SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE TOURISM, CLIMATE CHANGE

AND
THE NATIONAL TRUST

By

JOHN ANTHONY FLOY

A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
March 2015
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 ABSTRACT

Climate change is a global phenomenon that has led to policy-making in many spheres.
Since the early 2000s, when the projected impacts of climate change had increasingly come
to the fore, there has been added momentum in tourism studies to researching sustainable
tourism and travel behaviour. Using the National Trust as a lens, this study explores the
potential contribution climate change policy makes in achieving sustainable heritage
tourism. The research shows how such a policy evolved at the National Trust alongside key
events and developments the charity has undergone since 1995, its centenary year. Senior
policy-makers, managers, volunteer staff and visitors to properties in the West Midlands
region were interviewed to understand their views on climate change, wider environmental
matters, transport issues, and the charity’s response to tackling climate change. The study
found that through mitigation and adaptation strategies, climate change policy does support
and inform a sustainable approach to heritage tourism but that dependency on car-borne
transport to rural heritage sites remains the ‘Achilles heel’ of sustainable heritage tourism as
well as illuminating some of the imbalances between conservation and access.
 DEDICATION

I dedicate this thesis to:

My family: Alison, Sam and Anna;

To my late parents: Geoffrey and Ann Floy;

And to the open countryside and coastline cared for by the National Trust.

Barafundle Bay, Pembrokeshire, November 2013

In November 2013, my wife and I rented a National Trust cottage on the Pembrokeshire
coast for a week. On our final morning, we rescued a beached seal pup at Barafundle Bay, a
stretch of coast managed by the Trust. For me, this experience reinforced the significance of
climate change, our responsibilities as humans in caring for the planet, and the importance
of taking a sustainable approach to heritage tourism.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to record my considerable gratitude to my principal supervisor, Mr Christopher

Watson from the University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Studies; for his unfailing
counsel, expertise and support throughout the research process and writing of this thesis.

Special thanks also go to Dr Caroline Chapain from the University’s Business School for
retaining an interest in my research project. Her ideas, fresh perspectives, and the benefits
from her experience were much appreciated.

I would also like to thank Dr Austin Barber for his advice during the later stages of the
project.

Tutors at CURS in the early years of the project were particularly helpful in conceptualising
the research, and my thanks go to Dr Bob Prosser, Mrs Jane Lutz and Dr Stewart MacNeill.

Outside the University of Birmingham, I would like to acknowledge the helpful and reliable
service provided by the library staff and reprographics department at University College
Birmingham. I am particularly grateful to Mr Nick Betts and Miss Sarb Desi.

I would also like to thank Miss Naomi Mizuno, from Japan’s Shizuoka Prefectural
Government; and Mr Hal Rhoades, anthropology graduate of Durham University, for their
assistance on a few occasions in conducting the visitor survey.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the valuable contacts I made at the National
Trust, who willingly gave up their time to enable me to complete the research both within
the West Midlands and at the charity’s central office Heelis, in Swindon.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, especially my wife Alison, for their
consistent support, tolerance and good humour during the writing of this thesis.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 Page

INTRODUCTION
Introduction 1
Background to the study 2
Aims of the research 4
Structure of the thesis 5
Definition of the National Trust and the study’s parameters 8

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW: SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE TOURISM

Introduction 11
Defining heritage and the early years of the National Trust 11
The heritage industry 18
Defining heritage tourism 22
Authenticity, commodification and post-modern tourism 25
Sustainability and sustainable development 29
Sustainable tourism: paradigm or product? 32
Sustainable tourism indicators 36
Stakeholder involvement and empowerment 38
Sustainable tourism and climate change 39
Climate change research in tourism studies 42
Travel behaviour and transport issues for leisure and climate change 48
Chapter summary 53

CHAPTER 3
INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORK

Introduction 57
Climate change 58
Key developments in international climate change policy 64
Key developments in UK climate change policy 69
Public policy studies 76
Governance and management 82
Pro-environmental behaviour 88
Chapter summary 96
CHAPTER 4 Page
METHODOLOGY

Introduction: Research questions and structure of the methodology 99

Research approach 102
Secondary data 104
Primary data sampling 105
Primary data: design and collection methods 109
Analysing the data 116
Chapter summary 118

CHAPTER 5
KEY DEVELOPMENTS AT THE NATIONAL TRUST SINCE 1995

Introduction 120
Background to the first hundred years 121
Post-centenary developments: 1995-2014 124
Chapter summary 153

CHAPTER 6
EVOLUTION OF A CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AT THE NATIONAL TRUST

Introduction 158
Enterprise Neptune 1965 158
The emergence of sustainable development at the National Trust 160
Climate change and energy policy arrive on the agenda during the 1990s 163
The transport debate of the 1990s 167
The Labour Government of 1997 and the Kyoto Protocol 170
Formative years in shaping climate change policy: 2000-2007 174
Energy performance: 2008 onwards 184
Getting off oil 189
Chapter summary 193
CHAPTER 7 Page
VIEWS OF NATIONAL TRUST STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS
ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Introduction 197
The importance of climate change as an issue for the National Trust 199
The form and function of the Trust’s climate change policy 203
Mitigation and adaptation measures in response to climate change 207
Sustainable development and the National Trust’s climate change policy 210

The National Trust as a contributor to environmental public policy; 213

external affairs

The Trust’s governance arrangements and climate change 218

Going local and managing climate change 220

The balance between access and conservation as part of sustainable tourism and 223
implications for responding to climate change

Chapter summary 228

CHAPTER 8
VISITORS’ TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS
CLIMATE CHANGE

Introduction 235
Overview of visitor profiles 238
Travel behaviour of visitors at properties 244
Attitudes to climate change and associated issues 252
Awareness of climate change measures undertaken by the National Trust 257
Some comparisons of the survey’s results with national findings 259
Policy insights 260
Chapter summary 270

CHAPTER 9
CONCLUSION

Introduction 272
Summary of research questions, findings and emerging issues 272
The study’s place in the literature 280
Evaluation of the methodology 284
Policy implications for the National Trust and opportunities for further research 286
Concluding statement 291
POSTSCRIPT 293

APPENDICES 295

LIST OF REFERENCES 388

LIST OF APPENDICES
Page

Appendix 1.1 National Trust Heritage Assets, 2012/13 295

Appendix 2.1 Environmental sustainability indicators 296

Appendix 3.1 Proxy indicators of climate-related variables 298

Appendix 3.2 Emissions scenarios of the Special Report on Emission Scenarios 299

Appendix 4.1 Secondary data categories 300

Appendix 4.2 Climate Change Policy Questionnaire: Board of Trustees/Council 301

Appendix 4.3 Climate Change Visitor Survey 305

Appendix 4.4 National Trust Volunteer Survey Spring 2013 – Climate Change 307

Appendix 4.5 Letter to Trustee/Member of Council 308

Appendix 4.6 Letter to Director 309

Appendix 4.7 National Trust West Midlands Visitor Numbers 2011/12 310

Appendix 4.8 Fieldwork Log 311

Appendix 4.9 Attendance at conferences, workshops and lectures 315

Appendix 4.10 Framework of main themes/concepts used for discussion 316

Appendix 5.1 Key developments in the National Trust 1895-present day 319

Appendix 6.1 Climate change-related environmental issues and other related 323
environmental issues emerging from National Trust public domain, 1970-2014

Appendix 7.1 Volunteer Survey Results 341

Appendix 8.1 Visitor survey: Quantitative data 350
Appendix 8.2 Visitor survey: Qualitative data 363
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES Page

Figure 1.1 Thesis research lens 4

Figure 2.1 An overview of tourism 25
Figure 3.1 Interpretive framework 57
Figure 3.2 Climate Change: An Integrated Framework 63
Figure 3.3 Policy Network Zones 77
Figure 3.4 Elements in the tourism policy-making process 79

Figure 3.5 The Relationship Between Social Value, 86

Financial Performance, and Organisational Survival –
Public Sector

Figure 3.6 Environmental ethics/psychology models 97

Figure 5.1 National Trust structure on the eve of the 137

Blakenham Report 2002/03

Figure 5.2 National Trust Governance Structure as at 2012/13 138

Figure 8.1 Attitudes to travel/climate change: significant differences 241

male vs. female

Figure 8.2 Moral duty to reduce personal CO2 emissions (Age) 242
Figure 8.3 Government needs to re-think on climate change (Age) 242

Figure 8.4 Individual/local action is effective for tackling 242

climate change (Age)

Figure 8.5 Nature should have equal rights to humans (Age) 243
Figure 8.6 GB Day visitor mode of transport (2012) 245
Figure 8.7 GB Day visitor distance travelled (2012) 247
Figure 8.8 NT survey: distance travelled to property 248
Figure 8.9 GB Day visitors’ transport to destinations (2012) 248
Figure 8.10 Visitors’ mode of transport to property 249

Figure 8.11 Variations in motives for considering alternative 250

transport to the car: 3 largest properties

Figure 8.12 Variations in motives for not considering alternative 251

transport to the car

Figure 8.13 Nature should have equal rights to humans – by property 252
Figure 8.14 Radical change is needed in government’s approach 255
to climate change

Figure 8.15 National Trust has an important role in tackling 255

climate change

Figure 8.16 Tourism harms the environment so therefore 256

contributes to climate change

Figure 8.17 Awareness of climate change measures (all properties) 258

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Photograph 1: Croquet lawn 148

Photograph 2: Autumn ramble 151
Photograph 3: Bridge over River Rotham at Bodiam Castle 190
Photograph 4: Information about climate change at Bodiam Castle 190
Photograph 5: Sustainable re-roofing project at Hanbury Hall, Worcs 191
Photograph 6: Logs for sale 208
Photograph 7: Bench on the Clent Hills 253
Photograph 8: Bench at The Weir Gardens 253
Photograph 9: Birmingham-Back-to-Backs Visitor Reception 253

LIST OF TABLES
Page

Table 4.1 West Midlands region properties by category 107

Table 4.2 Sample of properties used for the visitor survey 107

Table 4.3 Populations for the visitor survey 110

Table 5.1 Main concerns of the National Trust, 1895-1995 121

Table 5.2 Developmental themes at the National Trust, 1995-2014 124
Table 5.3 National Trust Strategic Themes 2001-14 130
Table 5.4 Key Performance Indicators: National Trust 141

Table 5.5 Chairman/Director-General partnerships at the 143

National Trust, 1995-2014

Table 5.6 Changing titles of Directorates at the 153

National Trust, 2005-2014

Table 6.1 National Trust climate change issues 172

Table 6.2 Improving conservation and environmental performance 185
Table 7.1 Volunteer survey: environmental and policy attitudes 202
Table 7.2 Volunteer survey: Question 6 203
Table 7.3 Type of impact/Level of engagement (NT) 215
Table 7.4 Extract from a Property Business Plan 228

Table 8.1 National Trust West Midlands properties surveyed 236

for the study

Table 8.2 Property visitor survey – categorical data 239

Table 8.3 Attitudinal differences amongst visitor characteristics 240

Table 8.4 Analysis of Variance for environmental attitudes amongst 244

car travellers

Table 8.5 Reasons to consider alternative mode of transport to 249

the car (all properties)

Table 8.6 Reasons not to consider alternative mode of transport to 250

the car (all properties)

Table 8.7 Samples of visitors’ comments on transport to properties 251

Table 8.8 Attitudes to climate change and nature 252

Table 8.9 Roles of institutions and individuals tackling 254

climate change

Table 8.10 Sample of visitors’ comments on UK government’s 254

climate change policy

Table 8.11 Sample of visitors’ comments on the National Trust’s 255

role in tackling climate change

Table 8.12 Conservation and tourism: impacts on climate change 256

Table 8.13 GB Day visitor activities for 2012, resembling NT visits 262

LIST OF BOXES
Page

Box 3.1: Characteristics of Policy Communities and Issue Networks 81

Box 3.2 Motivators and barriers to pro-environmental behaviour change 89
Box 4.1: Research questions 100
Box 4.2: Summary of primary data methods (NT) 110
Box 4.3: Interview topics for discussion 112
Box 6.1: A Statement of Intent on Climate Change (National Trust) 180
Box 6.2: National Trust’s main recommendations in response to the 181
UK Climate Change Programme (HM Government, 2006)
Box 7.1 Themes explored in staff interviews 197
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AC Awareness of Consequences model

AONB Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
BCCI Bank of Credit and Commerce
BSE Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
CBT Campaign for Better Transport
CHM Cultural Heritage Management
COP Conference of Parties
CPI Conservation Performance Indicator (National Trust)
CPRE Council to Protect Rural England
CRU Climate Research Unit (University of East Anglia)
CSERGE Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment
DCMS Department for Culture Media and Society
DECC Department of Energy and Climate Change
DEFRA Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
DLTR Department of Local Government Transport & the Regions
DMO Democratic Member-based Organisation
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
ENGO Environmental Non-Governmental Organisation
FCCC Framework Convention on Climate Change
GDF Geological Disposal Facility
GHG Greenhouse Gas
HS2 High Speed Railway 2
IAM Integrated Assessment Models (climate change)
ICSU International Council of Scientific Unions
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IPPR Institute for Public Policy Research
IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources
KRA Key Risk Area (National Trust)
MBI Management by Instruction
MBO Management by Objectives
MBV Management by Values
NAM Norm Activation Model
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCVO National Council for Voluntary Organisations
NEP New Environmental/Ecological Paradigm
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NPO Not for Profit Organisation
NPPF National Planning Policy Framework
QUANGO Quasi Autonomous Non Governmental Organisation
RDA Regional Development Agency
RHS Royal Horticultural Society
RSPB Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
TBL Triple-Bottom-Line (performance)
TPB Theory of Planned Behaviour
UKCIP United Kingdom Climate Change Impact Group
UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation
UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organisation
VBN Value Belief Norm
VBN Value Belief Norm theory
VCO Voluntary Carbon-Offsetting
WCED World Commission on Environment and Development
WMO World Meteorological Organisation
WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council
WWF World Wide Fund for Nature
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Sustainable Heritage Tourism, Climate Change, and The National Trust

‘With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man’.

Pliny the Elder (1st Century), Natural History

Introduction

The study’s purpose is to explore the contribution of climate change policy and practice to

achieving sustainable heritage tourism through a study of the National Trust for England,

Wales and Northern Ireland. Tourism and climate change is a relatively recent research area,

dating from the 1980s, with very much an international focus. This study looks at a United

Kingdom institution belonging to the voluntary sector, with empirical work conducted in the

West Midlands region, which aims to add a new dimension to this developing research area

in tourism. In Visit Britain’s (2007) survey of visits to attractions in 2005, 119 million out

of 157 million visits were connected with heritage, where 54 million belonged to properties

and sites similar to those owned by the National Trust (coast, countryside and historic

houses and gardens). Visit Britain’s survey also identified that in the West Midlands, nearly

a quarter of top visitor attractions belonged to the National Trust.

This study brings together a recent tourism construct, a global issue, and Europe’s

largest conservation charity. Sustainable heritage tourism evolved out of two well-

established tourism areas: a convergence of sustainable tourism (via sustainable

development) and heritage tourism, described by Timothy & Boyd (2006) as the oldest form

of tourism touching all corners of the globe economically, socially, and environmentally in

some way. The National Trust’s activities (explained later) encompass its core purpose of

conservation as well its role as a major provider of heritage tourism experiences. The

1
literature reviewed in Chapter 2 shows how issues surrounding climate change have come to

be regarded as important in achieving the goal of sustainable tourism. This study therefore,

takes the position that pursuing sustainable heritage tourism is highly relevant to the tourism

industry and the conservation work of a conservation charity such as the National Trust; and

hence adopts the term ‘sustainable heritage tourism’, which, to date, has largely featured in

the marketing and planning of tourism destinations. Both as a leading heritage tourism

organisation, and a conservation charity representing the voluntary sector, the National

Trust makes for an interesting exploratory study in an under-researched area. This

introductory chapter is organised into three sections. First, the background to the study will

be explained: its inception and the reasons for choosing the National Trust as a case.

Second, the study’s aim and six research questions are outlined. Third, the dissertation’s

structure is set out with a chapter-by-chapter summary. The final section clarifies the legal

status of the National Trust and indicates the study’s parameters.

Background to the study

For the author, the origins of the research project date back to 2005-07 when an article

(Henderson, 2005) on the weakening of the Atlantic Ocean’s Meridional Overturning

Circulation, or weakening of the Gulf Stream sparked an interest in climate change, leading

to an exploration of the subject (Bunyard, 1999; Bryden et al., 2005; Quadfasel, 2005; and

Levi, 2006, were just a few examples); and interest shown by the media (Parry, 2006; Jowit,

2007; Girling, 2007). A professional interest through teaching tourism at University College

Birmingham (formerly the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies)

noted that climate change generally had a low profile in the curriculum. Tourism climate

change literature was concerned mostly with impact analysis on international destinations

2
(ski resorts and low-lying small-island-states in particular), aviation, and the measurement

of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and energy consumption in different sectors of the

tourism industry. It was also noted that few studies addressed heritage in the tourism climate

change literature. These factors, combined with a personal and professional interest in the

subject, established interest in the research topic. Garrod & Fyall (2000: 683) too, expressed

surprise that so little academic attention had been paid to exploring the relationship between

heritage tourism and sustainability, as both have a common interest in the inheritance of

built and natural assets.

In terms of demand, heritage tourism is a significant contributor to the UK’s

domestic tourism sector. In 2006 for example, domestic tourism accounted for £21 billion of

tourist expenditure, or 80 per cent of tourism turnover, with 63 per cent of domestic

overnight trips being taken for holiday purposes (Visit England, 2006); and in 2005, tourist

day trips to the countryside accounted for 16 per cent, and trips to the coast 2 per cent, of all

day trips (Natural England, 2005). Visit Britain (2007) reported that in a 2005 sample of

156.9 million visits to visitor attractions in England, 119 million visits were connected with

some aspect of heritage, built or natural. By 2012, visits to these sites had increased to some

315 million (Visit England et al., 2013); and for the year 2012/13, the National Trust

estimated that 239 million visits were made to its properties (National Trust, 2103d), thus

highlighting the popularity of Trust sites for such visits. The National Trust and its policies

highlight the contribution of the voluntary sector in tourism studies. Some familiarity with

the charity through the author’s membership and local sites in the West Midlands were

additional considerations for choosing the Trust for this research project. Appendix 1.1

summarises the charity’s current national portfolio of built and natural heritage sites.

3
 An on-line literature search using www.theses.com for UK theses written on the

National Trust identified seven dissertations, none of them addressing climate change,

though two relevant works were concerned with rural development and recreation

(Cattermole, 2005; Chew, 1990). On-line literature searches and library visits confirmed no

mention of the National Trust in climate change literature, and very few references in the

wider tourism literature (Dickinson et al., 2004; Anable, 2005); however, the charity

featured in the other studies such as the voluntary sector (Lansley, 1996; Slater, 2003a;

2003b; 2004; 2010; Bennett & Kottasz, 2000; Spear, 2004); and management studies

(Desmond, 2010; Measures & Bagshaw, 2009). Otherwise, the literature search indicated: a)

that climate change was a relatively under-researched area in heritage tourism but with a

larger presence in the sustainable tourism literature; b), very few tourism articles had been

written about the National Trust; and c), no studies were found to link climate change to the

National Trust. Preliminary research therefore, confirmed a gap in the literature.

Aim of the research

The aim of the research is to examine how climate change policy and practice can contribute

to achieving sustainable heritage tourism, through a study of the National Trust for England,

Wales and Northern Ireland, with a focus on the Trust’s West Midlands region (Figure 1.1).

Lens

Climate change policy National Trust Sustainable

Heritage Tourism

Figure 1.1 Thesis research lens

Two complementary reasons explain the focus on climate change policy. First, except for

the macro approach taken in studies such as UNWTO-UNEP-WMO (2007) and Simpson et

4
al. (2008), climate change policy in the tourism literature is still a developing research area;

and second, this research is supervised at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, until

recently part of the School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham; and therefore

considered to be part of the Centre’s work in public policy research. The research’s

empirical work investigates how a climate change policy evolved at the Trust: its origins,

the formulation of a statement of intent and subsequent implementation throughout the

charity’s various activities. Views on climate change and related environmental and policy

issues were sought from National Trust policy-makers, managers, volunteer workers, and

visitors to various sites. Six research questions are addressed in this study:

1) How and why did a climate change policy evolve at the National Trust?

2) What is the form and function of the National Trust’s climate change policy?

3) Do the National Trust’s core purpose, structure, governance, and organisational culture
support its climate change policy?

4) How much consensus exists amongst National Trust policy-makers, managers and
volunteer workers with regard to the charity’s climate change policy and practice, and does
this provide any insights for future policy-making on this issue?

5) To what extent can visitors to National Trust properties be described as ‘pro-

environmental’ in their travel behaviour and attitude towards a range of climate change-
related issues? Do their responses provide insights for future policy-making on this issue?

6) To what extent can the National Trust’s climate change policy be seen as an exemplar for
sustainable heritage tourism?

Structure of the thesis

Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 begins by reviewing literature concerned

with the concepts of heritage and heritage tourism, which includes a brief account of the

5
Trust’s founding era: part of the late 19th century’s enthusiasm for the idea of a national

heritage and protection of the natural environment. A discussion then follows on the

sustainable development paradigm and sustainable tourism, including criticisms of the

concept’s authenticity. Key to sustainable tourism though, is the practical consideration of

its measurement (sustainable tourism indicators) and the involvement of local stakeholders

in policy formation and implementation (empowerment). These themes are revisited in

Chapters 5-8. Chapter 2 continues by reviewing developments in climate research in

tourism, including some of the more recent literature directed at travel behaviour and

motivation in a leisure and tourism context.

Chapter 3 provides the study’s conceptual framework. A brief account of climate

change science and some of the major policy developments at international and national

levels precedes a discussion of some of the principles of public policy-making and the

recent growth in interest in the voluntary or third sector’s potential to contribute to policy-

making. At the micro level, contemporary approaches to organisational values, leadership

and management practice are considered for their relevance to the study. The final part of

the chapter looks at the contributions of environmental ethics and psychology to

environmental policy-making and the study of pro- environmental behaviour.

Methodology is discussed in Chapter 4. To begin with, arising from the literature

review, the research questions are explained in relation to the study’s aim through selected

research methods. The project’s research philosophy recognises that multiple realities

become evident in the research findings, for example on the one hand critical realism (how

the objective reality of climate change may be interpreted in different ways); as well as

social constructivism (the subjectivities of climate change). The chapter continues with

design of methods, sampling, and how the empirical findings were processed and analysed.

6
 Chapters 5-8 constitute the project’s empirical work. Using secondary sources, key

developments at the National Trust since 1995 are discussed in Chapter 5 to chart the

evolution of the charity’s climate change policy in Chapter 6. Five themes emerge, centred

on: the charity’s practice of advocacy; organisational change over a period of nearly thirty

years; the Trust’s approach to performance measurement; how leadership changes at the

head of the organisation came to be associated with particular initiatives; and how in recent

years there developed a highly visible policy to engage supporters. Chapter 6 traces the

origins of a climate change policy from its beginnings in 1990s, to the more established

implementation witnessed since 2005. Since 2010, it has become evident that the charity’s

mitigation response to climate change has become embedded within its much publicised

energy policy. Revisiting an emerging theme from Chapter 5, the Trust’s current strategy of

decentralisation and empowerment is discussed in the light of climate change policy.

Chapters 7 and 8 turn their attention to the results of fieldwork conducted, yielding

data from 14 semi-structured interviews and 3 questionnaire surveys. This took place at five

National Trust properties in the West Midlands, ranging from country mansions and

gardens, to open countryside and urban locations. Chapter 7 sets out to gain an insight into

the perceptions of National Trust personnel with different levels of responsibility on issues

related to climate change and its impacts, the charity’s subsequent policy responses, as well

as wider environmental issues or notions. An exploratory questionnaire survey on National

Trust Trustees and Council members was followed by interviews with senior policy-makers

and property managers. The range of personnel contacted included a sample of volunteer

workers contacted through a questionnaire survey and group interview. Chapter 8 discusses

the results of a questionnaire survey targeted at visitors to five properties in the West

Midlands. Here, the aim was to examine travel behaviour (distance and mode of transport

7
mainly) and the responses to a range of attitude statements concerning climate change and

notions of individual and collective responsibility for environmental issues. Gaining a

perspective on the demand-side view of climate change and the charity’s response

contributes to a more holistic and representative version of events.

The final chapter starts with a summary of research findings and emerging issues

and an assessment of its contribution before assessing its contribution to the literature. The

project is further evaluated by considering the effectiveness of the methodology in

answering the research questions. Policy implications for the Trust and suggestions for

future research conclude the chapter and draw the study to a close.

Definition of the National Trust and the study’s parameters

This final section briefly clarifies the National Trust’s legal status and sets out the study’s

parameters. The National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is a registered

charity, number 205846, which describes itself as independent of government, although it

does receive some annual grants from government: in 2012/13 for example, DEFRA gave

£4 million, Natural England £5 million, and English Heritage £413,000 (National Trust,

2013d). Its mission statement is ‘to protect special places for ever for everyone and to share

those places with its supporters’ (National Trust, 2015: 2). In 2012/13 the charity employed

5,427 full-time equivalent staff supported by up to 70,000 volunteers, generating an income

of £457 million and expenditure of £441 million, with total reserves of assets worth over £1

billion. Founded in 1895, its statutory purpose was established under the National Trust Act

of 1907, to preserve and promote for the benefit of the nation, places of natural beauty and

scientific interest, and buildings of historic interest. These places were to be open to the

public for the purposes of recreation and education. Successive National Trust Acts,

8
mentioned in Chapter 5, extended the Trust’s activities and formalised changes to its

constitution. The Trust’s holdings are ‘inalienable’, which means they cannot be sold or

mortgaged unless agreed through parliamentary process. This arrangement perhaps explains

the motto ‘forever …’ used by the Trust. Membership, legacies and direct property income

provide over half of the Trust’s funds, the remainder through fundraising and the charity’s

two subsidiary businesses: National Trust (Enterprises) Ltd. and Historic House Hotels Ltd.

