October 2021 I The Race to Net Zero - are you on track with your projects with Donnie MacNicol and Jo Jolly

“It’s not as bad as you think – it’s worse.” Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive, Environment Agency

The Project Data Analytics Task Force recently launched an initiative to prompt and inform project and data professionals on the actions they can take in relation to climate change, and how they can leverage their influence.

On the basis that you cannot control what you cannot measure, the Task Force has developed a Carbon Self-Evaluation tool. This allows benchmarking in and across sectors. The tool encourages bottom-up action while providing data that will challenge the effectiveness of top-down strategies and policies.

A key point is that the biggest untapped potential to contribute is through using data analytics to drive out waste in every aspect of project delivery. The objective is an environment in which ‘climate’ is inherent in every decision we make – to maximise the benefit for the environment and people, and to minimise detrimental impact. The challenge however is to overcome human and commercial barriers to this.

Donnie is The Complex Change Maker™. He energises leaders & teams delivering complex change to maximise value and certainty of success through a focus on the human dimension. He is an expert programme and organisational consultant with a passion for personal development, change and strategy to offer consultancy services to organisations in both the public and private sector - from multinationals to SMEs. In the last 3 years, this has included work in UK Parliament, Nuclear, Retail and Space sectors as well as for a Digital Studio, Financial Services organisation, Regulated Body, Investment Bank and the government of a Baltic State.

Jo Jolly is a Deputy Director in the Environment Agency and leads their newly formed Bespoke & Emerging Projects team. She understands the vast potential of project data analytics and the need to move beyond incremental improvements in project delivery. Jo believes we all need to take urgent action to tackle the nature and climate emergencies through collaboration and trust to promote the sharing of data on a scale we’ve never seen before. Jo is working hard to drive out waste in delivery and massively improve productivity hopes that by using the power of data analytics, we can.