Embedding sustainable development in Government Office for London

Client:
Government Office for London (GOL)
Start date:
January 2007
Completed:
March 2007

On behalf of the Government Office for London (GOL), Brook Lyndhurst undertook a consultancy exercise to explore the extent to which sustainable development is embedded into the operations of GOL.

Objectives
The exercise conducted with two main objectives in mind:
• To review the current status of sustainable development (SD) within the Government Office for London
• To identify opportunities for enhancing this status

Methodology
Against the framework set by these two broad components, Brook Lyndhurst undertook:
• A review of relevant documentation
• A series of semi-structured face-to-face interviews with senior GOL officers
• A facilitated workshop
• A set of internal brainstorming sessions

The project steering Group also played a valuable role in ensuring the successful conduct of the assignment.

Findings
The project findings were intended for use by GOL's management board. The final report briefly summarised the policy background to the work, gave an overview of the present situation, identified key themes for embedding sustainable development and provided propositions for further embedding sustainable development within GOL. In order to enable GOL to achieve its objective of mainstreaming sustainable development, we developed a set of final recommendations that included flexible options for different levels of change and a phased approach. The options took into account the organisational environment and particular opportunities and challenges faced by GOL with the aim of helping the organisation to take ownership of the improvements.

Project Director

Brook Lyndhurst Blog

  • Brook Lyndhurst in action: Coppicing for London Wetland Centre

    The main activity for this year’s corporate volunteer day was coppicing. For those who don’t know – which at the time included a couple of us, who met the news of our activity with blank faces - coppicing is to “cut back (a tree or shrub) to ground level periodically to stimulate growth.” On the morning of [...] 

  • How to get ‘generation snooze’ to use fewer resources

    This was originally a guest post from Brook Lyndhurst on the Green Alliance’s Green Living Blog: http://greenlivingblog.org.uk/  To use our resources more sustainably, do we ‘just need to wake up’? This is the suggestion from Generation Awake, an EU campaign fronted by three singing shopping bags, which was launched last month with the aim of making [...] 

  • Brook Lyndhurst success at CIWM awards

    It is not often that we at Brook Lyndhurst leave our spreadsheets behind and dress up for an awards ceremony, but we were proud and honoured to be informed that our Household Waste Prevention – A Review Of Evidence paper was to be awarded the James Jackson medal at the CIWM Professional Awards 2011. The [...]