(National Trust, 2014e).

The Trust is variously described as a non-governmental organisation (NGO), a not-

for-profit (NPO) organisation, and as representing civil society, the voluntary sector, and the

third sector. In her paper on creating a taxonomy of NGOs, Vakil (1997), a Canadian, listed

an ‘alphabet soup’ of various acronyms used to describe NGOs, which added a certain

degree of confusion to these various terms. Vakil’s proposed framework used descriptors

such as orientation (for example, advocacy), level of operation (international/national and so

on), sector (conservation, for example), and evaluative factors such as accountability and

participation. Lansley’s (1996) study on membership participation in the National Trust,

mentioned in Chapter 5, also adopted a similar approach. Without further ado, throughout

this thesis the National Trust is referred to variously as a charity, an environmental NGO,

and a heritage tourism organisation; and as operating within the voluntary sector. Appendix

1.1 illustrates the wide extent of the charity’s holdings and undertakings, which include

many facets of tourism, hospitality, the arts, and agriculture.

This study however, focuses on property activities: the operational business of

conservation and heritage tourism to be found at historic houses, parkland and areas of open

countryside owned and/or managed by the charity. In the tourism context, the study confines

itself to domestic day trips. The Trust’s tourism activities may be categorised within a range

9
of niche tourism experiences such as conservation tourism, volunteer tourism, rural tourism,

nature-based tourism, and countryside tourism. The common factor among these, is that

they are not considered to be examples of alternative tourism as opposed to mass tourism;

and therefore, as the tourism literature would suggest, more benign forms of tourism. To

clarify, taking into account the diverse nature of tourism within which the National Trust

operates, the study excludes the charity’s hotel operations (Historic House Hotels Limited);

various promotions with holiday firms such as Warner Leisure Hotels; working holidays;

public houses; various historic buildings such as lighthouses and barns that attract visitors;

and let estate such as tenant farms.

The National Trust has existed for 120 years. Following a brief account of its first

100 years, this study is concerned with developments since 1995, the charity’s centenary

year. This latter day period saw the evolution of a climate change policy that coincided with

a period of modernisation in the National Trust’s history. The origins of the Trust’s climate

change policy are traced back to 1970: the year in which ‘Earth Day’ was proclaimed in the

USA, and often considered to be the beginning of the modern environmental era.

10
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE TOURISM

Introduction

This chapter reviews the literature on heritage tourism, sustainable tourism, and the

emergence of climate change research in tourism studies. The concept of ‘sustainable

heritage tourism’ is a term thus far confined mainly to tourism destination planning (Du

Cross, 2001) or to the marketing of sustainable heritage tourism (Donohoe, 2012; Marschall,

2012). The review of the literature to date shows that climate change studies have had few

associations with this concept. Garrod & Fyall (2000: 683) expressed surprise that so little

academic attention had been paid to exploring the relationship between heritage tourism and

sustainability as both have a common interest in the inheritance of built and natural assets.

However, the launch in 2011 of the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and

Sustainable Development (Roders & van Oers, 2011) indicates a growing research interest

in this area. To begin with, this chapter reviews the ideas surrounding heritage and heritage

tourism, where an opportunity is taken to relate the early years of the National Trust. Some

of the various interpretations on sustainability, sustainable development and its derivative

sustainable tourism are then considered, before turning to the development of climate

change research within tourism studies. A focus on travel behaviour and transport studies

concludes the chapter.

Defining heritage; the early years of The National Trust

Before exploring the concept of heritage tourism, it is as well to clarify the term heritage

and its associations with history, preservation, conservation, restoration and the ‘historic

11
environment’. Its 19th century origins will be explained briefly, leading to an account of the

founding of the National Trust, which coincides with this period. Historic environment is a

widely-used term describing the built (particularly) and natural environment and their

associations with the past/history or, as English Heritage put it: ‘the evidence of people’s

interaction in the past with their physical surroundings’ (English Heritage, 2005b: 2).

Tunbridge & Ashworth (1996: 20) differentiate between the past (what has happened);

history (recording what has happened); and heritage (a contemporary product shaped from

history). They contend that history itself, like heritage, is a selective process in deciding

what to record and how to interpret and present it: suggesting in other words, that ‘history’

is far from being a value-free process. To Cassia (1999: 260) history can be likened to the

production of knowledge about the past while heritage is the consumption of that

knowledge. It is not surprising, therefore, that the management of heritage attractions is

sometimes dubbed ‘the history business’ or equivalent.

Preservation and conservation are commonly used terms used in heritage, but require

clarification. Preservation differs from conservation in that the former is a process of

maintaining assets in a condition defined by their historical context so that they can reveal

their original meaning; whereas the latter requires some degree of management which may

include restoration (Hewison, 1987: 98). In defining conservation, English Heritage (2008:

71) also underlined the management of change and sustaining heritage values in the

conservation process. It should be noted that ‘restoration’ is a process of returning a place as

far as possible to its original state on the basis of ‘compelling evidence, without conjecture’,

in this sense implying that history provides direction for heritage. Recently, the Chairman of

the National Trust, Sir Simon Jenkins, expressed his view that Stonehenge (managed jointly

by English Heritage and the National Trust) would benefit from a restoration project

12
(Jenkins, 2014b). The environmental movement has often been perceived as having a

‘leftish’ political agenda where the principles of a free market economy are seen as

inherently detrimental to achieving sustainability, while Scruton (2012: 9) argued instead,

that conservatism can be a ‘natural bedfellow’ for environmentalism through the

empowerment of local communities and the promotion of qualities such as enterprise and

friendship. In this sense, parallels are drawn between conservation and conservatism. For

many commentators, visitors and members, the National Trust might be seen as a

conservative organisation in the sense of preserving and conserving heritage assets; Scruton

implies, not necessarily in a political way, that this approach is actually appropriate for the

charity’s purpose.

Merriman (1991: 8) referred to heritage as an accessible term at an ‘intuitive level’,

exemplified by dictionary definitions that refer to property and valued items as being

inherited and passed down through generations, and thus judged worthy of preservation.

Several authors emphasise this inter-generational dimension: for example Tunbridge &

Ashworth (1996: 1); Nuryanti (1996: 249); Herbert (1997: xi); Graham et al. (2000:11);

Timothy & Boyd (2003: 2); and English Heritage (2008: 71). In their study on life members

of the National Trust for Scotland, McCrone et al. (1995) viewed heritage as firstly, the

tangible physical artefacts including buildings and landscapes; and secondly, the more

intangible legacy of cultural values and inheritance. One of the earliest statements to

incorporate the notion of ‘value’ in the definition of heritage came via the newly-adopted

UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1972, whose stated purpose was the protection of

places of ‘outstanding universal value’ (Young, 2009). A few years later, following growing

pressure within the Australian tourism industry, the significance, values and place of the

13
Aboriginal community were recognised in the Burra Charter of 1979 in which the notion of

value contributed to the evaluation of a site’s conservation requirements.

In a similar way, Nuryanti (1996: 253) considered it important to convey the

significance of a heritage site as well as its preservation aspects. English Heritage for

example use ‘place’ as a generic word for any part of the historic environment that people

perceive as having a distinct identity, in preference to more specialised terms such as ‘listed

buildings’ or ‘scheduled monuments’ (English Heritage, 2008: 13-14). Likewise, the

National Trust uses ‘special places’ to promote the distinctiveness of National Trust land or

property. The word ‘place’ has the dual advantage of being both a generic, neutral term, as

well as carrying personal significance for visitors. English Heritage also interpret ‘value’

as going beyond its usual association with historic or scientific interest to incorporate ‘inter-

related heritage values’ including evidential, historical, aesthetic and communal values

(ibid, pp. 27-32). Three of the six National Trust conservation principles refer to: properties

being valued by the ‘Spirit of the Place’; maintaining significance for the future through

conservation management; and reconciling potential conflict between conservation and

access (Lithgrow & Thackray, 2009). The ‘Spirit of Place’ statement is used to ‘challenge

and inform all decisions made regarding the site from activities and presentation to repair

and conservation philosophy’ (National Trust, 2015a: 2).

Britain’s consciousness of a national heritage: an interest in preserving landscape

and historic buildings, can be traced to the 19th century with the establishment of voluntary

organisations such as the Commons, Footpaths and Open Spaces Preservation Society

(1865); the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (1877); and the National Trust

itself in 1895 (Mandler, 1997; Graham et al., 2000). Mandler placed heritage in a time-line

spanning from the beginnings of modernity in the 16th and 17th centuries, then to the 18th

14
century Enlightenment and Age of Reason, leading to 19th century Romanticism and

eventually reaching the so-called ‘post-modern’ era of the late 20th century. From the mid-

19th century onwards, there was a growing interest in the preservation of open spaces and

common land. Since the Statute of Merton, passed in 1235, Lords of the Manor had the right

to enclose their common lands, gradually leading, over the centuries, to increased private

ownership of land across Britain (Murphy, 1987: 6). During the Victorian era, urban parks,

some of them donated by philanthropists such as Louisa Ann Ryland (Cannon Hill Park in

Birmingham) increasingly became owned and managed as public assets by public

authorities. Common land, on the other hand, was privately owned, but maintained certain

rights accorded to individuals or commoners. Otherwise, technically, common land was

closed to the public, although many people walked across the land by way of custom

(Clayton, 2013). Begun in the late 18th century, the Picturesque movement had given some

degree of aesthetic value and emotion to Britain’s wilderness, helped further by the

interruption of the Grand Tour during the Napoleonic Wars (Mandler, 1997). Harvey (2008:

28) attributed the beginnings of a ‘mass market’ for a popular national heritage to Walter

Scott, in the 19th century, with nostalgia for ‘olden-time’ England in the medieval period or

even earlier Saxon times. Ruins such as Tintern Abbey and Fountains Abbey evoked

feelings associated with aestheticism and a connection with nature amongst their visitors;

and Romanticism, epitomised in the works of the poets Shelley and Wordsworth, helped to

deify nature and eventually led to the institutionalisation of landscape and the creation of a

cultural heritage (Mandler, 1997). Voluntary organisations such as the Society for the

Protection of Ancient Buildings (1877) mentioned earlier, reflected a growing interest in

preserving historic buildings alongside the first signs of heritage legislation: the first

Ancient Monuments Act of 1882. Cowell (2008: 71-72) commented that the influential role

15
of the ‘art critic and social commentator’ John Ruskin cannot be overstated, in the shaping

of the ‘Victorian heritage philosophy’ that promoted the preservation and conservation of

heritage assets for present and future generations. Restoration of cultural assets, though, in

Ruskin’s view, was considered to be a more disingenuous process, associated with a loss of

authenticity.

Against this background, the National Trust was founded in the late 19th century in

response to the social and physical impacts of industrialisation on people and the

environment (especially housing and the countryside), as well as a growing movement

towards social welfare reform. Most histories of the National Trust refer to the ‘Trinity’ of

founders: Robert Hunter (a lawyer – Solicitor to the Post Office), Octavia Hill (housing and

social welfare reformer) and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley (Lake District clergyman); but

Gaze (1988: 12-14) chose to use ‘Quartet’ by including the Duke of Westminster, who was

influential in the Trust’s early years through his wealth, political connections and

benefaction associated with public parks and slum clearance. In September 1884, Robert

Hunter, an active campaigner for the preservation of open spaces took the ‘first essential

step’ in founding an organisation dedicated to preserving open spaces, when he spoke on the

subject to the National Association of Social Science in Birmingham (Jenkins & James,

1994: 20). By this time, Hunter had developed correspondence with the social housing

reformer Octavia Hill, who shared a similar mission to protect open spaces and the

countryside against urban sprawl and building development. Fiona Reynolds, Director-

General of the National Trust from 2001 to 2012, frequently referred to Octavia Hill’s belief

that the ‘everlasting delight of the people’ extended beyond improved housing, education

and employment, to having access to the beauty of countryside and open spaces’ (Reynolds,

2004: 3). At the Birmingham meeting, Hunter promoted the idea of a land company with the

16
power to hold assets on behalf of the public. Subsequently, Octavia Hill’s suggestion for a

name for this organisation was ‘Commons and Garden Trust’, whereas Hunter ‘in a

pencilled note’ to Hill, wrote ‘?National Trust’ (Cowell, 2013: 18).

The clergyman Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley was the third founder member of the

National Trust. During the 1880s, Rawnsley had been campaigning for the preservation of

common land and open space ‘in all its Wordsworthian purity’ in the Lake District, in

response to an expanding railway network (Cannadine, 1995:14). As an undergraduate at

Oxford University from 1870, Rawnsley had shared John Ruskin’s concerns over poor

housing and other social issues associated with increased urbanisation. Ruskin was

particularly concerned over a perceived lack of dialogue between the classes ‘that

threatened the very fabric of society’ (Clayton, 2013: 12). Through Ruskin, Rawnsley came

into contact with Octavia Hill and her mission to establish a system of social housing. In

1894, a draft constitution was agreed for a new society to become a landholding body to

preserve for the public’s benefit what was considered to be land of natural beauty and

houses of historic interest. The following year, in 1895, the ‘National Trust for places of

historic interest or natural beauty’ was incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Act

with licence, thus registering its not-for-profit status and excluding the use of the word

‘Limited’ (Murphy, 1987: 106). The Duke of Westminster, who had hosted the 1894

meeting, became the founding President, with Hunter appointed as its first Chairman. Other

representatives from like-minded charities and societies were appointed onto the Trust’s

first Council. Harvey (2008: 28) commented that although the Trust sought to bring about

social change, it was itself represented by a circle of educated, privileged and influential

people (including the Earl of Rosebery, the Prime Minister of the day). Cattermole (2005: 1)

also found that the charity ‘remains centralised and paternalistic, with a central ethos which

17
has remained relatively unaltered’. In the Trust’s dual role of preserving landscape with

places of historic interest, Wright (1985: 55) highlighted the coalescence of the preservation

of the commons movement with the late 19th century Fine Art tradition. For Wright, this

merger became a constituent of the National Heritage, and was used to ‘naturalize a

bourgeois interpretation of history and society’ as well as disseminate a ‘class-specific

academic culture’ (p.55): how some people today continue to view the National Trust. The

conferment of the principle of ‘inalienability’ on its holdings established by the 1907

National Trust Act effectively legitimised how private property is seen to be in national

interest (Wright, 1985: 52) and for some, reinforces the image of the Trust as a substantial

private landowner who may not necessarily have everyone’s interests in mind.

The heritage industry

The idea of a heritage industry emerged during the 1970s and 1980s, its growth associated

with the expansion of the leisure industry since World War Two (Edwards & Llurdés i Coit,

1996: 344). Between 1965 and 1975, membership of the National Trust grew from 157,581

to 539,285 (Jenkins & James, 1994: 337). Edwards & Llurdés i Coit citing Light (1991),

further attributed the growth of a heritage industry to the marketing industry’s exploitation

of nostalgia; the activities of preservation and conservation movements; and the policies of

Conservative governments since 1979, which saw heritage became the central platform for

Britain’s tourism industries. In his account of how Britain’s country houses came under

threat following the oil crisis of 1973, coupled with the 1974 Labour government’s

proposals for the introduction of a wealth tax on current capital and a capital transfer tax to

replace death duty, Hewison (1987: 51-80) noted the formation in 1975 of an opposition

campaign committee called ‘Heritage in Danger’ in which the National Trust was involved.

18
According to Hewison (p.67): ‘It is impossible not to conclude that the campaign against the

wealth tax was a powerful stimulus to the spread of the word ‘heritage’; he noted, however,

that the National Trust had been putting forward the idea of a national heritage since the

Second World War.

In 1980 and 1983 respectively, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and English

Heritage were created (Hewison, 1987: 31); followed in 1992 by a new sponsor department

for tourism: the Department of National Heritage. These two government initiatives to

bolster and promote the tourism potential of Britain’s heritage coincided with economic

recessions. Lowenthal (1985), Wright (1985; 1986), Hewison (1987) and Tunbridge &

Ashworth (1996) are prominent critics of the rise of the heritage industry claiming that its

growth led to a commodification and dilution of authenticity, trading on a nostalgia industry

designed to appeal to a growing heritage market. Alluding to undertones of social control

and that the past can be subject to political manipulation, Wright (1985: 215) used the

example of the Party’s motto in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: ‘who controls the

past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past’. Presenting a

commoditised history contributed to political, economic, as well as cultural ends. Lowenthal

(1985: xvi) adopted his title: The Past is a Foreign Country from L.P. Hartley’s The Go-

Between where ‘they do things differently there’ (i.e. the past). Lowenthal (p.xxiv) argued

that the modernist 20th century broke its legacy of ‘ready familiarity with the classical and

Biblical heritage that long imprinted European culture and environment’ resulting in our

being surrounded by relics and monuments ‘we can barely comprehend and scarcely feel are

ours …’. He argued that the ‘rage to preserve’ (ibid) was driven by our anxiety that we will

forget these classical legacies and that they will become less integral to our identity, brought

19
on by the modern pace of change and development. For Lowenthal, the past (a foreign

country) has become partly domesticated: a marketable product for the heritage industry.

Hewison (1987: 37-41) attributed the recent (1970s onwards) popularity of nostalgia

to the destruction and dislocation of the past that began with the upheavals of the industrial

revolution; then two World Wars; followed by the post-World War Two reconstruction

period witnessing the destruction of 8,000 listed buildings; slum clearance; the closure of

rural railways in the 1960s; decimalisation in 1970; the 1973 oil crisis; inner-city riots and

the miners’ strike of 1984-85. Hewison quoted Sir Roy Strong in 1978:

‘The heritage represents some form of security, a point of reference, a

refuge perhaps, something visible and tangible which, within a topsy-
turvy world, seems stable and unchanged. Our environmental heritage …
is therefore a deeply stabilising and unifying element within our society’
(Hewison, 1987: 46, citing Ascherson, 1986: 300).

The impulse to preserve the past is treated as a form of self-defence mechanism where

objects from the past become cultural symbols. Hewison reasoned that the key question is

not whether, but what kind of past should be preserved and its possible effects on society.

Continuing this theme, in referring to the ‘crumbling mausoleum which is post-imperial

Britain’, Wright (1986) saw Britain entering an age in which everything deemed worthwhile

has to be saved in order to survive. In this state of permanent emergency Wright contended,

the National Trust could evade questions about what type of past it wished to secure for the

nation (whose past is ‘ours’? p.33) by appealing to a ‘widespread and regressive nostalgia’

by citing the urgency of the conservation or preservation cause: a point made earlier by

Lowenthal (1985). In this way, he argued, the Trust portrays Britain as a homogeneous,

already-achieved and timeless historical identity which demands only ‘appropriate

reverence and protection in the present’, appealing to an ‘everyday historical consciousness’

20
(Wright, 1986: 34). Wright concluded that there were political implications if the Trust’s

portrayal of the nation started to achieve a generalised influence over British public culture.

See also, Howkins (1994), in Chapter 5 for a similar discussion. Tunbridge & Ashworth’s

(1996: 20-27) thesis of ‘dissonance’ in heritage was also critical of the production and

marketing of heritage where, for example, the treatment of historical resources to create

heritage products ‘endows those products with the tensions and dilemmas inherent in all

commodification for contemporary markets’ (p.21). Furthermore with the reliance of

heritage on interpretation, the content of those messages may cause dissonance in a number

of ways, not least by heritage containing implicitly or explicitly value-laden messages.

The concept of heritage then, is prone to being value-laden where the present

generation decides on the preservation, conservation and restoration of a legacy of natural

and built tangible assets. These assets are marketed, presented and interpreted for a range of

audiences. History is a record of the past that may be written to suit particular agendas for

certain audiences (for example visitors to museums or the school curriculum). In this sense,

history is integral to heritage. This selective process has attracted a dissonant view of

heritage that argues historical assets in a sense have become exploited as part of a heritage

industry, trading on nostalgia and a marketed package of the past. From a critical theory

standpoint, it has been argued that the heritage agenda has been culturally driven by the

bourgeoisie that has seen a coalescence of the movement to preserve open common land and

the natural environment, with Fine Art. Some commentators see the National Trust

portraying a marketable, homogenised version of the past that is expected to be appreciated,

even revered; and typically based on the presentation of country estates and parkland in

private ownership. If this is meant to represent part of a national heritage, they argue, then

by whose values, and for whom? Chapter 5 will show how the National Trust balances its

21
responsibilities towards both the natural environment and built heritage, as well as having

evolved into much more of a ‘broader church’ than is sometimes appreciated.

Defining heritage tourism

Since the late 1980s the phenomenon of heritage tourism has attracted much critical analysis

provoking what Mellor (1991: 96-97) described as a ‘minor academic industry’ directed at

the ‘nostalgia business’ or ‘heritage industry’. In their introductory paper for the first

volume of the Journal of Heritage Tourism Timothy & Boyd (2006: 1-2) described heritage

tourism as one of the oldest and most widespread forms of contemporary tourism, an

industry that has grown rapidly since the end of World War Two touching all corners of the

globe economically, socially and environmentally in some way. In Cowell’s (2010) view,

heritage is understood as ascribing present and future values to the inheritance of the past

thereby highlighting the role of the day trip through which those values are expressed.

However, as Hall (2009a: 88) questioned: when considering what is worth preserving for

‘our’ heritage and collective identity, ‘… who is the we?’ - he continued by saying that

heritage can be co-produced by the motivations of consumers within the prevailing socio-

cultural/economic context but also co-destroyed when heritage has reached the end of its

life-cycle. Wheeller (2007; 2009) furthered the debate by suggesting that repetitive patterns

of tourist behaviour lead to the creation of our/their own heritage. He cites the example of

the British holiday camp tradition of the 1940s-1960s. But, he asked, through their patterns

of consumption are not those tourists also responsible for the destruction of their own

heritage?

Hinting at an under-current of exploitation, Bandyopadhyay et al. (2008: 791)

reinforced the notion that tourism is able to frame history ideologically and reshape culture

to its own requirements. Furthermore in their study of Croatia, Goulding & Domic (2009:

22
99) concluded that heritage extended beyond representations of culture or national

identification to include deeper, symbolic meanings related to ‘the very essence of

selfhood’. The whole assembly of Croatian heritage came to represent what they termed

‘sign systems’, which reinforced the sense of Croatian identity. Park’s (2010) survey of

visitors to Changdeok Palace in South Korea also explored similar themes of symbolism.

Closer to home, the British politician Margaret Hodge (2008: 1) asked the question: ‘Should

cultural institutions promote shared values and a common national identity?’ Hodge

emphasised that these institutions played a key role in creating ‘the icons of a common

culture that everyone can feel part of …’ (p.17).

Taking a sector-led approach Timothy & Boyd (2003: 9) viewed heritage tourism as

spanning both urban tourism and eco-tourism (i.e. built and natural heritage) within which

cultural tourism belongs. Richards (1996) on the other hand, assigned heritage tourism

within the broader realm of cultural tourism where cultural tourists are selective in their

consumption of heritage resources; whereas Newsome et al. (2002: 11) divided heritage and

religion into separate categories belonging to cultural tourism, itself part of ‘alternative

tourism’ (alternative to mass tourism) where tourists seek a range of new products and

services. The relationship between tourism and cultural heritage management is further

examined in a study of Hong Kong as an urban heritage destination (McKercher et al.,

2005). The study distanced itself from a traditional conflict paradigm where tourism

activities could be seen as a danger to the integrity of cultural assets, and instead developed

a ‘continuum of maturity’ where tourism and cultural heritage management were seen to be

developing in parallel as part of an evolutionary, mutual process. Mckercher et al.

concluded that ‘Tourism and CHM [cultural heritage management] are neither natural allies

nor natural enemies’ (p. 546). They argued that cultural tourism is successful when it is

23
recognised that each of these two interests is a legitimate part of tourism, leading to a

mature relationship. Figure 2.1 shows some of the sector relationships in tourism.

Loulanski & Loulanski (2011) considered the nature of cultural heritage and tourism studies

led to a fragmentation of knowledge with many isolated and descriptive studies. They

suggested that developing a multi-disciplinary approach between the natural and social

sciences underpinned by sustainable development would help to achieve a more unified

approach to the subject.

Chhabra (2010) noted that heritage tourism definitions usually adopted either a

supply-side view based on visitor attractions and the arts, or a demand-side view centred on

visitor motivations, perceptions and the consumption of heritage tourism. Poria et al. (2003)

also noted a weighting towards the supply-side, not so much on the demand-side and even

less on the relationship between the two. The history of a site is a partial motivator for

visiting a heritage location but a core issue in promoting it, they argued, is whether potential

visitors can be identified whose perceptions of the location are based on their own heritage;

and whether these perceptions can be linked to their behaviour. Ultimately, Poria et al.

argued, the relationship between supply and demand was central to our understanding of

heritage tourism. The consumption of culture was also the key issue for Du Cross (2001)

who adopted the term ‘cultural heritage tourism’ signifying that it is a destination’s culture

that acts as a motivator in separating heritage tourism from other forms of tourism.

The usefulness of debating definitions was questioned by Garrod & Fyall (2001) in

response to criticism by Poria et al. (2001) of their earlier article on managing heritage

tourism (Garrod & Fyall, 2000). Poria et al. proposed that instead of heritage tourism being

viewed as representing simply the historic environment (a supply approach), it should be

treated more as a tourist motivation phenomenon where a site’s attributes are linked to

24
tourists’ perceptions of their own heritage (a demand approach). A dual terminology was

suggested: (a) ‘heritage tourism’ – encompassing a motivation to visit the heritage

characteristics of the site and tourists’ perceptions of their own heritage; and (b) ‘historic

tourism’ based on a motivation to visit a site because of its historic attributes. For Poria et

al. a heritage tourist would always be an ‘historic tourist’ but the reverse is not necessarily

the case: an ‘historic tourist’ does not have to be a heritage tourist.

