the commitment of senior managers, effective leadership and teamwork. These are key aspects of any successful environmental management system. Focuses on the creation of environmental “green” teams by organizations recognized as being environmental champions and reviews the characteristics of effective teamwork in environmental management.

THE ECO‐MANAGEMENT AND AUDIT SCHEME: RECENT EXPERIENCES OF UK PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

The EU Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) was adopted by the Council of Ministers in 1993 and has been available for participation by organizations since April 1995. The EMAS requires organizations to formulate a comprehensive environmental management system which should ideally cover the entirety of the implementing organizations activities and operations. This paper discusses the EMAS and presents the findings of a survey of all the organizations currently accredited with EMAS in the UK. The survey was undertaken during the summer months of 1996 and reveals the early experiences of these pioneering organizations.

Should environmental management standards be a mechanistic control system or a framework for learning

Analyses the key aims of the recently formulated environmental management standards BS 7750, EMAS and ISO 14001, and then queries the efficacy of the management systems prescribed in their formal documentation. Isolates the various components of the standards’ management system and then considers whether or not the approach taken is appropriate for the attainment of their stipulated aims. Concludes that the environmental standards should be fundamentally revised and replaced with more participatory forms of management and organization that push a firm towards a learning organization mode.

Managing Green Teams : Environmental Change in Organisations and Networks

Introduction: Teams and the Management of Environmental Problems John Moxen and Peter A. Strachan 1. The Saturn Experience: Developing Habitual Routines in Manufacturing Teams Sandra L. Rothenberg 2. Corporate Commitment to the Natural Environment: Issues in a Team Approach Paul Douglas Keogh and Michael Jay Polonsky 3. Teamworking for Environmental Excellence in a University Context Sarah J. Cowell, Susan B. Hodgson and Roland Clift 4. Working with NGO Environmentalism for Land Reclamation Research Martin J. Haigh 5. Managing the Environmental Change Process: Barriers and Opportunities James E. Post and Barbara W. Altman 6. The Challenges of Internal Change Management John Moxen and Peter A. Strachan 7. Bulldozing the Green Wall: A Team-Based Approach to Integrating the Environmental, Health and Safety Function Kenneth W. Ayers and Timothy T. Greene 8. A Team-Based Approach to Graduate Education: The Minnesota Model James Perry, Sharon Anderson, Pam Davis and John Bryson 9. Managing Environmental Performance in the Organisation: A Participatory Model John Moxen and Peter A. Strachan 10. Postgraduate Team-Teaching for Central European Executives: Assessing Experience of the Environmental Training Project Zbigniew Bochniarz, Wieslaw Chodasewicz, Vilma Eri and Peter A. Strachan 11. Territorial Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Local and Regional Teamworking to Enhance the Environment Peter Roberts 12. From Environmental Loss to Environmental Gain: Multi-Disciplinary Teams in European Regional Economic Development Keith Clement 13. The UKs First Environment City Partnership: A Prototype Model for Local Sustainable Development? Ian Worthington and Alan Murphy 14. Teams in Local Environmental Action Planning: Case Studies from Central and Eastern Europe Elena Petkova and James Perry 15. Virtual Teams for Corporate Environmental Excellence Josephine Chinying Lang and Andrew Chinpeng Ho

Rescaling the Governance of Renewable Energy: Lessons from the UK Devolution Experience

Abstract Efforts to rescale governance arrangements to foster sustainable development are rarely simple in their consequences, an out-turn examined in this paper through an analysis of how the governance of renewable energy in the UK has been impacted by the devolution of power to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Theoretically, attention is given to the ways in which multiple modes of governing renewable energy, and the interactions between modes and objects of governance, together configure the scalar organization of renewable energy governance. Our findings show how the devolved governments have created new, sub-national renewable energy strategies and targets, yet their effectiveness largely depends on UK-wide systems of subsidy. Moreover, shared support for particular objects of governance—large-scale, commercial electricity generation facilities—has driven all the devolved government to centralize and expedite the issuing of consents. This leads to a wider conclusion. While the level at which environmental problems are addressed can affect how they are governed, what key actors believe about the objects of governance can mediate the effects of any rescaling processes.

Navigating a Minefield? Wind Power and Local Community Benefit Funds

When critically reflecting on the UK wind power programme during the past 20 years it is clear that renewable energy policy has played to the preferences of large corporate players, at the expense of local communities (Stenzel and Frenzel 2008). In light of the absence of widespread UK community ownership models around individual, farmer and cooperative arrangements, a number of local tensions have arisen in wind power deployment (Ellis et al. 2009). In the UK there is now an established literature which highlights that local communities often feel powerless when new projects are proposed by commercial developers (Devine-Wright 2010) during their dealings with government planning officials and in the appeals process, often over an extended period of time (Cowell et al. 2011).

Wind power: towards a sustainable energy future?

Energy has always been important for human societies, but across the world energy issues are now being given unprecedented priority by governments, communities and citizens. According to Zimmerer (2011: 705), energy is ‘far and away the most significant international resource system and political economic nexus’, not least because energy questions cross-cut so many other policy concerns. In his view, such issues are fuelling ‘a general social-ecological crisis of now major proportions’. Strong though this statement is, it is not an extreme or isolated assessment. The European Commission (2010: 1) describes ‘the energy challenge’ as ‘one of the greatest tests which Europe has to face’. Numerous factors have propelled energy to this position of high priority, but arguably there are three which stand out. The first is the rising prices of fossil fuels linked with concerns about ‘peak oil’ which together have focused the attention of national governments on energy security. The second factor is the international imperative of mitigating anthropogenic climate change. These first two considerations increase the importance and urgency of the third factor which is the need to modernise systems of energy provision in the face of almost universally rising energy demand. Additional and more positive reasons why energy is in the spotlight include the desire to capitalise on the economic benefits of harnessing renewable energy (Wood and Dow, 2011) and the potential (little realised thus far) for renewable technologies to contribute to sustainable economic development in rural areas (Munday et al. 2011).