Case study: Reps at US union IUE-CWA conduct award winning “treasure hunts”

A union-led greenworkplaces project in the United States won President Obama’s Champions for Change Award. It’s a welcome recognition of the role unions are playing in tackling climate change at work. The US communications union IUE-CWA won the award for training union members to identify energy efficiencies in manufacturing companies. In a pilot programme, front line workers conduct the energy efficiency “Treasure Hunts.”

“Treasure Hunts” use the expertise of the workforce to investigate energy and natural resource consumption. Typically, joint union-management teams visit a plant on a Sunday when it is shut down, measure energy and resource use, and then compare the findings with data on Mondays and Tuesdays. The teams comprise shopfloor reps, operations managers and the union team. They make two tours of operational and non-operational areas, though mostly focus on the operational part of the plant.

They find ways to save energy from industrial processes and in heating and lighting their workplaces. For a typical one-off investment of $34,500 in energy saving equipment, the programme saved three times that in annual energy bills ($97,500) and an average of 779 tonnes of CO2 emissions per project.

The union team has devised an energy recording spreadsheet to clearly show the outcomes of interventions made to cut energy use. This provides the kind of validation needed to convince company finance directors of the value and effectiveness of energy and water saving programmes.

The next stage for the union is to make this project operational across the IUE, starting with a training programme for 20% of shop stewards. The union has set aside around $1 million to fund the project, which receives no public funding support. Nevertheless, there are cases now where workers are receiving money benefits from the projects. And, the hope is to eventually even increase employment. IUE’s green and lean work, for example, has brought in 1,000 new jobs at General Electric alone.

The TUC is working with the European TUC (ETUC) to set up a European Green Workplaces Network. The network aims to exchange experience, build links between similar projects and to work together for a more sustainable Europe: go to www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/green-workplaces/etuc-green-workplaces-network.