TOURISM

MASS TOURISM ALTERNATIVE TOURISM

NATURAL CULTURAL EVENT OTHER e.g.

Tourism in Heritage Sports Farm

Natural areas Religion Festivals Educational

Figure 2.1 Overview of tourism (Newsome et al., 2002: 11)

Authenticity, commodification and post-modern tourism

The notion of authenticity brings into question what is thought to be genuine or artificial.

Timothy & Boyd (2006: 5) considered that authenticity was especially relevant for heritage

tourism as it illuminated the motives for people travelling to heritage sites: some will travel

to seek authentic experiences (citing MacCannell, 1976) whereas others have different

25
expectations (citing Moscardo, 2000). Chhabra et al.’s (2003) study of Scotland’s Highland

Games concluded that the level of visitor expenditure at the Highland Games related to the

visitor’s perception of authenticity: a correlation the organisers of such events might wish to

consider. Timothy & Boyd found most research showed tourists do search for some form of

authenticity and their perceptions led to satisfactory visitor experiences; yet despite this,

they observed, many heritage sites throughout the world are presented as having sanitised

and idealised pasts, implying this approach could hinder a better visitor experience.

In one of the earliest papers on authenticity Cohen (1988: 373) shows that

‘commodification’ and ‘staged authenticity’ lead to a situation where ‘the more tourism

flourishes, the more it allegedly becomes a colossal deception’. Writing nearly twenty years

later, Cole (2007) underscored the Western-centric approach to authenticity and

commodification: concepts that generally imply a negative view of the ‘objectification’ of

other cultures. However, her paper reinforced a move away from the idea of focusing on a

destination or site’s authenticity to one ‘where tourism promotes local awareness’ (citing

Franklin & Crang, 2001: 10) and opportunities for empowerment, particularly in developing

countries.

Weaver (2011a) too, observed that heritage tourism has traditionally taken a supply-

side view focusing on the historic assets of a destination; recently though, he argued,

discourses have become more complex as they address social constructions that

acknowledge subjectivities and the notion of personal heritage. The term ‘postmodernism’

has become a widely used concept in tourism literature with a sociological provenance: for

example Bourdieu (1984) attributed the rise of postmodern consumption to France’s

expanding middle classes attempting to distinguish themselves from others through

education, income and consumption patterns that included heritage tourism (cited in

26
Richards, 1996); or Adorno’s (1991) Marxist critique of culture which was said to have

become mass-produced or commodified, resulting in a devaluation of cultural assets but

with the process being orchestrated by a culturally competent and financially successful

bourgeoisie (cited in Hannabuss, 1999). Earlier mention was made of viewing the National

Trust in the context of critical theory. Whilst it could be argued with confidence that the

charity is led and managed by people who are culturally competent and financially

successful, it would be more contentious to suggest that the Trust’s assets are devalued or

mass-produced in some way.

Uriely (1997: 982) dated the shift of tourism studies from a modern to post-modern

discourse to the 1970s, a decade during which tourism emerged as a ‘distinguished

sociological subject-field’. Two perspectives were taken. On the one hand, the tourism

experience increasingly sought contrived experiences or ‘pseudo-events’ (citing Boorstin,

1964/1973) that exploit, for example, the quest for nostalgia: a notion felt by John Betjeman

in 1947 to be a euphemism for sentimentality (Betjeman & Games, 2007). The other

postmodern perspective saw the tourist searching for an authentic experience, typically at

places of built and natural heritage (citing MacCannell, 1976). Earlier, MacCannell (1973:

589) coined the phrase ‘staged authenticity’ when he likened tourism to the pilgrimage in its

quest for religious experiences. The net result, Uriely argued, was that post-modern tourism

represented a multiplicity of tourist experiences often described in the 1980s as ‘niche

tourism’, recognisable as part of Jafari’s (1981) ‘adaptancy platform’ of tourism knowledge.

A later interpretation of this theme is found in Ganzález’s (2008: 809) distinction between

‘leisure tourists’ and ‘existential intangible heritage tourists’ with implications for heritage

sites that might wish to connect with the latter as potential consumers. The intangibility of

heritage tourism in providing a source of identity is a post-modern tourism idea. For Clayton

27
(2010) a local community’s perception of a place where there is a strong historic identity

improves self-efficacy amongst residents as well as transcending fixed identities such as

ethnicity. A sense of belonging to a place is reinforced through participation in events such

as volunteer projects; an approach fostered by the National Trust.

The convergence of heritage (tradition) and tourism (modernity) is discussed by

Nuryanti (1996: 250) in developing the notion of a global village where numerous national

and regional cultures and traditions become more accessible, eventually creating an

international identity with endless possibilities for collapsing both time and space. This is

interpreted as a form of virtual reality that uses a series of production-related activities

relating to the past, aiding ‘the tourist’s search for new meaning and identity’ and facilitated

by their intellect and imagination. The quest for these experiences was underlined further by

Apostolakis (2003) who drew a distinction between the modern Fordist concept of mass

tourism products of the 1960s and 1970s and the more recent post-Fordist (post-modern)

diverse and individualised elements of demand. Apostalakis argued that the challenge for

heritage tourism was to recognise and cater for this market trend of personal preferences (in

the broadest sense) of visitors, leading him to interpret heritage tourism as a ‘convergence

process’ of demand (tourism) and supply (heritage attractions). Thinking about the lot of the

visitor guide, Van Dijk & Kirk (2007) pointed out that it can sometimes be exhausting for

front-line tourism employees who are often required to energise themselves into theatrical

roles as part of a site’s interpretation, leading to possible emotional dissonance amongst

staff. This element of theatricality in the presentation of its historic properties has attracted

recent criticism amongst some National Trust members (see Chapter 5).

In post-modern tourism the association of a focus on cognitive and emotional

engagement with heritage tourism is further explored by a strand of literature drawing on

28
the idea of personal heritage. ‘Legacy tourism’, a sub-set of heritage tourism, is one such

interpretation defined by McCain & Ray (2003) as the search for personal meaning in

heritage leading to ‘genealogical endeavours’. Poria et al. (2004) have already argued that it

is too simplistic merely to define heritage tourism as part of cultural tourism where the main

motivation is to view historic artefacts/buildings for education and recreation, as suggested

by Nuryanti (1996). Instead, they maintain, visitors are further motivated by the desire to be

exposed to their own heritage creating a personal heritage experience. In a later paper, Poria

et al. (2006) explored how a site’s attributes and the actual heritage presented are implicitly

linked to the visitor’s perception of personal heritage. This has implications for heritage site

management and in theory could widen academic debate beyond leisure and recreation to

include, for example, religion and environmental psychology.

Sustainability and Sustainable development

Twentieth century ‘environmentalism’ is often said to have evolved in the 1960s and 1970s

coinciding with influential publications such as Rachel Carson’s (1962/2000) Silent Spring,

Garrett Hardin’s (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons and Donella Meadows’s The Limits

to Growth (Meadows et al.,1972). Until the 1960s ‘the environment’ was largely absent

from political and policy discourse (Dryzek, 1997). Gigliotti (1993) referred to the USA’s

1970 Earth Day as the onset of the ‘modern environmental era’ and indeed for this study,

1970 is selected as the start date for identifying the origins of the National Trust’s climate

change policy. In 1972 the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the

subsequent formation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) established

environmental concern internationally (Helm, 2000: xi). And in the UK, since 1960, the

membership of UK environmental organisations (The National Trust included) has roughly

29
doubled each decade (Connelly & Smith, 1999: 69); and at government level by 1990 the

environment was considered of sufficient importance to produce the White Paper This

Common Inheritance in the run-up to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and

Development in Rio de Janeiro (the ‘Rio Earth Summit’). These events paved the way for a

series of UK sustainable development strategies at national level.

Against this background of interest in and concern for the environment,

‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ became popularised during the late 1980s

following the publication of the World Commission on Environment and Development’s

(WCED) 1987 report Our Common Future, often referred to as the Brundtland Report,

named after the Norwegian Prime Minister who chaired the conference. Most literature

takes this as the starting point for serious discussion on sustainable development; although

Liu (2003) referred to the earlier convention of the International Union for the Conservation

of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)’s World Conservation Strategy of 1980. Bramwell

& Lane (2012) date the emergence of sustainable tourism to the environmental and social

tourism impact studies of the 1970s; and by the 1990s, a large and increasing amount of

tourism research turned its attention to the principles and practice of ‘sustainable tourism

development’ (Hunter, 1997).

Today, the terms sustainable development, sustainable tourism and sustainable

tourism development are often used interchangeably in the literature though they are not

necessarily synonymous with ‘sustainability’ itself (Cope, 1995: 66). Macbeth (1994: 42)

considered several dictionary definitions of the word ‘sustain’, all of them indicating a

purpose to ‘nurture, nourish, supply, support …’ before proposing a four-part sustainability

model likened to a ‘quadriga’ constructed of ecological, economic, social and cultural

elements; and: ‘If any horse falters, the chariot goes off course or stops. Finished!’ (p.42). A

30
decade later Macbeth (2005: 967) proposed that sustainability should extend Jafari’s (2001)

platform of tourism scholarship to a fifth level with ethics forming the sixth; thus

reinforcing the inter- and intra-generational quality of sustainable development. Baker

(2007: 7) underlined the original association of sustainability with ecology whereas Jackson

(2008: 57) emphasised the issue of a growing global population living within its limits,

echoing Garrett Hardin’s (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Blackburn (2008: 4-5)

acknowledged there are numerous definitions of sustainability and chose to theme his study

around the “2Rs”: resources (economic and natural); and respect (for people and other living

things). English Heritage’s (2008: 72) definition of ‘sustainable’: ‘Capable of meeting

present needs without compromising ability to meet future needs’ reflects the thrust of the

Brundtland Report: ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising

the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Baker, 2007: 20, citing the

WCED’s report of 1987, Our Common Future).

Writing about sustainable development and the National Trust, Cope (1995: 53-54)

expressed reservations about the usefulness of the sustainable development concept as a

foundation of the Trust’s future policies and of government policies because, he argued, the

concept contained inherent vagueness and imprecision, which perhaps had been too readily

adopted by political parties, the government, businesses and pressure groups. This theme is

revisited in Chapter 7. The contradiction of seeking to combine neo-classical economic

growth with a traditional ecological perspective in the name of sustainable development is a

recurrent theme in the sustainability debate, compounded by a multitude of differing

viewpoints: for example, Sharpley (2000), who cited 70 definitions of the concept.

O’Riordan (1998: 96) commented similarly on the propensity of the term ‘sustainable

development’ to ‘accommodate almost any unrequited social goal …’. The dynamic nature

31
of the concept of sustainable development, that is, its ability to be adapted to fit the

aspirations of different societies and cultures was emphasised by Baker (2007: 8), serving to

highlight the potential of the concept’s flexibility.

Sustainable tourism: paradigm or product?

In the late 1980s, the notion of ‘sustainable tourism’ grew out of concern over the real and

perceived negative environmental and social impacts of tourism (Lane, 2009a; 2009b);

Bramwell & Lane, 2012; Gössling & Scott, 2012). According to Jafari (2001) the first signs

were evident in the 1970s, in the ‘cautionary’ phase of tourism development, policy and

research: the second of Jafari’s four ‘platforms’ or paradigms that have characterised the

tourism debate and its literature in the period since the Second World War. But what is

sustainable tourism? Buckley (2012), in a review of sustainable tourism research, said that

sustainable tourism literature was defined by two external real-world phenomena:

sustainability and the tourism industry, rather than by an internally-generated concept.

Higgins-Desbiolles (2010: 117) defined it as contentious, arguing that there was no general

agreement on any of the permutation of terms used, such as ‘sustainable tourism’,

‘ecologically sustainable tourism’ or ‘sustainable development in tourism’; while associated

terms such as eco-tourism and alternative tourism were often assumed to be synonymous.

Garrod & Fyall (1998: 200) referred to the initial popularity of sustainability in the tourism

debate in the 1980s but suggested that the term had since been hijacked by economic and

financial discourses leading the concept to drift away from its original ecological emphasis.

They noted and appeared to agree with the view that continued debate on definition can

detract from the more important question of implementation of sustainable tourism practice;

and concluded:

32
 ‘Most of the bones of contention have already been so well picked that
there remains little meat on them for academics to squabble over’ (pp.
199-200).
Despite these concerns a few viewpoints will be examined briefly. The emergence of

sustainable tourism post-Brundtland led to a critical response in the early 1990s and some

influential reviews later in the decade. Wheeller (1991) for example, highlighted the

common perception that mass tourism is the ‘villain’. Alternative forms of small-scale

tourism prefixed typically by ‘alternative … sustainable, soft, green etc.’ collectively termed

‘responsible tourism’ are said by their providers or other supporters to achieve a fairer

distribution of benefits and costs. In practice however, Wheeller said that small-scale, so-

called ethical or responsible tourism, inevitably added to the growing volume of global

tourism (i.e. simply increased foot-fall at any destination); and that economically less-

developed countries or destinations could find it difficult to impose some of the controls and

restrictions needed to avoid negative impacts. Wheeller (p.96) concluded that the notion of

responsible tourism ‘appeases the guilt of the ‘thinking tourist’ while simultaneously

providing the holiday experience they or we want’. He suggested that in the long-run, the

promotion of sustainability by the tourism industry tended to fuel the ego of the tourist or

traveller lured by the marketing of nostalgic images of by-gone eras (for example

the1920s/30s) accompanied by ‘effusive, gushing expressions of concern’ about tourism’s

negative impacts (Wheeller, 1993: 121). As far as Wheeller was concerned (p.122),

sustainable tourism was a response to the criticism of tourism impact instead of actually

addressing those impacts. Ten years later Wheeller (2004: 475) reaffirmed his sceptical

view of eco or sustainable tourism’s ‘green mantle of respectability’.

McKercher (1993) considered two approaches to sustainability. The first was

development-oriented, focusing on the accumulation of wealth deriving from man-made and

33
natural capital that passed between generations; the other was the ‘ecologically sustainable

imperative’ where the preservation and conservation of natural assets should not be

compromised in the cause of generating economic wealth. With its heavy reliance on natural

resources, tourism is vulnerable to both approaches in terms of loss of operating areas. Early

studies on the environmental consequences of tourism concluded that tourism by its nature

was in conflict with any form of sustainable development, and that policy initiatives which

tried to reverse this trend were often unsuccessful. Later, a more symbiotic approach was

favoured where tourism was seen as part of a triangular relationship with the environment

and the local economy (Hjalager, 1996: 201). Choi & Sirakaya (2005) subsequently put

forward the sustainable tourism paradigm which sought to balance the traditional ‘utility

paradigm’ with that of the ‘new environmental paradigm (NEP)’. Luo & Deng (2008)

informed the debate with their study on environmental attitudes analysed using the NEP.

Sustainable development can be seen therefore, as aiming to achieve economic, social and

environmental benefits, while Hughes (1995) and Macbeth (2005) point also to the ethical

dimension of sustainability.

By the late 1990s, several influential articles had reviewed the progress and state of

sustainable tourism. Hunter (1997) was critical of its drift from the parental concept of

sustainable development, suggesting that the notion of sustainable tourism had become too

narrow or ‘tourism-centric’. He argued for sustainable tourism to be viewed within the

broader concept of sustainable development (see also Weaver, 2004; 2009). Clarke (1997)

identified a difference between the concept of sustainable tourism being seen as a form of

tourism product as opposed to a goal for all tourism to achieve (a paradigm approach).

Clarke’s paper charted the evolution of the concept in the 1990s taking the following path:

polar opposites (mass tourism and sustainable tourism); a continuum; movement (towards

34
sustainable tourism); and finally convergence (large-scale tourism towards small-scale).

This final position, it was argued, endowed sustainable tourism with the characteristics of a

goal or paradigm rather than a tourism product.

In discussion of the industry response to the ‘sustainability imperative’ Garrod &

Fyall (1998) referred to guidelines produced by organisations such as Tourism Concern and

the Worldwide Fund for Nature which, although appearing to be holistic and adaptable for

the diverse nature of the tourism industry, nevertheless exposed the weakness of leaving

open to interpretation specific actions or advice that may be needed to protect today’s

resources in such a way that they can be available to future generations: the so-called

‘constant capital’ rule of environmental economics.

For Butler (1999) the value of the term sustainable tourism lay in its indefinability so

that it could be adapted to suit different purposes such as appropriate development for

tourism; restoration of bygone principles for the conservationist; and preservation of

significant environments for the environmentalist. Butler agreed with Wheeller (1991; 1993)

that the real challenge for sustainable tourism lay in controlling the growing volume of mass

tourism, managing the carrying capacity of destinations and not being distracted by the

moral complacency of supposed environmentally-friendly tourism products such as eco-

tourism or nature-based tourism. Sharpley (2000) used the terms sustainable tourism and

sustainable development interchangeably leading to ‘sustainable tourism development’. He

attributed the multi-sector and fragmented nature of tourism in general to the localised and

relatively small-scale nature of sustainable tourism projects. Sharpley’s thesis argued that

sustainable tourism fell short of fulfilling the broader principles of sustainable development:

it was more the case of tourism being driven by an economic rationale while trying to

embrace environmental principles. For him, the concept of sustainable tourism was a ‘red

35
herring’ (p.14). Other literature supporting this point of view included Joppe (1996) and

Berry & Ladkin (1997) who explored sustainable tourism, respectively, in the light of

community development in Canada, and a regional perspective in East Sussex. Pforr (2001)

highlighted the attraction for governments and tourism businesses of promoting the popular

eco-tourism product whilst the conservationists and environmentalists advocated ‘protection

through usage’ (p. 69) in the hope of nurturing a ‘green’ tourism industry.

Before moving on to discuss the role of sustainable tourism indicators, the thrust of

the sustainable tourism concept will be summarised. Its origins lie within the broader fields

of sustainability and sustainable development, both of which are underpinned by the

rationale of ecology, economics, and society and culture. Central to these concepts is the

quest to achieve both intra and inter-generational equity. Much academic debate has been

directed at defining sustainable tourism, and whether it is a product or a paradigm; the

former indicates perhaps a commercial drift away from the principles of sustainable

development. Further on in this chapter it will be shown how climate change has become a

recent dimension in the sustainable tourism debate; this is central to this study.

Sustainable tourism indicators

In considering sustainable development, Mitchell (1996: 1) noted the debate had moved

from one of definition to measurement; while Lawrence (1998: 69) asked: ‘how might we

objectively know whether things are getting better or worse?’. Butler (1999: 16) observed

that without measures or indicators the term sustainable becomes meaningless and is prone

to ‘hyperbole and advertising jargon’. More recently, both Choi & Sirakaya (2005) and

Buckley (2012) have prioritised indicators for research, whereas Tanguay et al. (2013)

cautioned that many indicators devised by academics have limited usefulness for policy-

36
makers due to their complexity. It seems therefore, as is the case with defining sustainable

tourism, there is debate surrounding the usefulness of indicators. Following the 1992 Rio

Earth Summit, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development was established with the

aim of measuring progress towards sustainability using indicators (Moldan et al., 1997). The

tourism industry’s response came in 1993 when the UN World Tourism Organisation

commissioned a task force to develop a set of indicators (Manning, 1999). Further global

initiatives included the ‘Bellagio Principles’ of the International Council of Scientific

Unions (ICSU) (Hardi, 1997). And in the UK, a sustainable development strategy appeared

in 1994 followed by the first set of national indicators in 1996 (DCMS, 2007).

Miller (2001: 351) provided a ‘long and impressive’ list of organisations at

international and UK-level involved in developing sustainable tourism indicators at this

time. His research on indicators that can be used by consumers in the selection of their

holiday and generally promote a more sustainable form of tourism, was one of the first

studies of this kind in the tourism literature. Gössling et al.’s (2002) study of ecological

footprint analysis to assess tourism sustainability in the Seychelles exemplified an early

methodological study using quantitative techniques applied to tourist consumption. The use

of an ecological footprint approach was also commended by Hunter & Shaw (2007) who

wished to see its implementation extended from monitoring local destination impacts to a

more global scale. They were of the view that in 2007, the art and science of indicator

research was still in its infancy.

According to Reed et al. (2006) the sustainability indicator literature fell into two

broad categories: 1) the top-down approach using quantitative data (for example Gössling et

al., 2002); and 2) the bottom-up participatory approach, which emphasised the importance

of the local context. They proposed integrating these two approaches through the

37
development of an adaptive learning process using both quantitative and qualitative

techniques. Becken & Patterson (2006) provided one such example where these two

methodologies were combined to measure New Zealand tourism’s carbon dioxide

emissions. Choi & Sirakaya (2005) on the other hand, turned their attention to measuring

sustainable development progress at a local level, combining subjective indicators with

objective measurement. Measuring the sustainability of tourism organisations taking a

micro approach was examined at by Roberts & Tribe (2008) who argued that indicators

could test an underlying assumption that small enterprises, by virtue of their size,

automatically contributed to sustainable development (Appendix 2.1). Studies at a wider

destination-level include Schianetz & Kavanagh (2008) who proposed a set of indicators

termed the ‘systemic indicator system’, designed to improve the sustainable planning of a

destination; and Larson & Poudyal’s (2012) study of managing resources more adaptively

amongst the vested interests of stakeholders at Macchu Pichu in Peru, to address problems

of the site’s carrying capacity. Another study, by Williams & Ponsford (2009), which

examined a sustainability plan for the Canadian mountain resort Whistler, was considered a

useful model if not a blueprint for destination planning. Indicators therefore, have been

developed taking different approaches for different scales of application. As will be seen

later, this study of the National Trust favours the small-scale, local approach to measuring

sustainability.

Stakeholder involvement and empowerment

Cole (2006) noted that community participation and empowerment are essential for ensuring

sustainable tourism development; and that this process had become a mantra of sustainable

tourism. The challenge for empowerment lay in furnishing communities (i.e. residents and

38
local businesses in tourism destinations) with relevant information about the tourism

development process and the needs of tourists. The notion of ‘steady-state solutions’ (Hall,

2009b) that optimised all stakeholders’ interests as part of realising a sustainable maximum

level of tourism development for a region was the basis of Johnston & Tyrrell’s (2005)

approach to sustainable tourism. Their ‘dynamic model of sustainable tourism’ took account

of trade-offs and potential conflicts between profit-maximising tourism businesses and that

of the permanent residents at the tourism destination. The starting point for sustainable

tourism development in a community, argued Byrd (2007), was the identification of

stakeholders categorised into present and future residents plus present and future visitors.

He suggested that a key to success is to encourage stakeholders to participate in

sustainability issues even if in a minor way. More recently, based on the European Charter

for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas, a Sustainable Performance Index has been

developed to extend consultation with local stakeholders through a process of active

participation (Castellani & Sala, 2010). An example of residents taking a more pro-active

approach is provided by Hwang et al. (2012) in their study of five communities on Jeju

Island, South Korea where the residents initiated community-based action in response to the

social impact of tourism. Their efforts contributed to the long-term planning of tourism

development on the island. Other recent research (Waligo et al., 2013; Albrecht, 2013;

Graci, 2013; Lee, 2013) addresses the involvement of stakeholders in ways such as

networking, collaboration and partnership; and the support of community residents for

sustainable tourism development. Empowerment and the advocacy of a bottom-up approach

to policy-making are a common theme to these studies.

Sustainable tourism and climate change

39
The discussion of climate change in the sustainable tourism literature has gathered pace

since the publication of the 2007 Helsingborg Statement on Sustainable Tourism (Gössling

et al. 2008) where attention was drawn to tourism’s contribution to global warming. Much

of the literature since then has questioned the effectiveness of sustainable tourism in

controlling mass tourism and its environmental consequences. Recent papers in

mainstream tourism journals continue to question sustainable tourism’s ability to bring

about sustainability in the global tourism industry based on the premise that tourism

continues to represent a global problem associated with climate change impacts. In this

respect Bramwell & Lane (2008) underlined that aviation is widely forecast as tourism’s

biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and that sustainable tourism has now

become a global trip problem, not just a destination issue. Following the financial crisis

which began in 2007 with the run on Northern Rock and then the collapse of Lehman

Brothers in the USA in 2008, Bramwell & Lane (2011) warned that governments’

enthusiasm for sustainable tourism as a remedy for environmental damage inflicted by mass

tourism may be thwarted by concerns over the economic crisis resulting in, for example, a

possible reluctance to invest in public infrastructure needed for sustainable projects.

Gössling et al. (2012a), advocating a transitional management approach needed for

sustainable tourism, also pointed to global tourism becoming less sustainable due to its

continued growth and limited progress being achieved in areas such as conservation,

protection of biodiversity, and energy and water use.

Hall’s (2009b) answer to the worsening effects of tourism on climate change lay in

his notion of ‘steady-state tourism’ with the promotion of slow consumption and local

travel. He argued for a paradigm shift from sustainable to steady-state tourism (Hall, 2010).

For Hall, the notion of the compatibility of sustainable tourism with economic growth was

40
the key issue. He advocated a type of circular economy approach where tourism accounted

for the entire process of production and consumption (the ‘polluter pays’ principle) rather

than just focusing on tourism’s negative effects. Hall’s thoughts on slow consumption were

echoed by Ram et al.’s (2013) ‘happiness model’ that could give leverage in breaking up the

‘speed-distance-demand loop’ in the context of leisure mobility. In other words, there was a

tacit acceptance that the economic imperative of tourism and its resultant negative impacts

continue to present a challenge for sustainability; so perhaps the solution lay in viewing

tourism as its own economic model; one that should operate with its own checks and

balances. These and similar discourses utilise visitor motivation and behaviour research.

