Evaluation of the Competency of Resource Efficiency Solutions Providers in the East Midlands
East Midlands Development Agency
Evaluation of 100+ solutions providers to determine initial level of quality assurance in support of the RBSIS scoring system. The evaluations took the form of structured interviews and a review of recent projects.
Pro Enviro were commissioned to assess the competency and capacity of Resource Efficiency Solutions Providers registered on the East Midlands Brokerage Platform, after a resource efficiency workshop session with the Business Support Advisors (BSA) uncovered that the the range of services available from resource efficiency solution providers was incomplete.
Initial discussions with key stakeholders clearly highlighted the lack of registered service providers against the key target area of energy; the subsequent search of the brokerage platform showed a poor matching system and no clear indication of capability.
The quality assurance element of the Regional Business Support Information System (RBSIS) was reviewed and it was agreed that this had a very limited ability to recognise the skill sets and competencies of solutions providers in the area of resource efficiency. The system has one field for "environmental" which would need to cover all of the issues contained within the resource efficiency agenda.
We reviewed a list of 80 companies identified as providing services in energy, waste and water from the regional brokerage platform within RBSIS. The list was filtered (removing companies such as "mobile disco"), and the remainder provided with an online questionnaire regarding competency and capacity in topics related to resource efficiency. The questionnaire comprised eleven sections designed to cover the major areas of resource efficiency and the support systems associated with resource efficiency in the region (e.g. Energy, Waste Management, Transport, etc). The self assessments were supported by site visits to both explain the process and to discuss the results. These visits were also used to provide a check on the self assessments made by different organisations. A review of recent projects was also conducted. In total 31 solution provider organisations completed the process.
Our analysis was split into the appropriate eleven sections and covered each of the assessed topic areas. We found that no one organisation covers all areas, but that there are a significant number of smaller companies who specialise in a small range of activities. We used this information to present a list of companies who can competently provide information within each of those narrower activity ranges.
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