Creating a Practical Sustainability Action Plan

Severn Wye Case Study

The Severn Wye Energy Agency is a charity dedicated to delivering energy resilience and sustainability for communities across the Wye and Severn rivers region. While their external impact is substantial, they were keen to ensure that their internal practices and policies reflected their environmental values.

Having previously worked with Livvy through the Creative Youth Network, their CEO approached Sustainable Sidekicks to support the creation of a sustainability policy and action plan, co-developed with a volunteer Sustainability Committee.

Brief

The aim was to develop a sustainability policy and action plan with the volunteer Sustainability Committee that would address the organisation’s environmental and carbon impacts, while being realistic and actionable for the wider team.

Objectives: 

Approach

The project began with a visit to the new Gloucester office to observe daily practices—from what was being purchased to how waste and energy were managed. As expected, the team had already made several environmentally conscious choices such as using Fairtrade tea and coffee, and oat milk powder to reduce packaging waste. At the same time, opportunities for improvement became evident, such as inconsistent bin use and energy inefficiencies related to hot-desking equipment.

Staff were also surveyed about commuting and homeworking habits, and were asked what changes they’d like to see internally. Their responses helped inform the agenda for upcoming Sustainability Committee sessions. 

The team met twice monthly for 90-minute sessions, each focusing on a specific impact area such as procurement, energy, travel or waste. The first session for each topic involved exploring root causes, systemic blockers, and brainstorming possible changes. For example, during the procurement sessions, it emerged that Amazon’s next-day delivery service had become a default, creating a culture of last-minute purchases that excluded local and more sustainable suppliers.

In the follow-up sessions, Livvy shared action suggestions drawn from previous discussions, which the team evaluated against factors like capacity, feasibility, and budget. As each topic was addressed, a sustainability policy began to take shape—clearly stating the organisation’s commitments and the practical steps needed to meet them.

Key Outcomes:

Guiding principles 

From team discussions, six guiding principles were developed to steer sustainability decisions across all impact areas. These included:

Climate change mitigation – Reducing carbon emissions and monitoring and measuring our impacts.

Maximising finite resources – Choosing products and materials for reuse and durability to keep them in use for as long as possible and to reduce waste.

River protection – With rivers in our title (Severn and the Wye), we will consider water pollution impacts. 

Reducing poverty – With our understanding of how poverty is created and maintained, we are taking steps to mitigate where we have influence e.g. choosing suppliers who pay a living wage.  

Supporting local – Making choices that support local industries in the regions we work in.  

Inspiring and empowering – Supporting our employees to reduce their impacts and inspiring our stakeholders by sharing our pro-environmental actions and initiatives.

These principles provided a shared framework for decision-making, grounded in the team’s values and goals.w opportunities to drive change.

Purchasing Approach

To tackle the habit of last-minute buying, the team decided to reinstate a stock inventory system and create a purchasing hierarchy based on the new guiding principles. Local suppliers would be prioritised, and a phased roll-out was introduced to reduce dependency on Amazon. Even before the plan was finalised, positive changes were already happening—including a shift to local coffee and milk suppliers in the Wales office, and divestment from a bank not aligned with their sustainability goals.

Supporting Staff

Recognising that systemic change is supported by individual action, the plan also included ways to help staff reduce their own environmental impact. Proposed initiatives included supporting low-carbon commuting through bike maintenance sessions, sharing expert-led advice on home insulation, and launching a dedicated channel for staff to ask questions and share tips. Progress and team contributions will be shared quarterly to build momentum and reinforce a culture of action.

Electric Car Explorations

As car travel is central to service delivery, the team began exploring options for electric vehicle leasing and salary sacrifice schemes. These are planned for review by the end of 2025, offering a clear route towards lower-emission travel.

Net-Zero Commitment

With a clearer understanding of its organisational impacts, the team agreed on a target to become net-zero by 2030 for all emissions excluding travel, with a 2040 target for travel-related emissions. Plans are in place to use Severn Wye’s own UK-based offsetting initiatives, including solar farm and biochar projects, to help achieve this.

Sustainable sidekicks have taken us through the process of identifying and reducing our environmental impact.  The process meant all the staff team were engaged and a small group have now committed to take the process forward.  We identified a range of changes we could make very quickly and we are now working on our longer term impact.  Sustainable sidekicks were with us every step of the way and we now have a robust plan to go net zero.  

Severn Wye’s process demonstrates how sustainability can be embedded meaningfully across an organisation—not just through strategic planning, but through co-creation, team engagement, and values-led decision making. With a clear plan, guiding principles, and strong staff involvement, they are well positioned to lead by example in their sector and region.