Further examples were found to centre on pro-environmental behaviour contributing to

sustainable tourism, and included Dolnicar & Leisch (2008); Lane (2009); Dávid (2011);

Antimova et al. (2012); Kim (2012); Bramwell & Lane (2013) and Peeters (2013).

Finally, the recent exchange between Weaver (2011b) and Scott (2011) exposed

continuing uncertainties surrounding the concept and applicability of sustainable tourism.

Weaver maintained that a growing engagement with climate change is not necessarily

conducive to sustainable tourism for a variety of reasons. He began by suggesting that the

current state of tourism-climate change knowledge had not yet developed sufficiently to

warrant major private and public sector investments in climate change mitigation and

adaptation. Weaver then highlighted, for example: what he saw as some of the continued

uncertainties associated with climate change impact projections; a relative lack of

commitment by the tourism industry to tackling climate change, sometimes limited to

superficial environmental measures such as hotel linen recycling; and a travelling public

who, although they expressed their awareness of and concern about climate change, in

practice seemed reluctant to change their behaviour. Scott refuted most of Weaver’s

41
criticisms, defending the performance of the IPCC but recognising that the science of

climate change and accuracy of impact projections were not infallible. For Scott, that

climate change as a topic had represented only 1.7 per cent of peer-reviewed articles in the

leading four tourism journals during 2000-2009, was not a justification for stalling action by

the tourism industry; although he agreed with Weaver that the tourism sector engagement in

climate change had to date been largely rhetorical. Scott contended that how the tourism

industry responded to climate change was critical if the industry were to make progress in

its sustainability. For Scott, climate change is the ‘new strategic reality’ for businesses,

governments and NGOs.

Climate change research in tourism studies

Climate change is a concern for tourism because of the direct climatic impacts on the

tourism sector (principally adaptation studies); the indirect effects of climate change on

tourism; and tourism’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (principally mitigation

studies) (Becken & Clapcott, 2011). Gössling et al. (2012: 37) agreed with their reasons, but

added a fourth concern. In their view, climate change was a more holistic and under-

researched area: changes in society related to ‘reduced economic growth, consumer cultures

and social-political stability’ brought about by climate change that would inevitably affect

tourism. Early research though, had tended to focus on how local destinations responded to

the impacts of a changing climate; whereas later studies (generally 2000 onwards) assessed

the contribution of tourism to emitting GHGs and subsequent impacts, especially caused by

transport. According to Dickinson (2010), there is a present need for public engagement

with climate change in an effort to bring about behaviour decisions that could lead to a

lower carbon future for tourism.

42
 Broadly speaking, these reasons have framed much of the tourism-climate change

literature since its emergence in the mid-1980s, as well as the development of tourism

climate change policy across all levels from global to micro levels. Fischer’s (2007) meta-

study of articles written between 2006 and 2007 on tourism and climate change identified

that the majority of papers addressed impacts, adaptation and mitigation measures. Studies

addressing the practical implications of climate change on the historic environment are to be

found in publications by organisations concerned about climate impacts such as English

Heritage’s Heritage Counts series (English Heritage (2006a/2008); its collaborative research

with University College London (Cassar, 2005); and regional climate change studies

including those in the West Midlands (English Heritage, 2006b). Further local studies

include the East Midlands Sustainable Development Round Table (2003) and Sustainability

West Midlands (2004). A more global perspective for the tourism industry was undertaken

by UNESCO-WHC (2008).

Scott et al. (2005: 47-53) saw the evolution of climate change literature as belonging

to a spectrum of climate-weather and tourism-recreation studies, across four phases: the

Formative Phase (1960-79); Period of Stagnation (1980s); Emergence of Climate Change

(1990s); and Maturation (2000-present). A later review of tourism-climate change research

contributing to climate policy by Scott & Becken (2010), also saw an essentially slow start

being made in the 1980s but with the pace picking up from the mid-1990s. A recent

systematic analysis of tourism and climate change research by Pang et al. (2013) found that

during the period 1996-2010, some 440 journal articles had been published on the topic,

with a significant growth since the mid-2000s. However, taking climate change research in

its entirety, over the past 20 years tourism-related papers represented a mere 0.5 per cent of

all published works on the subject. A further study by Weaver (2011b), surveyed articles in

43
the four leading tourism academic journals (Annals of Tourism Research; Journal of Travel

Research; Tourism Management; Journal of Sustainable Tourism) for 2000-2009 and found

that only 1.7 per cent of papers related to climate change. Such studies have pointed to a

relative low profile of climate change issues in the tourism literature to date.

By the early 2000s then, the potential impacts of tourism on a changing climate were

generally considered to be under-researched; and thus strengthened the case for convening

the UNWTO’s First International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism on the island

of Djerba, Tunisia in 2003 (Nicholls, 2004). In Fischer’s (2007) view, following the Djerba

Conference, climate change became one of UNWTO’s priorities, further acknowledged by

the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and NGOs. Dubois & Ceron (2006: 412-

413) saw a further challenge in developing a multi/inter-disciplinary approach to tourism-

climate research involving such disciplines as economics, sociology and meteorology.

Early tourism and climate research during the 1960s and 1970s focused mainly on

the relationship between the two phenomena and the climate preferences of tourists: a

period termed by Lamb (2002) as the ‘climate revolution’. Wall & Badke (1994) concluded

that climate change was an important determinant of tourism and that it would create new

challenges and opportunities for the tourism industry, but that more research and policy

analysis were needed to further understand the issues, assess implications, and enable the

industry to adapt to changing circumstances. Some studies examined the extent to which a

destination’s climate would influence a tourist’s choice of location. Lise & Tol (2002: 446)

for example, arrived at an optimum temperature of 21˚ Celsius whereas Maddison (2001)

settled for 30˚-31˚ Celsius. For Martín (2005), a number of factors determined a

destination’s environmental assets and the overall quality of the tourist experience, such as

the seasonality of its activities and the inter-action of demand, supply and the market agents

44
of tourism. Berrittella et al. (2006) focused on tourism demand, examining the economic

implications of fluctuating tourism flows associated with a changing climate, and

highlighted these changes would probably impact on the location of tourism expenditure,

but not so much on the aggregate of visitor spending. The impact of a warming climate on

visitor behaviour and habitat use at two beaches in East Anglia (Coombes & Jones, 2010) is

an example of a study more closely associated with the National Trust’s conservation and

tourism activities.

The earliest tourism impact studies that appeared in the mid-1980s focused on

camping and skiing in Canada: camping, facing potentially an extended season; and skiing,

a shorter season (Wall et al., 1986; McBoyle et al., 1986). This research typically reviewed

the evidence for a changing climate and considered the likely impacts on their respective

sectors of the tourism industry. The 1990s being the warmest decade on record may well

have prompted a number of UK impact studies, such as Giles & Perry’s (1995) study on

how the unusually warm year of 1995 saw a boost for domestic tourism, with possible

implications for the competitive balance of holiday destinations at home and overseas; or

Harrison et al.’s (1999) optimistic prognosis on the effects of a warming climate on

Scotland’s tourist industry. This formative period also witnessed medical and environmental

journals beginning to publish research on climate change impact issues, thus widening the

disciplinary boundaries of the subject. Examples include: Kalkstein (1993); Bowes & Sedjo

(1993); Keeney (1994); Gössling et al., (2002); also later: Hoy et al. (2011) and Rosselló-

Nadal et al. (2011).

The impact of climate change on tourism destinations has continued to dominate

tourism-climate change research since the mid-2000s; although in Patterson & Bastianoni’s

(2006) view, much climate change impact research has taken a limited, polarised approach,

45
with the focus being placed on either the impacts of climate change on tourism (more

adaptation), or the reverse (more mitigation). Popular destinations for study have included

low-lying small island states e.g. the Caribbean (Belle & Bramwell, 2005; Hall & Clayton,

2009; Attzs, 2009); alpine resorts (Scott et al., 2007; Shih et al., 2008; Müller & Weber,

2008); Scotland (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006); and coastal tourism (Anning et al.,

2009; Moreno & Becken, 2009). Valls & Sardá’s (2009) analysis of climate change impacts

from the perspective of destination management in the Euro-Mediterranean tourism industry

highlighted the pursuit of responsible tourism through the integration of mitigation and

adaptation measures. Their study acknowledged some of the uncertainties associated with

climate change, such as the speed and regularity of a changing climate and its projected

impacts. Tourism businesses, they argued, should be prepared for the unexpected. These,

and other studies, usually began with a reference to the increasing evidence for climate

change, followed by an impact analysis taking account of changes in tourism demand, and

adaptation strategies appropriate for the local climate and geography of the destination.

To reiterate, there has been less research on the impacts of climate change on

cultural heritage assets than studies addressing issues associated with coastal tourism, small-

state-islands, or ski resorts. This could be explained by those destinations’ perceived

reliance on geography and climate to maintain a profitable and sustainable tourism industry.

In contrast, Haugen & Mattson’s (2011) Norwegian study resonates more with the dilemmas

faced by the National Trust in its recognition that cultural heritage assets - natural, built,

archaeological, interiors - are non-renewable. Threats include damage due to extreme

weather events, and problems with humidity and biological degradation affecting interior

fabric and art collections. English Heritage (2006a/2008) pointed out that the historic

environment is a finite resource and must be protected for future generations although,

46
inevitably, some assets will have to be lost. In this study’s first interview conducted at the

National Trust’s headquarters in 2007, a director made the following remark about

preserving assets in perpetuity: ‘There are no sacred cows’. English Heritage argued that it

is possible to achieve adaptation and energy efficiency without compromising historic

distinctiveness and ultimately, this process can act as an inspiration to work towards

achieving a low carbon economy. Changing people’s behaviour, English Heritage

maintained, was just as important as achieving energy efficiencies.

At the Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism at Davos in

2007, further action covering a wide spectrum of measures was called for from

governments, the tourism industry, consumers, and research and communications networks

(UNWTO-UNEP-WMO, 2007). The conference agreed that a rapid response was required

from the tourism sector within the evolving UN framework of institutions and mechanisms

designed to tackle climate change, in order to reduce the sector’s GHGs and ensure the

opportunities for sustainable growth. Particular reference was made to transport and

accommodation activities as the largest carbon emitters. A year after Davos, two reports

were published respectively by Simpson et al. (2008) and UNWTO-UNEP-WMO (2008)

setting out the key challenges facing the industry using mitigation and adaptation strategies;

and supported by the scientific evidence for climate change and its projected impacts. By

2009, the combined efforts of the tourism research community and the UNWTO resulted in

raising awareness of tourism’s relevance to climate change, estimated to be 5 per cent of

global CO2 emissions (Simpson et al. 2008).

Literature addressing mitigation invariably involves measuring the energy

consumption of tourists and the tourism industry. According to Gössling et al. (2002),

despite the enormous and widespread nature of tourism across the globe, its environmental

47
consequences have not yet been fully addressed. This line of inquiry began to develop from

the early 2000s with studies such as Gössling et al. (2002; 2005); Bode et al (2003); and

especially research undertaken by Susanne Becken at Lincoln University in New Zealand:

Becken (2004); Becken et al. (2001; 2002; 2003a; 2003b); Becken & Simmons (2002);

Becken & Patterson (2006). Becken’s research focused on the energy consumption of

tourism sectors in New Zealand, which is useful for assessing the sustainability of a

destination or attraction. This was reinforced by Gössling et al.’s (2005) extensive

quantitative study of the eco-efficiency of tourism in various tourism sectors, with its

applications for analysing the combined environmental and economic performance of

tourism activities such as day-trips, journeys, and destination activities. In a later study,

Filimonau et al. (2011) expressed reservations about some of the environmental assessment

techniques used to date; and proposed a life-cycle assessment model designed to estimate

some of the indirect carbon contributions caused by short-haul trips.

Further, Gössling’s (2009) conceptual analysis of carbon neutral destinations and

other ‘emerging buzzwords’ in sustainable tourism research, although using five individual

countries as much broader cases, nevertheless, provides a context for some of the National

Trust’s initiatives such as its energy policy for gradually replacing oil dependence with

renewable energy sources. Chenworth (2009) claimed that car-sharing and shorter distance

travel, combined with environmentally-concerned travellers, could lead to more sustainable,

low-carbon travel. Additionally, the management of leisure time, particularly when on

holiday, was explored by Dickinson & Peeters (2014) as contributing to potentially more

sustainable tourist consumption: a contemporary theme in the literature.

Travel behaviour and transport issues for leisure and climate change

48
On the sustainability dilemma surrounding tourism and transport, Becken believed that

discussion on such issues was still at an early stage (Becken, 2006). She suggested five

themes for future climate change research, all of which link in some way to the present

study, particularly regarding tourists’ travel demands and attitudes; and, how current

transport and climate change policies can affect patterns of tourist consumption and

behaviour. Two themes are reviewed here. First, there are studies that address choice of

transport mode for both commuting and general purpose travel or, in some cases, leisure

travel, as part of a wider discussion about transport policies. This branch of research

commonly utilised well-known theories from environmental psychology for analysing travel

motivation and behaviour (Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987; Ajzen, 1991; Schwartz, 1994; 1999;

Stern et al. 1995; Stern, 2000; Dunlap et al., 2000; and Bamberg & Möser, 2007). Second,

and relying more on the tourism-climate change literature, was a steady stream of papers

about sustainable travel behaviour and tourists’ perceptions and awareness of climate

change issues. These two areas were often inter-related.

For example, in Grob’s (1995) study of two groups of Swiss drivers – ‘green car’

association members versus ‘traditional’ drivers – the application of nine attitudinal

constructs showed that the green drivers revealed higher levels of pro-environmental

behaviour than the traditional group, suggesting an association between social group

membership and environmental attitudes. Attitude/behaviour constructs also underpinned

Nilsson & Küller’s (2000) study of Swedish urban motorists, including variables such as

annual driving distance; choice of transport mode; frequency of journeys (leisure purposes

were represented); acceptance of traffic restrictions; and general attitudes towards transport

issues and the environment. Although their research focused on urban motorists, the results

have wider application for motorists in general: in particular, how pro-environmental

49
behaviour might depend on environmental attitudes, and that travel behaviour (including

driving distance) was associated more closely with an individual’s socio-economic

background and available resources.

According to Steg et al. (2001) and Klockner & Matthies (2004), a deeper insight

into car-user motives can be explained by symbolic-affective reasons (expressing oneself

and one’s social position) in addition to instrumental reasons (pragmatic reasons for using a

car). Their research into the role of personal and social norms affecting the travel behaviour

of German commuters, although also focusing on an urban population, nevertheless

contributes to understanding the psychology of modal choice for leisure travel. In contrast,

Anable’s (2005) study used a sample of visitors to more rural National Trust properties in

the north-west of England to show that different visitor segments displayed correspondingly

different attitudes on travel and the environment, inferring possibly different responses to

policy intervention. When it came to suggesting to the public that reducing their carbon

footprint might have beneficial consequences, Hares et al. (2010) pointed out that such

communication efforts were usually focused on home activities, rather than holiday travel.

Market segmentation is a common theme running through much of the literature on

tourist energy consumption and behaviour, and has implications for pro-environmental

campaigns, although Crompton (2008) believed strategies that aimed to promote behaviour

change through lifestyle changes had their limitations. The World Wildlife Fund

(Crompton) argued that small-step changes relied on successful social marketing campaigns

and a potentially fickle audience. Instead, there needed to be a systemic re-appraisal of

macro-economic and environmental priorities where, for example, economic goals should

be integrated with environmental priorities. Becken et al. (2003a; 2003b) identified different

clusters of tourists who exhibited different travel patterns and energy use levels, and,

50
although set in a national context, their research could be applied also to more local

scenarios. The sense of a personal responsibility for the environmental effects of one’s

travel behavior conflicting with a belief in the importance of freedom to travel, has

characterised later work on perceptions of air travellers in relation to climate change

(Becken, 2007). The practice of carbon off-setting schemes, notably Gössling et al.’s (2007)

research into Voluntary Carbon Off-setting Schemes (VCOs) is associated with an attitude-

awareness-behaviour tranche of literature where, again, particular strategies are proposed

for different market or visitor segments. Tree-planting (Becken, 2004) was one such idea;

whereas Mair’s (2011) approach to segmentation, although directed at air travellers, had

practical applications for overland travel.

The link between socio-demographic characteristics and visitor segmentation

featured in several studies on travel behaviour. Lu & Pas (1999) highlighted tourists’ choice

of activities, for instance during a day-trip, as a factor which, in addition to socio-

demographic characteristics, influenced travel behaviour; whereas Kattiyapornpong &

Miller (2009) focused on age, income and lifestyle; and concluded that these variables were

likely to be significant in understanding leisure and recreational activity. Lifestyle

considerations were also relevant to the study of time as a factor in explaining travel

behaviour. Axhausen & Bhat’s (2005: 277) concept of ‘connection choice’, explained as a

combination of time, route and travel mode used to reach a destination, was understood to

be ‘the building block with which travelers organize their daily lives’. By focusing on time

and travel behaviour, Dickinson et al. (2013) proposed that increased time available for

travel could, depending on choice of transport mode, result in higher speed; thus leading to a

corresponding increase in distance travelled with increased GHG emissions. This notion

was associated with a traditional, linear view of time, which encouraged a

51
compartmentalized approach to planning: described as ‘clock-time cultures’. Mobile

telephones and social networking were seen also as emerging factors that could influence

changing patterns of transport use. An earlier paper by Dickinson et al. (2010) explored a

growing movement known as ‘slow travel’ whereby tourists choose to travel more by

overland means, to stay longer at a destination, and to travel less within the destination.

However, barriers were to be overcome, described as the ‘socially embedded rules of travel

and inadequate slow travel structures’ (p.488).

Research into leisure travel and the day visitor market in the context of sustainable

tourism is relevant for this study of the National Trust, as the majority of its properties are

located in rural areas. For example, Dickinson et al.’s (2004) survey covering 26 National

Trust properties and over 8,000 respondents in the south-west of England reviewed some of

the Trust’s transport initiatives since 1995, explored in Chapter 6. They found that travel

distance to properties, a determinant of GHG emissions, was accounted for by the

‘distinctive pattern’ of each property, consisting of its leisure setting, proximity to

population centres, visit purpose and visitor characteristics, as well as transport constraints.

Attitudes to traffic problems in rural areas were also examined in Cullinane & Cullinane’s

(1999) earlier survey of Dartmoor and the Lake District.

In Dickinson & Dickinson’s (2006) opinion, many studies on rural transport and the

leisure market have taken an atheoretical approach, avoiding the ‘quicksand of the transport

debate’ (citing Wheeller, 1993: 124). Their study on local public transport on the other

hand, used social representations theory (citing Moscovici, 1981) which focused on how

people think or create their shared realities about certain issues; for example the notion:

‘The car cannot be restricted’ or ‘If public transport were improved people would use it

more’ (Dickinson & Dickinson, 2006: 201-202). Such social realities were held to be

52
common-sense outcomes, and better explained what influences behaviour than any theories

directed at the rational or objective reality of using buses, cycling or walking. They

concluded that social representations theory could explain transport/travel attitudes beyond

the more established psychology models that looked at attitude/behaviour and rational

decision-making such as Ajzen (1991) or Bamberg et al. (2007). Social representations, it

was suggested, could contribute to a better understanding of travel behaviour and choice of

transport mode as part of climate change mitigation measures. Further applications of the

representations model in rural destinations include Dickinson & Robbins (2007; 2008) and

Dickinson, Robbins & Fletcher (2009).

Other transport literature addressed some of the various public transport schemes

directed at leisure travel in rural UK areas including Lumsdon et al.’s (2006) study of the

Wayfarer ticket project in the Greater Manchester area; Guiver et al.’s (2007) research into

the Tourism on Board scheduled bus project in the Lake District; and Gronau &

Kagermeier’s (2007) contention that a successful leisure and tourism public transport

provision is more likely to be achieved by a demand-oriented, bottom-up approach to

policy-making. It follows, according to Guiver (2007), that a qualitative research technique

such as discourse analysis can inform this process. These studies provide context for the

National Trust’s awareness of its visitors’ reliance on car travel and its subsequent efforts to

promote local public transport networks or other more sustainable modes of travel. This

issue is explored further in Chapters 6, 7 and 8.

Chapter summary

This chapter set out to establish the context of the literature used for this study. Two areas of

literature were reviewed to begin with which, combined, served to show how the concept of

53
sustainable heritage tourism came to be constructed. Following a discussion on the

definition and origins of heritage and Britain’s heritage industry, during which the founding

years of the National Trust were highlighted, the review then examined the concept of

sustainable development, which led to the onset of the sustainable tourism era from the early

1990s. Criticisms have been levelled at sustainable tourism in that the idea has been prone

to rhetoric: more of a response to criticisms of tourism’s negative impacts rather than

actually addressing those impacts. How climate change began to shape tourism studies from

the mid-1980s became the third area of literature reviewed. It was shown how early research

focused on the impact of climate change on tourism destinations and their response in terms

of adaptive measures and policies. Later research began to address tourism’s impact on

climate change in terms of mitigation: how tourism activities could reduce their impact on

the environment, principally by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the transport

sector. This tranche of literature utilised aspects of environmental psychology in order to

analyse the motivations for possibly making changes to travel behaviour. It was shown how

the sustainable tourism approach became important for how and why tourism could make an

effective response to climate change. The literature review therefore, brought together three

research fields of heritage tourism, sustainable tourism, and tourism-climate change studies:

sustainable heritage tourism.

Two areas of debate emerged from the review that is central to understanding the

character of the National Trust and the contribution of its climate change policy to

sustainable heritage tourism. The first concerns the critical discourses on heritage that reveal

multiple realities of the concept. Once seen as the embodiment of a nation’s historic built

environment, which provides access for recreation and education in the supply-side sense,

heritage then began to be understood through the motivation of visitors and their personal

54
heritage experiences, perhaps driven by cultural values and a quest for some form of

nostalgia. The nexus of the supply and demand sides of heritage came to be regarded by

some as the core of heritage tourism. Moving on from these definitional aspects, heritage

has been regarded as a value-laden concept. Taking a micro approach, the owner or manager

of a visitor attraction (for example) interprets and presents the attraction’s product or

experience in a way designed to meet the educational and recreational needs of visitors, as

well as ensure the attraction’s overall operation is commercially viable. This approach

resonates with the National Trust. Implicitly, therefore, the organiser of the attraction

applies a set of values in the way, for example, historical events are selected and interpreted:

the way a story is told. Taking a broader, societal view, some have argued that heritage is a

forum for those well-endowed with cultural or even political capital, the bourgeoisie, to

perpetuate established cultural values typically associated with higher art. The charity’s

assets are divided between landscape and built heritage: it was this very coalescence in the

late 19th century that helped to create any ideas of a national heritage (in Britain’s case). The

National Trust’s values and extent to which the charity represents a form of national

heritage is a theme echoed in heritage’s critical discourses. At the same time, these cultural

assets, for example castles, country mansions, museums, are prone to being commodified

and marketed for mass consumption; some might say even being turned into a form of

popular culture. The National Trust finds itself centre-stage in this debate, with some

commentators identifying elements of commodification creeping in to the presentation of

histories and stories associated with some of its properties. Chapters 5-7 will show how the

charity has to balance the competing needs of commercial access with its core purpose of

conservation, which, in the long-run, is a statement on its sustainable approach to heritage

tourism and response to climate change.

55
 The second area of debate arising from the literature concerns the emergence of pro-

environmental behaviour as an important dimension in understanding the role of mitigation

in achieving a sustainable approach to tourism. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, climate

change-tourism literature began with impact and adaptation studies, but then extended to the

realm of tourism’s culpability as a contributor to GHGs. This led to tourism research

integrating inter/multi-disciplinary studies, notably from environmental psychology and

transport studies, as an analytic framework for understanding travel behaviour as an agent of

mitigation. For example: why would air passengers consider off-setting their carbon

emissions; what is the influence of group norming on bringing about a willingness to use

‘greener’ modes of transport?; is there potential to explore further opportunities to promote

the idea of ‘slow travel’?; are social representations a more realistic approach to explain

environmental attitudes than traditional psychology models of rational behaviour? Some of

the studies in the literature pointed to the incongruities found in cognitive and affective

behaviours; in other words, what one might understand and believe as important does not

necessarily reflect how one feels about an issue and one’s subsequent behaviour. This

tranche of literature resonates with some of the criticism levelled against sustainable tourism

in that policy-makers and tourism practitioners might be eager to adopt the rhetoric of pro-

environmental behaviour but in reality, the motives for what people think about the

environment and the way they act require a deeper appreciation and understanding. This

study reflects on such matters in relation to climate change and a sustainable approach to

heritage tourism.

56
 CHAPTER 3

INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORK

Introduction

This chapter explains the interpretive framework used to address the study’s research

questions outlined in Chapter 1. These questions were crystallised out of the literature

review, which pointed to an examination of climate change policy’s contribution to

sustainable heritage tourism being interpreted through a framework illustrated in Figure 3.1

below: the climate change phenomenon and how international and national policies were

developed as a response; aspects of the philosophy and principles of public and tourism

policy-making; governance and contemporary management practice; and an insight to pro-

environmental attitudes and behaviour through environmental ethics and environmental

psychology.

Climate change
Science & Policy

Policy studies
Macro; Meso; Micro Sustainable
The Heritage
National Trust Tourism
Governance
&
Management

Pro-environmental
Behaviour

Figure 3.1: Interpretive framework

57
Climate change

In its two most recent Assessment Reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) began by stating that ‘Warming of the climate system is unequivocal’ (IPCC, 2007;

2013) adding in its fifth report (AR5) that since the 1950s ‘many of the observed changes

are unprecedented over decades to millennia’ (emphasis added) (IPCC, 2013: 4). In the

winter of 2013/14 the UK experienced some of its most severe storms and flooding on

record which, according to Sir David King, the UK government’s former Chief Scientific

Adviser, could be attributed to global warming (Mason & Jones, 2014). These events seem

to be consistent with the IPCC (2014) declaring with ‘very high confidence’ (9/10 on a scale

of certainty) that recent extreme weather events have revealed the vulnerability of some

ecosystems and human systems to climate variability. This prompted a series of press

articles from ‘quality broadsheets’ across the political spectrum alerting their readership to

the potential widespread impacts of climate change, for example: Connor (2014); Gosden

(2014); Jenkins (2014a); Deben (2014) Stern (2014); and the Royal Society (2014).

Climate change has come to be regarded by many as a serious risk to humankind and

the planet with research suggesting that the more knowledgeable people become, the more

likely they are to have a clearer perception of risk and to take steps to reduce some of the

negative consequences associated with global warming (Sunblad et al., 2007). Although the

term ‘awareness/attitude-behaviour gap’ is a persistent theme in environmental psychology

literature, Antimova et al. (2012) and Gössling et al. (2012b) found that public perceptions

of climate change were often ill-informed and polarised, thus creating potential barriers to

achieving any degree of behavioural change; although Hares et al. (2010) provided evidence

of an awareness-attitude gap more than an attitude-behaviour gap suggesting an element of

58
denial, in this case, amongst holiday air travellers. Lorenzoni et al. (2007) though, believed

an individual’s cognition (understanding) helped to contribute to public engagement with

climate change. Some argue that few political leaders or citizens have sufficient

understanding of climate change science to evaluate climate-related proposals or

controversies; or to communicate the risks of climate change effectively (Kempton, 1997;

Pidgeon & Fischoff, 2011; Sterman, 2011). Furthermore, according to Grothmann & Patt

(2005), human cognition can have a bearing on a person’s adaptive capacity: in other words,

taking practical measures to counteract the effects of climate change. These are some of the

reasons why it is considered relevant here to provide a résumé of climate change science.

Climate can be defined simply as ‘the typical range of weather, including its

variability, experienced at a particular place’ (Pittock, 2007: 2). Features that influence a

region’s climate include latitude, longitude, and proximity to oceans and land masses

(Houghton, 2004: 2). According to Dow & Dowling (2007: 14) thirty years is the classical

period for defining a climate. Weather patterns or a ‘synthesis of weather’ make up a

climate (Durst, 1951: 974), in other words weather can be seen as a sub-set of climate.

Weather changes over decades or centuries are usually referred to as ‘climate change’.

Britain for example, experienced a ‘medieval warm period’ during the 11th-14th centuries

followed by a ‘little ice age’ throughout the 15th to 19th centuries.

During the 1960s, new knowledge and techniques helped to revolutionise our

understanding of the repeated glacial-interglacial oscillations that have characterised at least

the last one million years of Earth’s climate history. Lamb (2002: 1) termed this climate

science era the ‘Climate Revolution’. Evidence gained from ice and sediment cores from

Antarctica, Greenland and the ocean floors indicate that climate fluctuations have occurred

on much shorter time scales, for example decades, than previously thought (Dansgaard et

59
al., 1993; Storch et al., 2004; Siegenthaler et al., 2005; Hansen et al., 2006). These

variations in climate can be traced through ‘proxy indicators’ such as ice cores, tree rings

and coastal land forms (Appendix 3.1).

Variations in the Earth’s climate over millennia experienced principally as ice ages,

and in the absence of humans, can be explained by fluctuations in the distribution of

incoming solar energy caused by the tilting of the Earth at 23.5 degrees on its axis in its

elliptical orbit around the Sun whilst shorter term changes can be attributed to natural events

such as volcanic eruptions (Houghton, 2004: 69-72). Increased GHG emissions: principally

carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour, and the subsequent acceleration of the

‘greenhouse effect’ attributed to the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Fourier in 1827,

led to theories of global warming, notably Tyndall (1863) and Arrhenius (1896). The

greenhouse effect is the result of atmospheric warming caused by solar heat becoming

trapped by greenhouse gases. Following the work of Roger Revelle and Hans Suess of the

Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California in 1957 who measured the atmospheric

concentration levels of GHGs, climate change science has advanced rapidly accompanied

by a growing concern over the harmful effects of fossil fuels. As concentrations of these

gases increase, so the insulation effect is magnified, effectively creating a blanket around

the planet. The acceleration of this warming, faster than predicted for the current inter-

glacial period, has been attributed to human activities (principally industrialisation since the

mid-18th century); and thus concerns about the effects of global warming.

In 2013 it was reported that levels of carbon dioxide, the principal GHG, had

increased from a pre-industrial value of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 391 ppm by 2011

(IPCC, 2013: 11). The accelerated greenhouse effect has led to faster warming of the

atmosphere and oceans, diminishing levels of snow and ice, ocean acidification and sea

60
level rises. These effects have been measured periodically since the 1950s alongside various

projections of climate change impacts adjusted for constructed economic, social and

technological conditions. These are known as scenarios, developed increasingly with the aid

of computer models known as Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs). However,

uncertainties have been expressed with the accuracy of these scenarios, which has not been

conducive to effective policy-making (see, for example, Rayner & Malone, 1998 and

Rotmans & van Asselt, 2001). The IPCC produced four ‘storylines’ related to different

scenarios (Appendix 3.2) against which a number of projections of atmospheric

temperatures and sea level rises were constructed to inform policy-making.

In the near-term (present to mid 21st-century) it is likely (66-100 per cent

probability) that global mean surface air temperature will rise by + 0.3˚ to + 0.7˚ Celsius

(Kirtman et al., 2013), depending on which scenario prevails. Long-term climate change

projections extending to the end of the 21st century and beyond are likely to see rises in

temperature of between 1.1˚ and 4.8˚ Celsius for low and high emission scenarios

respectively (Collins et al., 2013). Given seasonal and day/night temperature fluctuations

commonly experienced, these values might seem insignificant. However, the difference

between the current global mean surface temperature and that in the coldest part of the last

ice age is only about 5˚ Celsius (Houghton, 2004: 10). According to the IPCC (2013)

warming will continue beyond 2100 under all emission scenarios but with regional

variations across continents; and it is virtually certain there will be more frequent hot and

fewer cold temperature extremes over most land areas. By the mid-21st century global mean

sea levels are likely to have risen by 0.17 to 0.38 metres and by 0.26 to 0.82 metres for the

later period 2081-2100. Ocean warming will be strongest in the tropical and northern

hemisphere sub-tropical regions and it is very likely that the Atlantic Meridonal Overturning

61
Circulation (AMOC) will weaken over the 21st century; but very unlikely that it will

undergo any abrupt transition or collapse that would lead to a colder climate on a par with

eastern Canada. The AMOC is more commonly understood as a weakening of the Gulf

Stream caused by diluted salinity of the Atlantic Ocean from the melting fresh-water

Greenland ice sheets.

As mentioned earlier, the most recent (2013) evidence for climate change published

in the IPCC’s AR5 has led to heightened awareness of the projected impacts and the

mitigation and adaptation measures required as a response. Observed impacts and

vulnerability are strongest and most widespread for natural systems, with some impacts on

human systems such as health and agriculture, being attributed to climate change (IPCC,

2014). Brief reference to the impacts falling under the IPCC’s ‘medium/high/very high

confidence’ range follows. A warming climate has led to continued shrinking of glaciers in

the Arctic and Antarctic regions as well as permafrost warming and thawing in high-altitude

regions, typically ski resorts. Many natural species habituating land, fresh and sea water

have shifted their seasonal activities and migration patterns. Negative impacts have out-

weighed positive an impact on crop yields and in consideration of human health, concern

has been expressed over heat-related mortality in some regions. Additionally, the report

AR5 highlighted uneven human development across regions attributed to differences in

vulnerability and exposure caused by climate change, where some sectors of the population

have become marginalised economically, socially or politically. Extreme weather events, for

example droughts, floods, heat-waves and wildfires, have led to far-reaching negative

impacts across human and natural systems including human mental health. AR5 highlights

regional disparities that can be expected with continued global warming. Central and South

America, and Africa are projected to have high risks of food insecurity, vector/water-borne

62
diseases, drought and water stress. Asia could be particularly vulnerable to heat-related

mortality and widespread coastal flooding. Europe is projected to experience high levels of

river and coastal flooding and problems related to human heat stress (IPCC, 2013). Various

studies from the natural sciences explain some of these impacts, which could adversely

affect tourist destinations: flooding (Milly et al., 2002); freshwater resources (Arenell, 2007;

Kundzewicz et al., 2007); ecosystems (Lanchbery, 2007; Fischlin et al., 2007); coastal areas

(Nicholls et al., 2007); oceans and marine systems (Turley et al., 2007); tropical forests

(Lewis et al., 2007); extreme weather events and human health (Davis & Topping, 2008).
Adaptation

Impacts on human
and natural
systems

Adaptation
Mitigation

Emission and Socio-economic

concentrations development paths

(Start)

Figure 3.2: Climate Change: An Integrated Framework

(Adapted from Houghton, 2004: 11)

Figure 3.2 illustrates the cyclical process of climate change and the interactions associated

with adaption and impacts against those of mitigation and emissions, starting with either the

adaptation or mitigation paths from socio-economic policies and development. The causes

and evidence for climate change are now widely, though not universally accepted;

63
uncertainties over the accuracy of projected impacts still remain. International responses to

climate change will now be considered.

Key developments in international climate change policy

Following growing interest in GHGs in the late 1950s, the 1963 conference in the United

States sponsored by the Conservation Foundation is said to be the first event through which

broader public concern was raised about the effects of global warming; and two years later

in 1965, via the US President’s Science Advisory Committee, came the first official

recognition that climate change could be caused by human activities with important

consequences for the planet (Agrawala, 1998: 606). The 1972 Stockholm Conference on the

Human Environment led to international organisations giving priority to climate issues. This

was followed in 1979 by the first World Climate Conference held in Geneva; and by a series

of workshops convened in Villach, Austria, during the early 1980s. Following ‘Villach

1985’, climate change was said to have ‘arrived’ in both the news media and the

international policy arena.

The year 1988 is usually cited as the date when climate change ‘exploded’ onto the

international arena, influenced partially by the US NASA scientist James Hansen’s

testimony to the Senate Energy Committee. Hansen claimed with 99 per cent certainty that

the unusually warm globally averaged temperatures of the 1980s could not be explained

solely through naturally occurring climate change (Hecht & Tirpak, 1995: 384). In the same

year British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made public her concerns about climate

change and the environment. Furthermore, with strong US involvement and the

collaboration of the World Meteorological Office (WMO) and the United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP), the IPCC was created in 1988 with three remits: the

assessment of available scientific information on climate change through peer-reviewed

64
research; the assessment of economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change;

and the formulation of response strategies (Paterson, 1996: 43-44). The IPCC’s role was to

assess scientific knowledge rather than to conduct research. For Jaspal & Nerlich (2014) it

was in 1988 that climate change began to move from the domain of ‘normal’ science into

the socio-political sphere of ‘post-normal science’ that would lead to decades of argument

and contest amongst policy-makers. ‘Normal science’ is understood to be traditional, pure

research; ‘post-normal science’ becomes more tailored to the agenda of policy-makers.

Siebenhüner (2003:117) observed that the IPCC is an organisation ‘at the interface between

science and policy’.

Andresen & Wettestad (1992: 291) noted that the creation of the IPCC seemed to

indicate that scientific consensus on the need to tackle climate change had been achieved by

the world community. Agrawala (1998) gave a detailed account of the IPCC’s inception and

its scientific and political progress over the first two assessment cycles, reported

respectively in 1990 and 1995. He concluded that the UN Framework Convention on

Climate Change (FCCC), the principal international mechanism for global climate change

policy established at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, owed its existence to the IPCC; and,

furthermore, that the IPCC’s biggest contribution was not so much in facilitating

momentous decisions as providing valuable input for low-key process interactions with

stakeholders such as NGOs and businesses. Agrawala (1998: 617) pointed out that the IPCC

came into existence as a result of an intense political process within the US and UN system;

and that its primary function was of a political nature to bring together governments for

climate change decision-making. Yet, paradoxically, the panel managed to sustain the

participation of high calibre scientists. An early indicator of the IPCC’s effectiveness was

that industry and environmental advocacy groups began to attend IPCC sessions in larger

65
numbers, and to rely on the panel’s findings instead of their own research. For a detailed

background on the formation and early activities of the FCCC, see Hecht & Tirpak (1995).

Signatories to the FCCC were collectively termed the ‘Conference of Parties’

(Pittock, 2005: 248), forming a body that would meet annually, subsequently abbreviated to

CO’…). At COP5 in Japan in 1997, which achieved the Kyoto Protocol (hereafter ‘Kyoto’),

Annex 1 countries: most OECD countries plus former communist states undergoing

transition to a market economy (Pittock, 2005: 22), signed a commitment to reduce their

combined greenhouse gas emissions to at least 5 per cent below 1990 levels between 2008

and 2012, with specific targets for individual countries. Kyoto was a response to Article 2 of

the FCCC, with the rather imprecise goal of achieving safe levels of emissions across the

globe. It took a further eight years for the Protocol to be ratified by the 55 countries needed

to agree (Russia was the 55th, in 2005). The US withheld its ratification because it objected

to fast-developing countries such as China and India being excluded from the Annex 1

provisions. US climate change policy was reviewed in detail by Bang et al. (2007) who

concluded that the States were unlikely to participate in a truly global climate regime for

some years to come. Several papers written in the run-up to the 1992 FCCC addressed these

issues of overcoming difficulties drawing on the concept of equity and allocation of

responsibility for accelerating global warming; for example Rose (1990); Smith (1991);

Andresen & Wettestad (1992).

This area of conflict came to be known as the ‘North-South’ debate, exposing the

polarity of the developed and developing countries’ approach to climate change in a number

of respects. For example: the issue of historical accountability, where it was argued that

northern developed countries had begun accelerated global warming through

industrialisation and should, therefore, bear the brunt of emissions reductions. On this basis,

66
an ‘equal per capita emissions’ approach to determining emissions reduction was considered

to be a fair system (Neumayer, 2000). But Sagar & Banuri (1999: 509) pointed out that

justice and equity seldom played a key role in international relations and, in spite of the

‘rhetoric of global environmental stewardship’, global environmental problems have been

treated in much the same way as other international issues; in other words, concerning

economic competitiveness, minimising burden-sharing and other unilateral strategic

interests. The South (developing countries), the argument went, had been reluctant to make

commitments to abate its greenhouse gas emissions because of a perception that the North

(developed countries) lacked a focus on these key issues of equity, justice and sustainable

development. Instead, the North had been pre-occupied with the economic costs of meeting

its commitments and associated principles and guidelines. Byrne et al. (1998: 338) saw the

major policy challenges facing the world community (including climate change) as systemic

in character, where only a change in the pattern of inequalities across the globe would bring

about long-term environmental sustainability. For a full discussion on the North’s

consequentialist (broadly Utilitarian, welfare approach) and the South’s deontological

(actions determined by a sense of moral duty) positions on equity, environmental justice and

sustainability associated with climate change politics, see Ikeme (2003).

Nearly ten years after Kyoto, commentators continued to observe the seemingly

intractable problem of ensuring a fair global allocation of greenhouse gases. Raymond

(2006) for example, although recognising the merits of an ‘equal per capita’ distribution

based on positive environmental rights to the atmosphere, suggested that the ‘common

heritage of mankind’, similar to UN treaties with the oceans and outer space, was a

worthwhile consideration for dealing with the global commons of the atmosphere. The

widely-held view that COP16 held in Copenhagen in 2009 failed to resolve a number of

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these long-standing issues was noted by Boston (2011). The crux of the problem, it was

argued, was that the atmosphere represented a natural global commodity; and thus was

susceptible to free-riding by countries. Parks & Roberts (2010) reviewed how international

relations theories helped inform the debate, concluding that structuralism, world views and

causal beliefs ultimately explained issues of poverty and economic development, forming

part of the climate justice debate.

That much research on climate change policy has been focused on international

regimes was noted by Schreurs (2008), who referred instead to the growing importance of

climate policy studies at the local level; while Sovacool & Brown (2009) added that local

thinking should be linked to global and national scales of action in order to achieve the

desired reductions of CO2 levels. Focusing on the local context they argued, helped to

address how society regulates itself on these issues, and was equally important as what

should be regulated in the first place. Bond (2010) advocated three avenues along which

local climate change action can escalate: more attention to adaptation measures; linking

adaptation and mitigation efforts to other ecological concerns; and more engagement with

the community. The importance of locality was underlined as, ultimately, greenhouse gases

were emitted from a local source with adaptation belonging naturally to the local context.

The environmental mantra ‘think globally; act locally’ (Collier & Löfstedt, 1997: 25) was

inverted by Mazmanian (2013) who saw a paradox in acting globally and thinking locally

(emphasis added) in his study of California’s mitigation and adaptation policies.

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which set ambitious emissions

reduction targets for Californian businesses, was lauded as an example of practising global

action on mitigation but, as Mazmanian noted, there was an absence of local will (thinking)

on implementing adaptation measures for a US state potentially susceptible to rising sea

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levels. In his opinion, the report of the IPCC’s Working Group II in 2013 gave a much-

needed boost to the adaptation camp.

By 2014, Kyoto remained the only existing and binding agreement under which

developed countries cut their GHGs. At the 2012 Doha Climate Gateway in Qatar (COP18),

2015 was set as the year to agree targets to succeed Kyoto, to take effect from 2020, if the

planet was to have any chance of remaining below the potentially dangerous projected

impacts of a future rise of 2˚ Celsius or more. Given sufficient commitment by countries,

COP18 concluded, the increase could be avoided. The process of agreeing this target was

given priority at COP19 Warsaw in 2013, so that governments would table a draft

agreement in time for COP20 Lima in December 2014 (UNFCCC, 2014).

Key developments in UK climate change policy

Considered to be Europe’s, if not the world’s, longest established climate change research

institute, the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was established in 1971 at the University of

East Anglia when climate change began to emerge as a scientific issue and well before

global warming had entered the public consciousness (Hulme & Turnpenny, 2004). By

1990, the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)

had been established with a focus on the economic impacts of climate change. In the same

year, at the same time as the publication of the IPCC’s First Assessment Report, the

Department of the Environment established the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and

Research, its aim being to develop the UK’s climate modelling and prediction capability: a

task it had completed by 2004 ‘with spectacular success’ (p.107). As Hulme & Turnpenny

remarked, these two initiatives reflected Margaret Thatcher’s latter-day appreciation of the

realities of global warming.

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 Then in 1997, the same year as the Kyoto COP5, the UK Climate Impacts

Programme (UKCIP), based at the University of Oxford, was formed with the remit to focus

on adaptation as opposed to mitigation, sponsoring cross-sector impact studies and

developing awareness of key issues. These impact studies appeared as a series of ‘UKCIP

scenarios’ that came to be used by organisations ranging from water companies to tourism

agencies in supporting their planning in response to projected climate change impacts. The

UK’s climate change research gradually shifted from the traditional normal science research

of the 1970s to more policy-related research in the 1990s. By 2001, when the IPCC

published its Third Assessment Report, another two research institutions had been

established in the UK: the Tyndall Centre and the Carbon Trust.

The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (named after the 19th century

British scientist John Tyndall), established in 2000, had a multi-disciplinary remit to

evaluate sustainable responses to climate change; and the Carbon Trust, established in 2001

as one of the UK government’s responses to Kyoto, was a not-for-profit organisation

created between the Departments of the Environment and Trade and Industry, designed to

invest in low-carbon technology by developing partnerships between business and research

councils. Hulme & Turnpenny (2004) referred also to emissions-reduction initiatives and

impact studies being undertaken outside central government such as: the Greater London

Authority’s London Climate Change Group; the local authorities’ Councils for Climate

Protection; and research led by English Nature (later Natural England) into biodiversity

impacts. In an earlier study of energy policies in Sweden and the UK, Collier & Löfstedt

(1997) found that UK local authorities were relatively active in this domain as they saw an

opportunity to reassert their role following a period of power erosion experienced by local

authorities during the Conservative administrations of the 1980s and 1990s.

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 Since Kyoto, the UK has been increasingly obliged to meet EU supranational

emission reduction targets. In June 2000 the European Commission (EC) launched its

European Climate Change Programme to develop a European Climate Change strategy

enabling EU countries to fulfil their obligations post-Kyoto (Rusche, 2010). By 2004, a

report on GHGs for 2003 identified that only five of the original member states, including

the UK as well as the new EU member states (except Slovenia), were on track to meet the

EU’s overall 8 per cent GHG reduction target by 2008-12 on a 1990 baseline; thus reducing

the overall projected reduction to 5.1 per cent although falling short of the 8 per cent target.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the EU’s climate change policy focused on mitigation

through the setting of emissions reduction targets. But from 2007 onwards, with mounting

evidence of climate change impacts, the European Commission began to turn its attention

towards adaptation, leading to a series of National Adaptation Strategies being produced by

member states (Biesbroek et al., 2010). Paradoxically, as mentioned in Chapter 2, tourism-

climate change research began with adaptation studies and then moved into mitigation.

The UK’s adaptation strategy and pro-environmental behaviour initiatives were

published in 2008 (DEFRA, 2008a; 2008b). This adaptation programme was updated in

2013 (HM Government, 2013a), with the government also acknowledging the EC’s

continued leadership on developing adaptation frameworks. Tompkins et al. (2010)

comprehensively reviewed the UK’s adaptation performance over these years. European

policy from 2008 onwards – the European Strategy for Energy and Climate Change – was

discussed by Carvelho (2012), who referred to a consensus among scientists and policy-

makers that, if the EU were to meet its obligations, a global reduction of 50 per cent in

greenhouse gas emissions would be needed by 2005: translated into an 80 per cent cut for

industrialised nations. This target was made binding on the UK under the Labour

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government’s Climate Change Act 2008, although the preceding Climate Change Bill had

recommended a 60 per cent cut. A further point to note is the UK’s Renewable Obligations

for electricity generation and road transport fuel sales from 2009. This aimed to contribute

to the target of generating 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, as part of

the EU’s binding target of achieving 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020

across member states (Anandarajah & Strachan, 2010).

Following Kyoto, the UK launched its Climate Change Programme in 2000 (DETR,

2000) subsequently updated in 2006 (HM Government, 2006a), setting out a strategy for

business sectors, civil society and the public sector to reduce carbon emissions, and change

or modify transport modes. In 2000 also, the government adopted the recommendation of

the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution that the UK, by 2050, should reduce its

carbon emissions by 60 per cent from a 1990 baseline, as part of a Climate Change Bill

(Lockwood et al., 2007). Further evidence of global warming from the IPCC’s Fourth

Assessment Report in 2007, endorsed by the Stern Review (Stern, 2007), plus ongoing

research and awareness campaigns from environmental pressure groups such as WWF and

the Green Alliance, as well as political think-tanks inclined to take a more pro-

environmental view (the Institute for Public Policy Research is a prime example - see

Lockwood et al.’s (2007) report 2050 Vision), added combined pressure on the government

to adopt a more challenging target. Although Neumayer (2007: 299-301) commended the

Stern Review for being ‘as good as it currently gets’ as a persuasive cost-benefit analysis, he

was of the view that it did not go far enough in making the case for the non-substitutability

of natural capital (in other words, the environment) that could ‘violate the inalienable rights

of future generations’. Expressed simply, nature cannot be replaced; which, in Neumayer’s

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view, meant that the crux of the climate change issue was ethical choice as opposed to a

quantitative rationale.

UK climate change policy has been grounded in the government’s sustainable

development strategy since 1994 (HM Government 1994; 1999; 2005) and in the energy

strategy set out in the 2003 White Paper (DTI, 2003) by the Labour government; and

continued by the present coalition government’s Climate Change Plan (DEFRA, 2010) and

Green Deal (DECC, 2010); and more recently: the Energy Act 2013 (HM Government,

2013b), and further integration of the principles of sustainable development (DEFRA,

2013). These recent initiatives as well as latter-day Labour measures such as a plan for low

carbon transport (DfT, 2009), were designed to encourage energy efficiency and provide

consumer and business incentives. Bowen & Rydge (2011) have comprehensively reviewed

the UK’s climate change policy since the late 1980s, and highlighted its leadership in

emissions reduction at international and European levels. More recently, in 2012, the

Committee on Climate Change noted that even though GHGs had fallen by 7 per cent

during 2011, only 0.8 per cent of this reduction could be attributed directly to the

implementation of carbon-lowering measures. Consequently, the Committee concluded that

the pace of change should be increased four-fold in order to meet future carbon budgets.

The report also advised that greater investment in flood defences and more incentives for

reducing the waste of household water were needed (Committee on Climate Change, 2013:

7-8).

Lockwood’s (2013) review of the sustainability of the Climate Change Act 2008

identified a number of reasons why progress had been slow on securing political

commitment and investors’ confidence. Lockwood was of the opinion that in 2006-2007,

the salience of climate change had reached its height across the UK but, despite this, attitude

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surveys revealed that the public tended to attach more importance to social issues such as

crime, immigration and health care. The financial crisis and subsequent economic recession

that began in 2007-09, Lockwood argued, partly explained why climate change became a

‘back of the mind’ issue. This was further reflected in the declining membership of

environmental campaign groups where, for example, during 2007-2011, supporters’ income

halved for Friends of the Earth. These groups, Lockwood maintained, had played an

influential role as policy entrepreneurs in the debate leading to the Climate Change Act. His

view of a weakening of the public’s concern over climate change was corroborated by two

recent, wider studies carried out in the US (Scruggs & Benegal, 2012) and Germany (Ratter

et al., 2012). Taking a western perspective, both studies attributed some of this weakened

concern to short-term events such as prevailing economic conditions and possible media

misrepresentation of climate science and associated issues.

The Green Alliance is a further example of how environmental pressure groups can

contribute to the national debate on climate change at the meso level (Parsons, 2005). The

meso level is a term used to describe the policy-making area taking place between the macro

and micro levels. Registered as a charity, the Alliance consists of nine leading

environmental NGOs, including the National Trust, although the Trust is not always listed

as a member in some of the Alliance’s reports, as was the case with the Alliance’s manifesto

on climate change and the natural environment prepared in the run-up to the parliamentary

election of 2010 (Green Alliance, 2009b). In 2009, the Alliance broadly concluded that left

wing governments were better placed to tackle climate change because of their leanings

towards interventionist policies but also acknowledged the virtues of the centre-right’s

concern for energy security and economic opportunity (Green Alliance, 2009a). The

Alliance also considered civil society had an important role to play in shaping

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environmental public policy, particularly because, in its view, voluntary organisations and

charities were seen to be better-informed on local environmental issues. David Cameron’s

‘Big Society’ it was suggested, might complement civil society’s ability to focus on local

issues in tackling environmental concerns (Green Alliance, 2010a). Other reports where the

Alliance took a critical view on climate change and public policy contributing to the wider

debate included: the importance of how politicians articulate climate change issues to the

public (Green Alliance, 2010b); public opinion on climate change (Green Alliance, 2012);

the coalition government’s progress on meeting low carbon commitments established at the

start of its current term of office (Green Alliance, 2011); and a commentary on EU targets

for emissions reductions and renewable energy sources designed to help the UK meet and

exceed its own targets (Green Alliance, 2013a; 2014).

To summarise at this stage, climate change is a natural phenomenon. It has been

understood in the context of oscillations between hotter and colder climates driven by

successive ice ages. Ice ages are caused primarily by the changing patterns in solar

radiation. Currently, we are living in the most recent inter-glacial period that began with the

end of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Climate science has produced compelling

evidence that since the mid-18th century, concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased

beyond what would normally be projected for a natural cycle of warming period. This

increase, termed as ‘accelerated global warming’, has been attributed mainly to human

activities, notably the process of industrialisation that has depended on burning fossil fuels.

During the late 1980s, an international policy response to climate change emerged with the

establishment of organisations such as UNEP and the IPCC in collaboration with the

meteorological community such as the WMO. Literature refers to how ‘post-normal

science’ came to represent a policy-oriented influence on ‘normal science’ (pure scientific

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research). A review of UK climate change policy has shown that our response to climate

change has been influenced by international agreements (the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for

example) as well as the European Climate Change Programme from 2000. The UK’s

Climate Change Act of 2008 has been acknowledged as the first of its kind. NGOs and

policy think tanks contributed to the government adopting a target of 80 per cent reduction

in GHGs from an initial target of 60 per cent. The emergence of a climate change policy at

the National Trust is considered against this background of policy-making in Chapter 6.

Public policy studies

Reser & Bentrupperbäumer (2005: 129) argued that along with attitudes, beliefs and

opinions, values have been a core construct of the social sciences for most of the 20th

century. Values represent the more fundamental, enduring convictions that may be held by

the individual and society, with strong emotional and/or moral overtones, providing the

foundation for social and moral orders. By extension, Stewart (2009: 14) defined policy

values as:

‘the valued ends embodied in, and implemented through, the

collective choices we make through policy choices … in a deeper
sense, all policy questions are values-based …’

Public policy is the process through which this happens. Stewart construed environmental

values as concern for the integrity and well-being of the natural world and the sustainability

of ecological systems, but inevitably leading to a trade-off with the value of economic

growth: it would be very difficult for environmentalism to conquer growth within a system

that nurtured economic growth (p.169).

Parsons (2005) analysed policy-making from four perspectives: 1) meta or macro-

analysis, which looked at public policy and its philosophical framework; 2) meso- analysis,

76
or the middle ground, where decision-making and implementation took place at sub-

government level; 3) decision analysis, examining how choices are made and values

allocated at all levels; and 4) delivery analysis, which focused on the implementation and

impact of policy, which included a critique of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches to

policy-making. For this study, Parsons’ approach was adapted into three policy zones

(Figure 3.3) to contextualise the National Trust’s climate change policy. Parsons also traced

the philosophy of public policy, examining the major influences from Machiavelli in the

15th and 16th centuries, to those such as Karl Popper, Harold Lasswell, Herbert Simon, and

Charles Lindblom in the 20th century. Simon for example, theorised on the influences of the

individual’s perception and cognition in policy-making whereas Lindblom was well-known

for his theory of incrementalism. Fiorino (1995) on the other hand, saw the benefits of

combining both approaches for a realistic understanding of environmental policy-making.

These seminal works are mentioned as passing references to the conceptual background of

policy studies.

MACRO
International
UK Government Climate Change Policy

MESO
Network Zone Interest Groups

MICRO
National Trust
Climate Change Policy

Figure 3.3 Policy Network Zones (Adapted from Parsons (2005)

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Climate change policy at the meta or macro-level can be understood as a political process.

John (2003) was among several authors who took this view. He developed a framework of

six approaches: institutional; group and network; socio-economic; rational choice theory;

ideas approach; and synthesis through evolution. The first two approaches had most salience

for understanding climate change policy at the macro level, where, first, there was a focus

on the evolution of institutions within the context of legal systems and formal structures

(e.g. the UNFCCC); and second, where it could be seen how policy is made by smaller

groups at the sub-government level with a degree of trust and potential for innovation (e.g.

ENGOs, think tanks and charities). Hall & Jenkins’ (1995) model of the tourism policy-

making process (Figure 3.4) was also meant to be interpreted as a political process. They

argued that tourism policy studies had tended to take a prescriptive, rational decision-

making approach, similar to the sequential, stages or policy-cycle model, where policy was

formulated, implemented, and then evaluated for its outcomes. Instead, their model depicted

the wider elements in tourism policy-making, which aimed to explore further complexities

in the process. In the model, the ‘policy environment’ represented the macro dimension; and

the ‘policy arena’ the meso element, which in turn responded to specific policy issues

emerging from institutions and significant individuals. Hall & Jenkins’ model has resonance

with the evolution of the Trust’s climate change policy, where the charity sought to involve

itself in the policy arena on environmental issues and policy, often in conjunction with

ENGOs such as the Green Alliance or the charity RSPB.

It is relevant to note the increased visibility of the voluntary sector or ‘third sector’

(the sector to which the National Trust belongs) in policy studies, academia, and the media

since the early 1980s. Halfpenny & Reid (2002) attributed three reasons for the growth in

interest. First, since 1979, the Conservative government’s interest in reducing the role of the

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state to give the markets more freedom to provide goods and services led to more

competitive pricing and an improvement in quality – described as a neo-liberal ideology.

The voluntary sector was seen to have a valuable role in filling a vacuum where people

could not meet their needs from the private market. Mercer (2002) though, took a more

critical view of the neo-liberal assumption that the voluntary sector’s activities naturally

supported a democratic political process. Later, the establishment of the Office for the Third

Sector in 2006 was designed to give a government lead in supporting what was considered

to be a thriving third sector (Jones & Liddle, 2011), thus heightening the sector’s profile.

The second reason

The Policy Environment Power Arrangements

Values

Institutional Arrangements

The Policy Arena Interested Groups

Significant Individuals
Specific Policy Issues
Institutions

Demands Decisions Outputs

Outcomes

Institutional Leadership

Institutional Arrangements

Values

Power Arrangements

Figure 3.4 Elements in the tourism policy-making process (Hall & Jenkins, 1995)

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concerned changes in the sector itself, where charities had adopted more aggressive

marketing tactics and greater commercialization, accompanied by a growth in the number of

charities being registered with the Charity Commission (often driven by a desire to avoid

corporation tax), and partly attributed to a growing disillusionment with state bureaucracies

since the late 1960s (Halfpenny & Reid, 2002). Ironically, the Charities Acts of 1992 and

1993 gave the Charity Commission greater power to regulate the growing voluntary sector.

The third reason was academia’s growing interest in the sector, assisted by new streams of

funding following the establishment of the Social Science Research Council in the 1960s.

Mercer (2002: 5) noted that the NGO literature had ‘proliferated’ since the mid-1980s.

Policy networking, a popular approach since the 1980s, acts as a link between

various actors within a policy domain, occurring at the sector or sub-sector level (Marsh,

1998b: 15). According to Marsh, networks belonged to the meso zone of policy-making but

had little credibility as an explanatory concept unless they were integrated with macro and

micro level analysis. Thus, a meso-level explanation of climate change policy-making

amongst organisations such as English Heritage, Natural England, WWF, Local Authorities,

and the National Trust, would need to focus on the structures and interactions of these

groups themselves. This would be followed by making links to state government climate

change policy (macro) and the decisions of individual organisations themselves within the

networks (a micro approach such as that represented by the National Trust). Rhodes (1997:

30-59, Chapters 2 & 3) provided a comprehensive review of the development and

typologies of policy networks in British political science and of the gradual adoption of

governance (as opposed to government) since the 1980s. In considering the broad arena

within which climate change policy operates, Rhodes’ characteristics of a policy community

and an issue network form the basis of a useful continuum for interpreting policy-making at

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the meso level (Box 3.1). Daugbjerg & Marsh (1988: 54) said that policy outcomes are not

just outcomes of networks; they are strongly influenced by ‘the economic, political and

ideological context within which the network operates’, for example brought about by

change of government and changing economic conditions.

Studies taken from the tourism literature which explored the political process in

tourism policy-making showed that the network approach was a popular research area.

These included: Tyler & Dinan (2001a; 2001b); Kerr et al. (2001); Pforr (2005; 2006); and

Stevenson et al (2008). Tyler & Dinan for example, researched into how the then English

Tourism Council was developing a network approach to policy-making with the aim of

influencing government tourism policy. Stevenson et al. (2008) provided valuable

summaries of the various approaches to public policy models taken by tourism researchers,

for example Pforr’s (2005) use of rational choice decision-making or Tyler & Dinan’s study

(2001a) that used the institutional approach.

Policy community Issue network

Limited number of participants with some groups Many participants.
consciously excluded.
Frequent and high quality interaction between all Fluctuating interaction and access for the various
members of the community on all matters related to members.
the policy issues.
Consistency in values, membership and policy Limited consensus and ever-present conflict.
outcomes which persist.
Consensus, with the ideology, values and broad Interaction based on consultation rather than
policy preferences shared by all participants. negotiation or bargaining.
All members of the policy community have resources Unequal power relationship in which many
so the links between them are exchange relationships; participants may have few resources, little access and
leading to bargaining between members with no alternative.
resources. The structures of the participating groups
are hierarchical so leaders can guarantee compliant
members.

Box 3.1: Characteristics of Policy Communities and Issue Networks

Adapted from Rhodes (1997: 43-45)

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Using grounded theory to understand local authority tourism policy-making in Leeds,

Stevenson et al. (2008) concluded that written policies often said little about the realities of

how policies were perceived by the actual people involved in the process. These studies,

although utilising detailed application of policy models, nevertheless provided context for a

study of the national Trust’s approach to policy-making. Indeed, the project’s coverage of

climate change policy-making reflected tourism policy literature on network theory,

governance, and stakeholder involvement. Further examples consulted were: Reed (1997);

Bramwell & Sharman (1999); Dredge & Jenkins (2003); Treuren & Lane (2003); Dredge

(2006); Bramwell & Meyer (2007); Urwin & Jordan (2008).

Governance and management

Hall (2011: 439) said that governance was simply ‘the act of governing’ and had become an

increasingly significant issue in tourism public policy and planning literature. In the context

of state policy, he referred to broad meanings of the term: first, how the state adapted to its

surrounding political and economic environment; and second, how the term was used more

theoretically to explain how the state co-ordinated socio-economic systems such as network

relationships and public-private partnerships. One of the more relevant elements of what he

called ‘new governance’ for this study, was participation and power-sharing, where policy-

making was not considered ‘the sole domain of regulators’ (p.441); instead, public and

private stakeholders were encouraged to participate in the policy process as part of public-

private partnership. This approach is salient later in the thesis when the National Trust’s

advocacy role is examined.

Ruhanen et al. (2010: 4-5) observed that usage of the term governance came into

prominence in the 1980s associated with public sector reforms in the USA and UK,

following increased adoption of the principles of corporate management and joint public-

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private policy development within government bureaucracy. They pointed to a recent

‘managerialist trend’ of the public sector adopting a more bottom-up, decentralised, and

inclusive form of governance. Jepson (2005), whose research focused on how ENGOs could

develop their governance and accountability to strengthen their role in society, commented

that the topic of governance and accountability came to the fore during the 1990s for three

reasons: first, the growing role of NGOs in creating an international civil society; second,

the trend of the ‘roll back of the state’ (p.516), that saw sub-contracting out of state-run

services to ‘complex partnerships’, effectively creating a void which presented opportunities

for NGO involvement; and third, Jepson maintained that these aspects of neo-liberal

economic theory and globalisation had led to a perception of publicly unaccountable markets

and the dominance of inter-governmental bodies in ‘dictating the values and policies that

form the context of everyday life’. Spear’s (2004) research into issues of governance related

to democratic member-based organisations (DMOs) referred to the National Trust. He

referred to Lansley’s (1996) work on the National Trust, which implied that charity law had

tended to marginalise members in relation to the ruling body, because legal restrictions

meant that charities had to provide public as opposed to private benefits, thus placing limits

on the rights of members. In discussing various approaches to governance, Spear referred to

the ‘trustee model of governance’ (citing Kay & Silberston, 1995) where management were

regarded as trustees of the organisation’s assets. The creation of the National Trust’s Board

of Trustees in 2005 is discussed in Chapter 5.

The literature on leadership and management is diverse and does not warrant a full

review for this study. A selection of articles provided context for the discussion in Chapter 5

on internal developments at the National Trust since 1995, where it was shown that the

Trust was largely following 21st century contemporary management practice. The National

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Trust’s core values, for example, are reflected in the way it reports its performance using the

triple-bottom-line approach (TBL): a process, according to Norman & MacDonald (2003)

that originated in the 1990s when the phrase was coined by management think-tanks; for

many NGOs and activist organisations, the term had become ‘an article of faith’ (p.2).

Stoddard et al. (2012: 235) defined the term as the ‘economic, social, and environmental

accountability of a firm’. They too, referred to TBL as having evolved during the mid-

1990s; and pointed out that TBL’s roots lay in the idea of sustainability and sustainable

development, as espoused by the Brundtland Report of 1987, which emphasised the inter-

generational element of sustainable development. Stoddard et al. (2012) saw the process as

an essential part of achieving sustainable tourism; however, they were mindful of critics’

views on the vagueness of the concept and its tendency to use buzzwords. Writing in the

context of tourist destinations, Stoddard et al. argued that the key issue for the triple-bottom-

line was measurement: an area of future research for tourism studies. Norman &

MacDonald (2003) were also critical of the paradigm which, they argued, was largely

rhetorical, making more promises than it could deliver. However, they nevertheless

provided a useful working definition of the concept, which comprehensively articulates the

three working principles:

‘In short, 3BL advocates believe that social (and environmental)

performance can be measured in fairly objective ways, and that
firms should use these results in order to improve their social (and
environmental) performance. Moreover, they should report these
results as a matter of principle, and in using and reporting on these
additional ‘bottom lines’ firms can expect to do better by their
financial bottom line in the long run’ (p.4).

In considering the values espoused by the private and public sectors, Moore (2000)

differentiated for-profit and non-profit mainly in terms of revenue sources and value or

purposes. In the profit sector for example, revenue sources were derived principally from

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the sale of products and services to customers; and in the non-profit sector, revenue came

through charitable donations of money, time and materials. The principal value delivered by

for-profit organisations was financial return for shareholders; whereas for non-profit, it was

the achievement of social purposes and the cause (Figure 3.5). Moore implied that in the

case of for-profit organisations, social value was maximised naturally through the

achievement of a healthy financial performance reflecting a seamless relationship. With a

non-profit organisation however, although financial performance was seen as critical to its

survival, it had to further decide whether the social value produced was defined in terms of

its purpose or mission. As Moore put it:

‘In public sector enterprises, money is the means to a desired social

end. In the private sector, the products and services delivered are the
means to the end of making money’ (pp.195-96).

It should be noted that Moore placed the voluntary sector in the category of a ‘public’

organisation. Which values an organisation decides to prioritise leads to consideration of its

approach to management. Dolan & Garcia (2002) for example, proposed that by the early

2000s, management by instructions (MBI) and management by objectives (MBO) had

become out-dated, and gave ‘notoriously inadequate results’. Management by values

(MBV) on the other hand, was seen as the emerging strategic leadership tool offering much

potential. In essence, it was seen to represent the following: a model for greater autonomy

amongst staff; a facilitating approach to management; more customer –oriented; the

‘redesign of culture’ consistent with humanist advocates of organisation development (‘neo-

humanism’, p.102); the inclusion of ethical and ecological principles into strategic

leadership. In summary, Dolan & Garcia said, MBV was based on values, and fulfilled a

triple purpose of simplifying, guiding, and securing commitment. A concise account of

MBV and its antecedents MBI and MBO is also provided by Dolan & Richley (2006).

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Jaakson (2010), in clarifying the concept of organisational values from MBV, saw

organisational values as a central part of MBV, where she defined MBV as:

‘… a series of interconnected managerial activities to ensure the

acceptance of relevant organizational values inside and outside the
organization’ (p.796).

In discussing organisational values, Jaakson cited Roe & Ester’s (1999: 3) definition:

‘… latent constructs that refer to the way in which people evaluate

activities or outcomes’.

Financial
Performance

Social
Value

Organisational
Strategy

Figure 3.5 The Relationship Between Social Value, Financial Performance, and
Organisational Survival – Public Sector (Moore, 2000: 196)

This definition incorporates the means (activities) and the ends (outcomes), which Jaakson

saw as being central to the idea of organisational values: values which, according to Roe &

Ester, are applicable at all levels within the organisation, or even a nation. To establish these

constructs, Jaakson explained, and for them to become a latent part of MBV, organisations

invariably write an explicit values statement. Jaakson’s classification of values included

‘espoused’, ‘stated’, and ‘core’. Core values, she maintained, were not always written or

stated explicitly, whereas the other two were. Wenstøp & Myrmel (2006) used the term

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‘created values’, which also resembled espoused or stated values. Buchko (2007)

emphasised that values resembled a sense of collectiveness and shared purpose:

‘Values form the shared conceptions of what is most desirable in

social life; in effect, values are the ‘glue’ that binds people together
into organisations’ (p.37).

On the question of leadership, Antonakis & House (2014) advocated what they termed as

‘fuller full-range’ leadership theory, which promotes the combination of ‘instrumental

leadership’ (transactional, functional, pragmatic, task-oriented) and the more contemporary

‘transformational leadership’ (idealised influence, or charisma; inspirational motivation;

intellectual stimulation; individualised consideration). Antonakis & House further remarked

that transformational leadership:

‘… has a potent psychological impact on followers beyond the

effects of quid-pro-quo transactional leadership’ (p.747).

In their opinion though, too much attention had been paid to the charismatic, inter-personal,

empowering facets of transformational leadership, at the expense of the more (traditional)

strategic and pragmatic aspects of leadership.

Eisenbeiß & Boerner (2013) also pointed out that leadership research had tended to

focus on the positive effects of transformational leadership. Their paper explored some of

the more negative aspects of the practice or concept, namely that whilst transformational

leadership energised creativity within an organisation, it could lead to followers’

dependency with a dilution of creativity. Schneider & George (2011), who researched

leadership styles in voluntary organisations, hypothesised that a positive relationship existed

between the more ethically-concerned, employee-centred ‘servant leadership’ often

encountered in this sector, and transformational leadership. They pointed to developing the

potential of followers and cultivating empowerment, which was seen as one of the main

objectives of servant leadership. Dionne et al. (2004) also saw empowerment as a tool for

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transformational leadership and team performance. The human resource approach

(employee-centred) that utilises ‘talent management’ in contrast to the strategic approach

(direction, tasks) (Ridder & McCandless, 2010; Lewis & Heckman, 2006), are further

examples of contemporary practice that share a common aim of developing the potential of

an organisation’s human resources. In Chapter 5, it will be shown that the National Trust,

whilst viewed by some as paternalistic and oligarchic, does nevertheless function as a

modern, professional organisation adopting contemporary practice.

Pro-environmental behaviour

Macro frameworks and gauging the public’s views

Environmental behaviour was defined by Stern (2000: 411) as ‘the propensity to take

actions with pro-environmental intent’. In developing its climate change policy, the National

Trust consulted, and was occasionally participated in the formation of, UK government

initiatives on climate change issues. These explored the role of individual attitudes and

behaviour. Several reports and surveys were reviewed (DEFRA, 2007; DEFRA, 2008b;

AccountAbility® & Consumers International, 2007; MORI, 2008; Thornton, 2009;

Southerton et al., 2011; and Thornton et al., 2011). Four examples illustrated their

contribution to exploring environmental attitudes and behaviour. First, according to DEFRA

(2008b: 18) there was ‘widespread consensus that government, business and individuals

need to act together to tackle climate change …’ expressed by the Sustainable Development

Commission & National Consumer Council (2006) I will if you will, to which the National

Trust contributed; but there was less agreement on how this could be achieved through

individuals’ lifestyles. The scope of DEFRA’s (2008b) A Framework for Environmental

Behaviours included personal travel, travel tourism and climate change. DEFRA, as part of

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an overall aim of encouraging lifestyle changes to help the UK combat climate change, used

a social marketing methodology to identify twelve ‘headline behaviour goals’ that could be

targeted at different segments of the population. Under ‘Personal Transport’, target

behaviours included: using more efficient vehicles; using the car less for short trips; and

avoiding unnecessary flights. For this study of the National Trust, using the car less for short

trips had the most relevance. Furthermore, DEFRA identified several common motivators

and barriers that were relevant to this study (Box 3.2). Some of these factors were used to

construct attitudinal statements for the visitor survey, the results of which are discussed in

Chapter 8. DEFRA (p.8) also identified seven population segments, each with its own value

statement on willingness to act in response to climate change. In descending order these

were: ‘Positive greens; Waste watchers; Concerned consumers; Sideline supporters;

Cautious participants; Stalled starters; Honestly disengaged’.

Common motivators Common barriers

‘Feel good factor’ External constraints (e.g. infrastructure)
Social norm Habit
Individual benefits (e.g. health) Scepticism
Ease Disempowerment
Being part of something

Box 3.2 Motivators and barriers to pro-environmental behaviour change

(DEFRA, 2008b)

Several studies focused on gender (Zeleny et al., 2000; McKercher et al., 2011) and age

(Torgler & García-Valiňas, 2007; Tjernström & Tietenberg, 2008; Kim & Weiler, 2013) for

segmenting visitors in exploring travel and environmental attitudes amongst holiday-

makers. Particular note was made of Anable’s (2005) study that used a sample of 666

visitors to more rural National Trust properties in the north-west of England to show that

different visitor segments displayed correspondingly different attitudes on travel and the

environment, inferring possibly different responses to policy intervention.

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 Corner & Randall (2011) observed that social marketing strategies (I will if you will

cited earlier) were popular with both governmental and non-governmental organisations in

seeking to influence pro-environmental behaviour and engage the public on climate change.

Citing Lazer & Kelly (1973), Corner & Randall (p.1006) defined social marketing as:

‘… the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques

to achieve specific behavioural goals relevant to the social good’.

The term emerged from the early 1970s, with a realization that although providing people

with information about issues such as health or the environment might influence their

attitude, there was generally seen to be a disconnect between attitude and actual behaviour.

Social marketing, according to Corner & Randall (2011), was more of a framework for

designing behaviour change programmes, rather than a programme in its own right.

Weaknesses in the approach, they claimed, included the limitations of ‘one size fits all’

campaigns as well as segmentation approaches sometimes emphasising rather than

reconciling, individual differences. They concluded that the real challenge lay with targeting

societal change in attitudes and behaviour; and that social networking amongst groups as

opposed to individuals had the potential to become an effective tool in this respect. The

potential of the social media in conveying messages to the National Trust’s audiences is a

theme discussed in the final chapter.

The second example was a report (Thornton, 2009) commissioned by DEFRA and

the Energy Saving Trust, which surveyed attitudes and behaviours towards the environment

in England (N=2009 adults). Part of the questionnaire sought to assess how willing people

were to reconsider their car use, which included switching to walking or cycling for short

journeys and switching to public transport for regular journeys. ‘Ranking importance of

reasons to conserve biodiversity’ was another feature of the questionnaire, with the

statement: ‘We all have a duty to minimise our impacts on nature and the planet’. Third, the

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MORI poll of 2008 asked questions on concern about climate change, uncertainty with the

science of climate change and impacts, and attitudes to government action on climate

change. The fourth example, DEFRA’s survey on public attitudes and behaviours towards

the environment (DEFRA, 2007), covered a wide range of questions related to attitudes and

knowledge related to, among others, the environment and transport. These were used in the

construction of the visitor survey’s attitudinal statements (see Chapter 8).

Having gained a UK perspective on environmental issues (including climate change)

through government reports, attention was turned to theoretical aspects of pro-

environmental behaviour through a sample of literature on environmental ethics and

environmental psychology: two disciplines that emerged from the tourism/transport

literature in the previous chapter, and which were used to explain tourists’ motivation and

behaviour. Tjernström & Tietenberg (2008) maintained that the threat of climate change was

linked with current lifestyles, making it more of a contentious issue. Furthermore, the nature

of climate change was seen to be problematic for policy-making because of its global

nature; and being a public good (that recognises no boundaries) with a long latency period

between actions and consequences. Their study found that individual attitudes and attributes

contributed to the effectiveness of a national climate change policy. The final part of this

chapter now considers the role of environmental ethics and environmental psychology in

understanding pro-environmental behaviour.

Environmental ethics

Connelly & Smith (1999) argued that environmental ethics have presented a challenge to

traditional ethics. Traditional ethics provide a code and framework for what is considered to

be acceptable human conduct through a moral duty to fellow human beings and animals.

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Environmental ethics on the other hand, extend a moral code to plants, inanimate objects

and natural phenomena; thus, the concept of ‘stewardship’ includes responsibility for the

whole of Earth. Stewardship carries two contrasting imperatives: the Kantian moral duty of

correct action (deontological); or the Utilitarian approach of an action bringing about the

greatest benefit for the greatest number of recipients (consequentialist).

Environmental ethics and the relationships between tourism, the natural

environment, and sustainable development have gained a foothold in the tourism literature

(Macbeth, 2005; Holden, 2009). Shrader-Frechette (1985: 3) began by saying that any well-

thought-out environmental policy must be based on both scientific and ethical

considerations; and inevitably, Strong & Rosenfield (1985: 5) maintained, personal

inclination, cultural patterns, and concern for humans as a species will often be in conflict:

for this reason alone we need ethical guidelines to help us make valid decisions. Houghton

(2004) proposed that considering future generations and environmental values were

acceptable attitudes for being concerned about climate change, suggesting that a ‘back to

nature’ or ‘technical fix’ approach to the problem were not realistic. Nash (1990:4)

considered the convergence of morality and ethics with human-environment relations to be

‘one of the most extraordinary developments in recent intellectual history’. How to combine

a plurality of value orientations towards different aspects of ethical heritage was seen to be

the key theoretical task for Connelly & Smith (1999). Dryzek (1997) believed that a range

of concerns over pollution, whole ecosystems, and global climate change, were connected to

a set of aesthetic and moral questions. A moral dimension was also seen to lie at the heart of

the climate change problem in terms of equitable cost-benefit analysis (Tol, 2001).

Working Group III in the IPCC’s Second Assessment Report of 1995 recognised

that most international discussions and IPCC reports took an anthropocentric view of

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climate effects, in other words, based on human welfare. However, an eco-centric view,

based more on the effects on the biosphere, questioned ‘society’s moral authority to make

decisions affecting Nature as a whole’ (Bruce et al., 1996); this was taken further in

Leopold’s (2003) case for a land ethic, and in James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis, which

promulgated the concept of the planet as a living, self-regulating organism capable of being

resilient in the face of human intervention. The relationship between humans and the natural

environment was further expressed through the idea of ‘deep’ and ‘shallow ecology’ by

Naess (2003), where ‘deep’ ecologists believed in bio-centric equality; in other words, that

all living entities were entitled to equal rights. ‘Shallow ecologists’, on the other hand,

Naess argued, although concerned about environmental problems, took a more human-

centred approach in terms of dealing with impacts. The emergence of the belief that ethics

should expand from a preoccupation with humans (or their gods) to a concern for animals,

plants, rocks, and even nature, or the environment, was a relatively recent belief according

to Nash (1990). This was thought of as an evolution of ethics from the natural rights of a

limited group of humans to the rights of nature. The use of rights though, has created some

confusion with the technical, philosophical or legal sense versus the idea that nature has

intrinsic worth which humans ought to respect. Nash observed that some moral philosophers

questioned whether the rights of nature could exist at all. Palmer (2003) believed that a

pragmatic approach to environmental policy-making required the acceptance of moral

pluralism to accommodate both intrinsic and extrinsic values. The theoretical task,

according to Connelly & Smith (1999), is to combine different aspects of our ethical

heritage such as stewardship or utilitarianism into a coherent theory to underpin practice.

Notwithstanding the philosophical arguments on how to manage the environment and the

problems of global climate change, Scruton (2012) believed that responsible stewardship in

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one’s own country, an essentially conservative (with a small ‘c’) approach, should be the

first response to these threats.

Environmental psychology

Literature discussed in Chapter 2 highlighted the use of environmental psychology to

analyse travel behaviour: and is revisited in Chapter 8 to corroborate the findings of the

visitor survey on travel behaviour and environmental attitudes. Giuliani & Scopelliti (2009)

reviewed the definitions and research concerns of ‘people-environment studies’ since the

1960s when ‘ecological psychology’ researched into human behaviour situated in a specific

context or environment; then a focus on the built environment (‘architectural psychology’);

followed by ‘green psychology’ and ‘environmental psychology’ in the 1990s concerned

with the relationship between humans and their socio-physical surroundings.

Shalom Schwartz’s research into value constructs held by humans is frequently

quoted in pro-environmental behaviour research. Rohan (2000) identified two motivational

dimensions in his work: 1), openness to change versus conservation; and 2), self-

enhancement versus self-transcendence, or the conflict between the consequences of one’s

own actions for the self versus the implications for the wider social context. Further studies

developed the application of various value constructs: Schwartz & Bilsky (1987) focused on

three cognitive universal requirements: biological needs, interpersonal interaction and

societal demands for group welfare and survival; Schwartz (1999) applied different cultural

values to forty nine nations, taking into consideration three societal issues, one of which was

the relation of humankind to the natural world; Schwartz (1994) and Schwartz et al. (2001)

advocated the usefulness of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) and Awareness of

Consequences (AC) models. Bamberg et al. (2007) saw pro-environmental behaviour

divided into two approaches: 1), motivation by self-interest such as improving one’s health;

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or 2), pro-social motives, where there was a concern for other people such as the next

generation, other species, or the whole eco-system. Researchers who viewed pro-

environmental behaviour as pro-social behaviour tended to use Schwartz’s Norm Activation

Model or Paul Stern’s Value-Belief-Norm theory (VBN, Stern, 2000).

The NAM explained helping behaviour, which was dictated by internalised personal

norms such as feelings of guilt or regret; or social norms such as fear of social sanctions. In

contrast, the main psychological determinant of the VBN was intention or deliberate

reasoning, akin to Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour. Stern (2000) developed a

theory that linked three aspects of behaviour: value theory, norm-activation theory, and the

so-called New Environmental Paradigm (Dunlap et al., 2000). A further perspective was

provided by Schultz et al. (2004), who argued that the type of concern individuals

developed over environmental issues was connected with the extent to which the person

believed s/he felt part of nature, reflecting a connectedness for which philosophers such as

Leopold (2003) have sought.

Environmental philanthropy (Greenspan et al., 2012) is a recent construct allied with

environmental psychology. Acknowledging the seminal works of researchers such as Paul

Stern, Greenspan et al. studied the giving of time and money, or volunteering and donating,

in support of the activities of ENGOs: two measures which, in their opinion, had been

insufficiently researched; and which warranted being viewed as ‘more than just another

indicator of environmental behaviour’ (p.112). They regarded environmental public sphere’,

which demonstrated:

‘…the willingness to incur personal costs to promote environmental

quality, which is a clear signal of pro-environmental behaviour’
(Greenspan, 2012: 114).

This behaviour was seen to have four predictors:

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1) Socio-psychological factors (value basis theory: egoistic, social-altruistic, and biospheric:

Stern & Dietz, 1994);

2) Environmental knowledge (increased knowledge about environmental issues can

influence environmental attitudes and sometimes behaviour);

3) Political orientation (in the US context, liberal orientation was found to be correlated

closer to pro-environmental behaviour than conservative views); and

4) Socio-demographic factors (a further example came from the US, where women were

found to have a greater sense of moral obligation to other people, or pro-social).

Greenspan et al. (2012: 124) concluded that what they termed as ‘typical individual-level

characteristics that shape environmental behaviour’ did not necessarily apply to, or at least

fully explain environmental philanthropy: essentially a form of pro-social behaviour.

Further insights into what motivates potential environmental philanthropists were seen as a

prospective research area.

This final section of the study’s interpretive framework briefly discussed some of the

principles from a wide field of literature on environmental ethics and environmental

psychology. Environmental ethics are a recent (1960s onwards) extension to traditional

ethics, seeking to resolve questions about humankind’s relationships and responsibilities

with the natural environment. Figure 3.6 illustrates some of these competing ideas.

Environmental psychology, also a post-war field of study, examines the motivations of

humans to behave in certain ways towards the environment, understood through various

models of personal value systems adopted for social as well as environmental reasons.

Attitudes towards the environment can be explained through ideas such as rational choice or

the anticipation of certain consequences.

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Chapter summary

The study’s interpretive framework was developed from the literature review on sustainable

heritage tourism. Following a discussion on climate change and the development of a policy

response at international and national levels, policy was seen to operate at three levels. First,

the macro level, which considered the influence of climate change science and the

international political will in formulating a global response to climate change, subsequently

taken up at the national level (the UK). Public policy models such as institutional and

groups and network approaches serve to contextualise a discussion of the arena within

which the National Trust engages in policy-making and advocacy. Second, the meso level,

which represented sub-governmental level policy formation, was seen as the middle ground

in which, typically, NGOs and charities/third sector could exert influence on environmental

public policy, often through collaboration and partnership. The National Trust’s advocacy

role is examined in this respect in Chapters 6 and 7. Third, the micro level, focusing on the

individual institution’s level of policy-making and decision-making, which in turn would

determine its involvement in the meso and/or macro level.

Environmental Environmental
Ethics Psychology

Deontological Theory
vs of
Consequentialist Planned
Behaviour

Anthropocentric
vs Norm
Eco-centric Activation
Model
Pro-environmental
Behaviour
Deep ecology Awareness

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 vs of
Shallow ecology Consequences

Extrinsic values
vs Value Belief
Intrinsic values Norm Theory

Stewardship Environmental
Philanthropy

Figure 3.6 Environmental ethics/psychology models

Contemporary approaches to governance, leadership and management are reflected in the

study’s empirical findings on internal developments at the National Trust since the 1990s

and any subsequent bearings on climate change policy. Approaches such as management by

values and features of transformational leadership are recognized in developments at the

charity, as well as balancing the competing interests of financial performance and social

value. Environmental ethics and environmental psychology contribute insights for the

underlying causes of behaviour towards the environment.

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 CHAPTER 4

METHODOLOGY

Introduction: Research questions and structure of the methodology

A review of the literature on heritage tourism, sustainable tourism, and climate change

research in the tourism literature found the concept ‘sustainable heritage tourism’ to be a

convergence of these three areas. Sustainable heritage tourism studies had looked at aspects

of marketing tourism destinations rather than climate change. This contributed to

formulating the aim of the study, which was to explore the contribution of climate change

policy and practice to sustainable heritage tourism through the National Trust. The literature

revealed several underpinning themes that became the framework for interpretation

discussed in the previous chapter:

1. Climate change science and policy

2. Policy studies (macro, meso, micro)
3. Governance and management
4. Pro-environmental behaviour

The literature review and interpretive framework crystallised the study’s research questions

shown in Box 4.1, which provided the basis for the methodology.

The first two questions were developed to understand and account for the National

Trust’s policy-making process on climate change. The charity was chosen for its high

profile as a UK heritage tourism organisation as well as a conservation charity (Europe’s

largest) operating in the voluntary sector. The first two questions sought to trace the origins

and development of the Trust’s climate change policy and how the charity responded to

events surrounding climate change and macro policy. This involved reviewing National

Trust documents in the public domain, contextualised by developments in macro climate

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change policy-making. How the Trust developed its response to climate change in relation

to its core purpose and the contribution of key individuals in building structures and

procedures to develop the policy.

1) How and why did a climate change policy evolve at the National Trust?

2) What is the form and function of the National Trust’s climate change policy?

3) Do the National Trust’s core purpose, structure, governance, and organisational culture
support its climate change policy?

4) How much consensus exists amongst National Trust policy-makers, managers and
volunteer workers with regard to the charity’s climate change policy and practice, and does
this provide any insights for future policy-making on this issue?

5) To what extent can visitors to National Trust properties be described as ‘pro-

environmental’ in their travel behaviour and attitude towards a range of climate change-
related issues? Do their responses provide insights for future policy-making on this issue?

6) To what extent can the National Trust’s climate change policy be seen as an exemplar for
sustainable heritage tourism?

Box 4.1 Research questions for the study

The third question considered whether the Trust’s climate change policy was supported by

the charity’s structure, governance arrangements and underlying culture with a focus on

developments since 1995. This year was significant because: a) following the Trust’s

centenary, few holistic accounts have been written about developments at the charity; and b)

the origins of the Trust’s climate change policy are found in the 1990s. Chapter 5 provides

an account of the Trust’s recent history and key developments. Using primary research, the

fourth question was designed to explore how people who worked for the National Trust in

different capacities viewed climate change, related environmental issues, and the charity’s

response to tackling climate change. Its main purpose was to corroborate or counter the

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findings from the previous three questions, which were reliant on secondary sources.

Question 5 sought to explore the travel behaviour and environmental attitudes of visitors,

including their views on the effectiveness of the government and the role of charities in

addressing climate change. Both questions were answered using empirical findings that

delivered insights into how climate change was perceived by the National Trust and its

members and visitors, and subsequent insights for policy-making. Sampling is discussed

later.

The sixth and final question, reflecting the study’s overall aim, was devised to assess

whether the National Trust’s climate change policy could be considered to contribute

effectively towards achieving sustainable heritage tourism. In this way, the charity’s

response to climate change, with its balancing act between conservation and tourism,

became a lens for the study (Figure 1.1 in the opening chapter).

Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the study’s methodology,

taking the word to mean ‘the study of how we collect knowledge about the world’

(Phillimore & Goodson, 2004: 34), a more holistic view of the process than ‘research

methods’. Several authors recommended particular structures for approaching methodology

(Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Saunders et al., 2009; Thomas, 2009). Thomas’s approach to the

research process: design frame, data collection methods, and data analysis was considered

appropriate for this methodology. The chapter begins firstly, with a discussion on the

project’s research approach in terms of philosophy and design. Secondly, an account is

given of how secondary data were sourced and used for the research. The third section

discusses primary data sources to include: sampling; an account of data collection methods

and their design; data collection procedures (fieldwork); and how the findings were

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analysed and interpreted. For clarification and to avoid repetition, the terms ‘thesis’, ‘study’,

‘project’, or ‘the research’ are variously used.

Research approach

This section explains how the project construed knowledge and the approach taken to

acquiring knowledge in order to answer the research questions. As Botterill (2001: 199)

remarked: ‘The assumptions that underlie social science research in tourism are seldom

made explicit’. He basically argued that tourism studies’ status in being able to justify the

development of a knowledge system had so far been limited by the normalisation of a

positivist epistemology. Tourism research, he continued, should increasingly take

opportunities to engage in the epistemological debate surrounding the paradigms of social

research, such as looking to social constructivism and realism to expand the boundaries of

tourism knowledge. For further debate on the maturity of tourism research and its claims to

be a discipline of knowledge, see Ryan (1997), Tribe (1997; 2000; 2001) and Leiper (2000).

An appropriate starting point was to consider the project’s ontological position: in

other words, the nature of reality with this study (Saunders et al., 2009: 110); or the kind of

phenomena that are assumed to exist in the social world surrounding this topic, and how

they should be studied (Thomas, 2009: 86). The research required a consideration of

existing theoretical and empirical material related to climate change (‘the science of climate

change’) and existing aspects of the National Trust’s climate change policy. This took an

objective approach, viewing physical or social entities as independent realities to social

actors (researchers and the people they study). Equally, the project explored the perceptions,

opinions and views of people who worked for the National Trust in some capacity including

volunteers. This dimension of the study utilised a degree of subjectivity, or ‘understanding

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the meanings that individuals attach to social phenomena’ (Saunders et al., p.111). The

study’s ontological position therefore, took account of both objective and subjective

realities.

How then, did the project acquire knowledge about these realities; or, what

constituted acceptable knowledge? Accordingly, the epistemological position will be briefly

considered. Research texts usually refer to the process of working within a paradigm, which

Kuhn (1962) defined as ‘a fixed set of assumptions about the way inquiry should be

conducted’. Saunders et al. (p.119) for example, and similar texts, categorise paradigms as:

positivism; realism; interpretivism; and pragmatism. As far as this study was concerned, the

topic required an understanding of climate change in the natural sciences as well as how the

Trust and its supporters interpreted the natural, objective phenomenon of climate change,

thus relying on both objective and subjective approaches. In exploring these realities at

different levels, for example from a trustee’s viewpoint to a volunteer’s, different levels

provided different perspectives; in other words, the study was concerned with changing or

multiple realities. In the case of climate change, for many people who took part in the

research the phenomenon was an objective reality (extreme weather, for example). On the

other hand, participants from all levels, showed different perceptions of the risk it posed, or

the extent to which humans had contributed to global warming.

The study’s epistemological position therefore, was seen largely in the tradition of

pragmatism, which acknowledges the dual roles of observable phenomena and subjective

meanings to provide acceptable knowledge, according to the research question being studied

(Saunders et al., p.119). Elements of critical realism were also present (reality seen as

objective but open to different shades of interpretation) as well as social constructivism

(making sense of the world through social constructions or subjectivity) (Botterill &

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Platenkamp, 2012). Further discussion on tourism and leisure research using a post-

positivist paradigm can be found in Gale & Botterill (2005) and Henderson (2011). A

combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to explore the research

questions. The rationale for these methods is explained in more detail in the chapter.

Primary data collection took place through one set of semi-structured interviews and three

questionnaire surveys using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The aim of the

fieldwork was to corroborate or counter the secondary data findings, thus acting as a

triangulation process.

Secondary data

The study used a wide range of literature. Chapters 2 and 3 developed a narrative sourced

from heritage and tourism studies and related multidisciplinary studies taken from climate

change science and policy, policy studies, management literature and environmental ethics

and environmental psychology. The literature was sourced using a combination of library

visits, inter-library loans and internet academic search engines. With the latter, a systematic

approach to sampling was developed, where a number of articles were selected from an

initial search of approximately 100 articles for each search command. Subsequent snowball

sampling developed the literature base. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, a range of

government white papers, NGO research (the Green Alliance in particular), policy research

organisations (the Institute for Public Policy Research for example), articles from

broadsheet newspapers, and conference proceedings, completed the literature portfolio.

For Chapters 5 and 6, much reliance was placed on reviewing a large quantity of

documents in the National Trust’s public domain, consisting mainly of annual reports, AGM

minutes and newsletters. Additionally, a sample of internal documents was made available.

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These were records of meetings, memoranda and internal papers dealing with the subject of

climate change. Four visits were made to the charity’s headquarters in Swindon (Heelis)

where access was gained to the archives department. During these visits, original documents

were read through, beginning in the 1960s and the lead-up to the launch of Enterprise

Neptune. Chapter 6 explains that the ‘official’ start date for tracing the evolution of climate

change policy was 1970. Relevant material was noted in the form of photocopied extracts

and supplementary notes. Following the visits, the material was re-examined prior to writing

the chapters. Visits to Heelis and university conferences and workshops are recorded in

Appendices 4.8 and 4.9. The review of documents resulted in five themes being identified

that contextualised the key developments at the National Trust since 1995. These are

discussed in Chapter 5.

Appendix 4.1 categorises the project’s secondary sources. Peer-reviewed articles

accounted for over half of all sources in order to develop a critical discussion on the

literature, with over 80 per cent of articles, contributing much of the material for Chapters 2

and 3. Much of the tourism articles were sourced from leading journals, principally: Annals

of Tourism Research; Tourism Management; Journal of Travel Research; and Journal of

Sustainable Tourism. National Trust documents, used mainly for Chapters 5 and 6,

accounted for 16% of the literature, approximately the same proportion as textbooks.

Textbooks were particularly valuable sources for climate change science and public policy

models during the earlier stages of the project. Further contributions can be viewed in

Appendix 4.1. In terms of the currency of the literature, 60 per cent of sources were

published in the last ten years in keeping with the contemporary nature of the research.

Primary data: sampling

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Primary data were collected by three methods: 1) an exploratory questionnaire conducted

with representatives from the Council and Board of Trustees; 2) a series of semi-structured

interviews with a trustee, directors from the senior management team, regional director and

advisor, and property managers (12 in total); additionally, two group interviews were held

with a regional environmental group, and a volunteers’ forum 3), an on-line questionnaire

conducted with volunteers. The design of these instruments is discussed in the chapter’s

main section. Sampling is divided into properties and people.

Region and properties

Chapter 1 introduced the reasons for choosing the National Trust and its West Midlands

region for this study of sustainable heritage tourism. A case study is not necessarily viewed

as a sampling tool. Stake (2005: 134) noted that case studies were one of the most common

ways to carry out qualitative inquiry and should not be seen as a methodological choice but

rather an intention to study something particular. The National Trust was chosen as an

‘instrumental case study’ (Stake: p.137) where the subject (the case) is ‘examined mainly to

provide insight into an issue …’ but not precluding inquiry into its contexts and ordinary

activities as these help the researcher to pursue the external interest. The West Midlands

represented one region out of the charity’s 11 regions in 2007, the first full year of the study

(now 9 regions in 2014/5). It was sampled purposively for practical considerations of

conducting the research as well as representing a land-locked area experiencing the impacts

of climate change, whereas most tourism/climate change studies have focused on aviation,

ski resorts and coastal areas. The results from the primary research have not been

generalised in any way for the other ten regions.

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 Within the West Midlands region (subsequently merged with the Trust’s East

Midlands region in 2012 to become ‘The Midlands’) properties were sampled for primary

research and for two purposes. A total of nine properties were visited during the course of

conducting interviews and conducting the visitor survey. These were purposively sampled

from 37 properties listed in the 2011 Handbook for the West Midlands. Table 4.1 shows the

breakdown by type of property.

Property category No.

Mansion 19
Vernacular 4
Countryside 3
Dovecote 3
Garden 3
Farmhouse/barn 2
Museum/monument 2
Inn 1
Total 37

Table 4.1 West Midlands region properties by category (National Trust 2011 Handbook)

The shaded area indicates properties attracting larger visitor populations suitable for a

survey. Appendix 4.7 gives a detailed breakdown of numbers for 2011/12, highlighting the

five properties used for the survey. Six properties were targeted on the basis of representing

each county in the West Midlands (Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire,

Worcestershire, Herefordshire, plus Birmingham and the Black Country); both rural and

urban locations and urban fringe; and type of property (for example mansion versus open

countryside). This approach was similar to Dickinson et al.’s (2004) study of National Trust

properties in the south-west of England. Attempts to contact the manager of Carding Mill

Valley and the Shropshire Hills in order to gain permission to conduct a visitor survey

proved unsuccessful, thus reducing the sample size to five (Table 4.2).

County Property type Location Property

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Staffordshire Manor House Edge conurbation Moseley Old Hall
Herefordshire Gardens Rural The Weir
Worcestershire Open countryside Edge conurbation Clent Hills
Warwickshire Mansion Rural Charlecote Park
Birmingham & Black Urban housing Urban Birmingham Back-to-
Country Backs

Table 4.2 Sample of properties used for the visitor survey

People

Through a contact at Heelis, 57 letters (Appendix 4.5) were circulated to members of the

Board and Council inviting participation in the survey. This was considered a practical

strategy for contacting senior policy-makers who were dispersed across the UK and who

convened at Heelis only a few times a year. Fifteen members expressed interest and agreed

to take part in the exploratory survey. Eight responses were received. Two further members

corresponded by e-mail. In all, ten responses were received which, given the restricted

access, was an encouraging start to the fieldwork, representing approximately 20 per cent of

the most senior staff at the National Trust.

Following advice from a contact at the National Trust, ten managers in the West

Midlands region, some of them General Managers, were approached via e-mail to take part

in a semi-structured interview. The ten managers represented all of the counties in the

region including Birmingham and the Black Country, as well as a cross-section of property-

type. Despite several follow-up e-mails and a few telephone calls, only five agreed to an

interview. Four letters (Appendix 4.6) were sent to directors at Heelis, resulting in two

interviews. Through a contact at Heelis, a further interview was arranged with a Trustee.

Two regional staff and one further manager from Heelis agreed to participate, bringing the

total of one-to-one interviews to 12. The two group interviews were arranged with the help

of a regional contact and a property manager. In all cases, sampling was purposive.

Collectively, the response rate was in the region of 50 per cent.

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 The visitor survey eventually produced 847 responses. Table 4.3 shows a breakdown

of the various populations involved. For the survey, a purposive, convenience sampling

process was used, which suited the nature of site visits where visitors were approached

when the opportunity arose. The majority of visitors encountered were middle-aged couples.

To achieve an improved spread of responses, a form of quota sampling was introduced

where younger visitors and ethnic minorities were targeted. Furthermore, considering

sampling theory, a transient sample population (visitors arriving and leaving) meant that an

unbiased, random (probability) sampling from a fixed population was not possible.

However, the final sample size of 847 exceeded expectations and provided opportunities to

make some statistical inferences. The general statistical rule holds that the larger the sample

size, the more likely it is to be closer to the characteristics of the total population (Rowntree,

2000; Saunders et al., 2009; Thomas, 2009). Table 4.3 estimates the populations involved.

Table 8.1.1 in Appendix 8.1 shows the breakdown of response rates. A 98 per cent rate was

achieved with one-to-one interviews, while the mail-back method yielded a 48 per cent

response rate leading to an overall response rate just short of 60 per cent.

The on-line questionnaire survey of volunteers was the third method used.

Volunteers work in diverse locations and with a multitude of different hours and shifts

across many properties. Following discussion with a contact based at one of the properties,

it was decided that an on-line survey would be an effective method of reaching a sample of

volunteers out of an estimated total of 500-600. Through the contact, the survey was

distributed via Google (Google Survey Monkey). Responses were returned to a Google

account link. Within a few weeks, 139 responses had been received. In this case, the

sampling process was self-selection, and proved to be relatively successful. Most of the

responses came from one property.

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Primary data: design of data collection methods

The collection of primary data involved a series of semi-structured interviews and three

questionnaire surveys (Box 4.2). The interview topics are listed in Box 4.3 and copies of the

questionnaires can be viewed in Appendices 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4.

Origin Population category Numbers Reference

Total visits to NT Total population 239 million NT (2013d)
properties
Estimated visits to West Midlands total 3 million Appendix 4.7
West Midlands props. population (rounded-up)
Estimated visits to the Sampling frame 1.2 million Appendix 4.7
survey’s properties
Recorded visits for Sample 847 Survey results
survey

Table 4.3 Populations for the visitor survey

Semi-structured interviews N Questionnaire surveys N

Trustee; directors; general managers; Members of the Board of Trustees and the
property managers 12 Council 8
Group interview (managers) 1 Visitors to five properties 847
Group interview (volunteers) 1 Volunteers 139

Box 4.2 Summary of primary data methods (NT)

To reiterate, the methods were designed to answer the research questions, which themselves

were constructed following the review of the literature and development of the interpretive

framework.

Exploratory questionnaire survey for the Board of Trustees and Council

The first questionnaire survey (Appendix 4.2) was conducted in 2010 with members of the

Board of Trustees and the Council through a contact at Heelis. It was designed as an

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exploratory tool to gain an insight into the views of senior policy-makers at the National

Trust on issues related to the relatively new governance arrangements (the new Board of

Trustees having been in place for only a few years); climate change and environmental

issues and how these affected the charity; the relevance of internal consultancy in climate

change policy; and the Trust’s external role and affairs in policy advocacy. The

questionnaire was therefore primarily aimed at informing the study’s first three questions

(see page 102).

The survey used mainly closed questions constructed mainly of attitudinal

statements covering topics of governance and policy-making since the Trust’s

reorganisation of 2005; a series of statements suggesting possible reasons why the Trust had

responded to climate change; internal and external consultancy on climate change issues;

and a range of statements covering topics such as global warming, sustainable development,

and the Trust’s underpinning values related to climate change. In this way, the questionnaire

aimed to gauge the senior policy-makers’ views on why and how the charity was responding

to climate change. Relevant themes from the literature review and interpretive framework

guided the questionnaire’s construction, such as policy-making in the macro, meso and

micro zones; policy networks; governance; the concept of sustainable development; and

environmental ethics. The questionnaire was designed for self-completion. Copies were

returned via Heelis. The survey was the first data collection exercise carried out over the

summer of 2010, coinciding with the first few interviews conducted at Heelis. Its

exploratory nature was considered as an appropriate beginning to gaining a sense of how the

National Trust viewed policy-making and climate change.

Semi-structured interviews

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Box 4.3 lists the interview topics. The topics were devised to span all of the research

questions and sought to establish an overall view on the amount of consensus shown for the

charity’s response to climate change as well as wider environmental issues. The interview

guide was developed to explore each of the study’s research questions. The eight topics

were appropriately worded for the interviews. The first three topics were constructed to gain

a sense of how climate change was seen as an issue within the Trust and how the policy

worked in practice: some of the problems and some of the success stories.

1 The importance of climate change as an issue for the National Trust.

2 The form and function of the National Trust’s climate change policy.
3 Mitigation and adaptation in response to climate change.
4 Sustainable development and the National Trust’s climate change policy.
5 The National Trust as a contributor to environmental public policy; external affairs.
6 The Trust’s recently reformed governance arrangements facilitating climate change
strategy and other issues that concern the ‘whole’ Trust.
7 The Trust’s current strategy Going local supporting an effective and sustainable
approach in managing climate change issues.
8 The balance between access and conservation as part of sustainable tourism and
implications for responding to climate change.

Box 4.3 Interview topics for discussion

The fourth topic on sustainable development was included for two reasons: a), in the

literature, the concept has been criticised as being nebulous; and b), the development of the

charity’s climate change policy and its approach to Key Performance Indictors were guided

by the principles of sustainable development (as discussed in Chapters 5 and 6). With the

fifth topic: external affairs, the history of the Trust and more recent developments since

1995 show that the charity has periodically reviewed its role in external affairs, and

questioned the extent to which it should be a campaigning organisation. The topic of

governance was included because climate change policy was developed during the run-up to

a major re-organisation of the Trust in the late 1990s as well as a reform of its constitutional

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arrangements completed by 2005. The interviews sought to explore the impact of these

changes on the Trust with spin-offs for considering climate change policy. Topic 7, Going

local was a natural successor to investigating organisational change within the charity

leading up to 2005, because of its strategy of decentralisation and empowerment, which

gained renewed momentum from 2009 under the chairmanship of Sir Simon Jenkins. The

interviews were designed to investigate to what extent this strategy grew out of and was

supporting the Trust’s response to climate change. The final topic on the balance between

conservation and access is a recurring theme in the Trust’s history; the interviews provided

the opportunity to link this area of potential conflict with the climate change agenda and

maintaining a sustainable form of heritage tourism.

Visitor survey at five properties

The second questionnaire (Appendix 4.3) was designed to answer the study’s fifth question,

essentially a demand-side perspective aimed to capture data on visitors’ travel behaviour

and attitudes towards the climate change and environmental issues including the roles of the

government and the National Trust in tackling climate change.

Questions 1-4 recorded data on frequency and category of visit, distance travelled,

and mode of transport. These four questions aimed to gain a picture of travel behaviour

from a sample of visitors to the five properties. They were framed against the literature on

travel behaviour that has been the subject of much tourism research into climate change

issues, including national surveys into carbon pathways analysis (DfT, 2008) and data on

leisure day trips (Visit England et al., 2013). The questionnaire then focused on car-users,

asking the participants whether they shared their journey, and would they consider using an

alternative mode of transport for the next or similar visit to a property (Questions 5-6)? The

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aim here was to establish a fast response to a fundamental personal choice, before moving

on to explore the possible reasons for the response in Questions 7 (Yes/Maybe) or 8 (No).

Participants were given five pre-selected reasons for each question, which reflected pro-

social motives (for the benefit of the community and wider society); egoistic motives (such

as personal reasons); or instrumental reasons (practical considerations). Here, selected

literature from environmental psychology in Chapters 2 and 3 helped to frame the

statements.

Through Question 9 in the second half of the survey, respondents were asked to

record their agreement with a range of broadly-worded environmental statements that

included perceptions of the severity of global warming, its causes, a sense of personal moral

duty to reduce carbon emissions, and the notion of nature having equal rights to humans.

This part of Question 9 utilised ideas drawn from environmental ethics and psychology such

as Nash (1990); Dryzek (1997); Palmer (2003); Bamberg et al. (2007). The remaining three

statements in Question 9 sought to gauge respondents’ views on the role of the National

Trust and the link between conservation work and adaptation to climate change, and

whether tourism was seen to be detrimental to tackling climate change. Several drafts of

these questions were produced to arrive at appropriate wording and meaning. The

statements were designed with the intention of provoking a fast response to a broad

question. It was acknowledged that the wording was prone to different interpretations and

criticism of asking for closed responses to very broad propositions that deserved further

explanation or clarification. Question 10 sought an open response to awareness of climate

change measures, possibly prompted by the surroundings of the property being visited or

wider knowledge of the charity’s measures. Finally, Question 11 captured personal data on

gender, age, and membership of the Trust. This information was required to analyse any

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variations in responses given by different visitor segments, which may have implications for

the Trust’s climate change policy. Such analysis was evident in the tourism literature,

enabling comparisons to be made.

Volunteer survey

The third survey (Appendix 4.4) was designed to explore the attitudes of National Trust

volunteers towards similar climate change and environmental issues presented to visitors

(see Chapter 8), but additionally sought to explore volunteers’ views on communicating

environmental messages to visitors, and to what extent participants felt connected with

issues and information and disseminated from Heelis. These questions were designed to

answer the third research question (structure, governance and management supporting the

Trust’s climate change policy) and the fourth question (views on climate change of people

who work for the National Trust). Chapter 5 discussed the Trust’s approach to management,

particularly with regard to decentralisation and empowerment at property level. Volunteers

usually work on the ‘front line’ at properties, and it was considered relevant to capture their

views, thus completing a span of perceptions from senior policy-making, down through

regional and property management and thence to the volunteers who come into direct

contact with the membership and visitors.

As with the visitor questionnaire, personal data were collected on age and gender, as

well as information about areas of work, in order to identify any differences associated with

clusters of questions. An open question was inserted at the end of the survey as an

opportunity to record personal thoughts on the issues raised. The questionnaire was

transformed into an electronic version and distributed via Google Survey Monkey with the

co-operation and agreement of a contact at the National Trust. The survey was distributed to

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four properties, one property providing the majority of responses. In all, 139 responses were

received.

Analysing the data

Qualitative data

Data from the interviews were typed-up into transcripts and notes and reviewed several

times for emerging themes. Relevant sections in the transcripts were highlighted and aligned

with the interview topics. A full version of the transcripts was produced (over 30,000

words), but is not included as part of the thesis so as to protect the identity of interviewees

The process bore some elements of constant comparison and content analysis (Thomas,

2009: 198-207), whereby the text was subjected to several readings leading to the

identification of primary and secondary themes. Thematic analysis is another method that

provides an appropriate description of the process, as well as discourse analysis that

highlighted particular phrases and word choice.

Qualitative data from the visitor survey was entered onto an Excel spreadsheet,

where the individual comments on purpose of visit and awareness of climate change

measures, and post-codes, were pegged to each respondent. Subsequently, the comments

were collated using a simple form of frequency analysis, which appears in Appendix 7.1. in

the form of bar charts. In the volunteer survey, the open Question 7 produced some detailed

comments from volunteers, some of them quite critical. Comments that were deemed of

most interest and relevance were typed-up and included also in Appendix 7.1. In terms of

analysing the interview transcripts and open answers from the volunteer survey, the

approach taken was to allow the data to speak for itself along the lines of ‘thick description’,

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where the language used provides the interpretation. The qualitative findings from the

interviews and surveys are discussed in the context of the whole thesis in Chapter 9.

Quantitative data

Results from the two hard-copy questionnaires (Board/Council and visitor surveys) were

initially collated manually. With only 8 responses, the Board/Council survey data was

processed manually through a simple counting process for categorical data and percentages

for the ordinal data. With the visitor questionnaire survey though, 847 responses required

the use of several Excel spreadsheets to collate the data before being transferred to Minitab

16, a statistics software package. A series of inferential statistical tests were then conducted

(one-sample T-tests, Chi-square analysis, and ANOVA – Analysis of Variance) to test for

relationships between independent and dependent variables. The results are shown in

Appendix 8.1.

Questions 1-6 and 11 in the visitor survey produced categorical data that were

presented as percentages (Table 8.1.2 in Appendix 8.1). These data were then subjected to a

Chi-square analysis (Rowntree, 2000: 124) for significance testing of associations between

independent (personal characteristics) and dependent variables (travel behaviour) (Table

8.1.4 in Appendix 8.1). In Question 9, One-sample T-tests (Table 8.1.3 in Appendix 8.1)

were used to establish the mean scores and standard deviation of all the attitudinal

statements recorded with ordinal data from Likert scales (1-5). The highest scores were

highlighted in colour. The results from Question 9 were then subjected to ANOVA

(unstacked). Here, there were opportunities to test for significant variances found amongst

the independent variables of age, gender, and membership (or not) of the National Trust.

Results from properties were also tested for significant differences, with the exception of

Moseley Old Hall because of its small sample size. Table 8.1.5 in Appendix 8.1 summarises

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these results, again highlighting in colour where differences are significant at P<0.05 (95 per

cent confidence). Further Tables in Appendix 8.1 show the results of additional tests

conducted. As was emphasised earlier, the survey was not designed to produce statistical

generalisations that would apply to the whole National Trust. It was a case of the large

sample size giving the opportunity to explore these differences and make appropriate

inferences. These were interpreted and discussed by making reference to the literature

discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, with a focus on transport studies, carbon emissions data,

environmental psychology and ethics and pro-environmental behaviour studies.

Quantitative data from the volunteer survey was initially collated through the Google

Survey Monkey software. The results are presented in Appendix 7.1. The categorical data

(gender, volunteer characteristics, length of service, role) were manually converted to

Microsoft Word bar charts and pie charts as this format was compatible with the

presentation of other data. The results of the attitudinal questions were manually converted

from categorical data (number of respondents disagreeing etc.) to ordinal data on a Likert

scale of 1-5 so that Minitab tests for ANOVA could be conducted along similar lines to the

volunteer survey. The results of the test are presented in Questions 3 and 6 in Appendix 7.1.

As with the visitor survey, significant differences at P<0.05 were highlighted. In retrospect,

although the Google survey was effective in reaching its intended target and the results were

computed efficiently, the information had to be re-processed to remain compatible with the

format of the other quantitative results.

Chapter summary

The literature review and interpretive framework led to the crystallisation of the study’s

research questions, which decided the research approach and methods used to collect and

interpret data, and provided a basis for analysis and interpretation of the findings. A

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pragmatic approach was taken towards the philosophy of research for this project, siding

with the paradigm of critical realism but with contributing elements of social

constructivism. This approach for example, took account of the dual contributions of

climate change science and policy practice, as well as the more subjective viewpoints about

the nature of climate change and associated environmental notions.

The study used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods in order to

answer the research questions. A large sample size from the visitor survey enabled a number

of statistical inferences to be made although no claims were made to providing results that

could be generalised for the National Trust. Relevant themes were extracted from secondary

sources using content analysis. Constant comparison, thematic analysis, thick description,

and elements of discourse analysis, were all used to some extent to analyse the interview

transcripts and qualitative information provided by the surveys. An evaluation of the

methodology is found in Chapter 9.

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 CHAPTER 5

KEY DEVELOPMENTS AT THE NATIONAL TRUST SINCE 1995

Introduction

This chapter reviews developments in policy and practice at the National Trust over the past

twenty years since its centenary in 1995. A time-line indicating some of the key

events/issues throughout the Trust’s history can be found in Appendix 5.1. Reviewing

recent developments serves to contextualise the formation of a climate change policy

(discussed in Chapter 6), which took shape during the 1990s. Leadership changes left their

mark through different personalities and agendas. Continued growth in membership – a

doubling in 20 years to reach 4 million in 2011 (National Trust, 2012a) – and 19.2 million

visitors to pay-on- entry properties during 2012/13 (National Trust, 2013d), have placed

extra demands on the charity, but have enabled additional revenue to be channelled into

conservation work and visitor facilities (£79.7 million was spent on properties in 2012/13).

In contrast to the Council of the early 1960s, which at times took a guarded view on

tourism, the charity now sees ‘the number of visitors and volunteers prepared to recommend

the National Trust to their friends and relatives’ as a measure of its success (National Trust,

2013d).

The chapter is structured as follows. First, a short account is given of the Trust’s

history to 1995. Although the charity’s first hundred years are already well-documented

(Fedden, 1968; Gaze, 1988; Jenkins & James, 1994; Waterson, 1994; Cannadine, 1995) it is

important to underscore how the charity changed organically in response to defining events

and the demands of a widening membership over the years, as background to understanding

recent developments in the past 20 years. The second and main part of the chapter examines

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changes that have been taking place since the mid-1990s. These are discussed under five

themes: advocacy and external affairs; further organisational change; leadership, values and

professionalization; performance-based management; and engagement of members,

supporters, and unreached audiences (Table 5.2). Following reading of the Trust’s early

history, these five themes were constructed through an extensive exploration of secondary

sources such as AGM minutes, annual reports and newsletters; many of them accessed at the

archives department in Heelis. These included a selection of internal documents considered

as primary sources. Careful examination of the documents facilitated a process of content

analysis (Thomas, 2009), out of which the themes naturally emerged in the context of

organisational change and macro environmental policy developments. Extracts from

interviews conducted for Chapter 7 are referred to where relevant.

Background to the first hundred years

Coinciding with the Trust’s centenary, Newby’s (1995) edited collection of essays reviewed

the Trust’s major activities in the broader political, economic, social and environmental

context of a hundred years of British history. One of the contributors, Cannadine (1995: 12),

reviewed the National Trust’s first hundred years (1895-1995) over four, overlapping phases

(Table 5.1), to provide context for understanding how the Trust adapted to changing

political, economic and social climates.

Period Main concern of the National Trust

1895 – 1920 Preserving open spaces
1914 – 1949 Proclaiming ‘spiritual values’
1935 – 1970 Rescuing country houses
1965 – 1995 Safeguarding the environment

Table 5.1 Main concerns of the National Trust, 1895-1995

(Cannadine, 1995)

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The Trust began its life as a small, largely amateur campaigning organisation led by three

well-connected Victorian philanthropists who campaigned for the preservation of open

spaces and buildings of historic interest in the wake of late 19th century industrial sprawl.

Throughout the 20th century, the organisation evolved in response to changing political,

economic and social conditions. By the 1930s, the Trust, a charity since the National Trust

Act of 1919, was operated largely on a voluntary basis through local committees across the

country overseen by land agents, with direction from a central office in London. The Trust

was governed by a Council and an Executive Committee whose expertise lay in matters of

finance, land management and heritage. The perception of the Trust as a paternal, oligarchic

organisation designed for the leisure pursuits of the middle classes, as well as protecting the

interests of the land-owning classes, still persists for some observers and critics (Morrison,

2009; Rumblelow, 2014). The National Trust Acts of 1937 and 1939, for example, are

viewed by some as a means to protect landed interests. The legislation was introduced at a

time when the Conservative government led by Stanley Baldwin, saw the safeguarding of

English country houses as important for retaining part of the national heritage and culture.

The National Trust’s Alistair Lees-Milne was instrumental in securing the support of would-

be benefactors. The Acts enabled an owner to donate their estate to the National Trust with

an endowment, in return for exemption from death duties and the right to remain at the

premises rent-free. These properties were acquired as part of the Trust’s statutory purpose to

preserve buildings of historic interest (Cannadine, 1995).

Following the era of country house expansion in the 1950s, the Trust began to turn

its attention to protecting the natural environment (the background to this era beginning in

the 1960s is discussed in Chapter 6), attracting much publicity through the launch of its

coastal protection campaign, Enterprise Neptune in 1965. This is not to suggest that the

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Trust abandoned acquiring buildings of historic interest, but that protecting the coast and

countryside became more of a priority in the post-war period that had seen the creation of

National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Since the Second World War, the

National Trust had grown in popularity. In 1945, when the Trust had concerns over its

future under Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government, membership stood at 7,850,

with ownership of 112,000 acres of land, 93 historic buildings; and a complement of 15 full-

time staff in addition to a network of volunteers. Fifty years later, membership had risen to

over 2.2 million; 580,000 acres of countryside in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; 545

miles of coastline protected; 230 historic houses and 130 ‘important gardens’; and

approximately 30,000 volunteers in addition to nearly 3,000 full-time staff (Jenkins &

James, 1994; National Trust, 1995c); National Trust, 2014d). The increasing popularity of

the Trust was reflected the growth of post-war UK domestic tourism. The UK’s

Development of Tourism Act of 1969 for example, established national tourist boards,

which helped to market destinations. The economic recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s,

though suppressing demand for overseas holidays, instead boosted domestic tourism and a

rise in short-break holidays, assisted by the priority given to heritage tourism via the

Department of National Heritage (the tourism industry’s sponsor department preceding the

DCMS). Broad social trends such as the emergence of the ‘consumer society’ since the

1970s, where between 1971 and 1997, disposable household income nearly doubled; and an

ageing population and falling birth rate (Page & Connell, 2009: 43-44) would also have

contributed to the Trust’s expansion.

Post-centenary developments: 1995-2014

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The patrician roots of its senior figures combined with its considerable land ownership,

country houses and art collections, may well have perpetuated a stereotype that the Trust

was an organisation for the cultured, educated middle classes. Arguably though, this

undervalues the size, diversity and complexity of the Trust’s work in maintaining its core

purpose of conservation in a changing political, economic, social and environmental

climate; as well as its broader social and political complexion accompanied by growth in

membership and staffing. As explained earlier, a comprehensive review of documents in the

public domain produced several themes that have characterised recent history, shown below

with key indicators.

Themes Subsidiaries
Advocacy and external affairs Increased involvement in public policy
Organisational change and governance reform Decentralisation; reform of governance –
creation of Board of Trustees
Performance-based management NT national strategic plans; triple-bottom line
performance
Leadership and professionalization of the Transformational leadership; human resource
charity management: talent management
Engagement of members, supporters, and Doubling of membership from 2+ million in
unreached audiences 1990 to 4 million in 2011; culture of openness;
post-modern tourism; ‘new tourism’; bringing
properties to life; minority markets; branding

Table 5.2: Developmental themes at the National Trust, 1995-2014

Advocacy and external affairs

Salazar (2010: 365-66) stated that the purpose of advocacy is to ‘influence policy makers’

policies, ideas and practices’, and that its effectiveness related not only to changes in policy,

but also to the impact of those policies on affected communities. Advocacy partnerships are

a common feature of the NGO and civil society sector. NGO advocacy, Salazar explained, is

based on policy analysis, research, and the dissemination of information; leading to such

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activities as networking, education, lobbying and campaigning. This process can also be

understood as policy networking (Marsh, 1998b) in the meso policy zone (Parsons, 2005),

and within the policy arena (Hall & Jenkins, 1995). Advocacy: ‘quiet lobbying, awareness

raising, or direct action’ (Hudson, 2002: 407) can be related to the size and resources of the

organisation as well as the issue and target group in question; but in the case of the National

Trust, its statutory purpose is also relevant in the extent to which it should involve itself as a

campaigning organisation. In 1919, the Executive Committee concerned itself with how the

Trust should engage in work of a ‘militant’ character as opposed to its functions as a

holding body (Jenkins & James, 1994: 42). The extent to which, and how, the charity should

campaign on issues continues to attract debate today; some of the views of Trust insiders

appear in Chapter 7.

The National Trust can be viewed as a charity operating within the tourism industry

(as opposed to outside, or above the tourism industry) (Turner et al., 2001). According to

Turner et al., these three levels of involvement engage the tourism industry to suit different

purposes. In their research, the National Trust was used as an example of a leading charity

working within the industry with a role to promote sustainable tourism, stemming from its

statutory responsibilities to ensure ‘conservation and access are protected in harmony with

the local community’ (citing National Trust, 1997). Turner et al. (2001) contended that

charity involvement with tourism was an under-researched area, and that there were

opportunities to study how charities could promote domestic tourism above international

tourism, as well as explore tourist behaviour on holiday. The National Trust’s advocacy in

external affairs might present such opportunities.

Before the advent of the internet, evidence in the public domain for the charity’s

engagement in external affairs is largely restricted to extracts from AGM minutes, annual

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reports and newsletters. A review of these documents shows that by the mid-1990s the Trust

had chosen to involve itself in the public policy arena more visibly than previously. This can

be partly explained by the ambitions of Angus Stirling, the new Director-General in 1983,

who, on taking up his appointment, found the Trust to be rather introspective and

conservative in its outlook (Jenkins & James, 1994: 303). Trans-Atlantic links had been

forged with the Royal Oak Foundation since 1973, but both Stirling and the three Chairs

with whom he worked – Lord Gibson, Dame Jennifer Jenkins, and Lord Chorley – further

involved the Trust in national and European affairs. Documents from the 1980s and 1990s

reported the charity’s participation in countryside and heritage legislation such as the

Heritage Act 1980; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1984; and the Agricultural Holdings Act

1984. Further initiatives and involvement included: a visit by Jennifer Jenkins to Brussels in

1989 to take part in talks on the forthcoming integrated European market; European

agricultural policy; co-operation with other heritage and environmental public agencies such

as English Heritage, the Countryside Commission (later English Nature, then Natural

England), and the National Parks Authority; the Water Act of 1989; and a cautious

approach, if not opposition to, the government’s road-building programme announced in

1990. Other references revealed the Trust working more closely with tourist boards and

educational projects. Expressed simply, by the mid-1990s, the Trust had chosen to involve

itself more fully in external affairs related to its core purpose of conservation.

The Annual Report of 1997/98 suggested that the Trust welcomed several initiatives

introduced by the incoming Labour government of 1997: the establishment of the Regional

Development Agencies seen as likely to complement the Trust’s own designation of

regions; the creation of English Nature by the merger of two former public agencies, the

Countryside Commission and Rural Development Commission; the government’s New Deal

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programme, where the Trust stated its support for the Environmental Task Force and

Voluntary Sector Option; and the proposal for Welsh devolution, where the Trust saw

further opportunities for involvement in regional public policy (National Trust, 1998e: 6-7).

Agricultural policy was a further area in which the Trust took an interest, through support

for some of the proposed reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy that could reward

its tenant farmers for ‘good’ environmental management (National Trust, 1998f).

Agriculture dominated policy discussion in 2000, a situation described by the Trust as an

‘agricultural crisis’ precipitated by the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encaphalopathy

(BSE) in cattle, swine fever, and a high exchange rate for sterling; all of which contributed

to depressed export markets for agriculture. Further problems beset the Trust with the

outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2000/01, leading to widespread closure of its rural

properties for several months. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the recently-appointed

Director-General, Fiona Reynolds, became a member of the government’s Policy

Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, where she promoted the Trust’s case for

more local food initiatives and promotion of enjoyment of the outdoors bringing social and

economic benefits to visitors and residents of rural communities (National Trust, 2001b).

In December 2001, the government published its plans for maintaining statutory

protection for the nation’s historic environment: The Historic Environment: A Force for Our

Future (DCMS, DLTR, 2001). The Trust though, expressed some disappointment with the

lack of additional funding made available or fiscal measures to support Britain’s heritage;

and subsequently collaborated with four other heritage organisations - Historic Houses

Association; English Heritage; Heritage Link; Heritage Lottery Fund - to start a campaign

promoting the importance of history for people. This led to the widely-publicised national

campaign called History matters – Pass it On (National Trust, 2006b; National Trust et al.,

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2006c) in 2006. It was reported that over 1 million people attended free entry open days in

September, and 46,000 on-line diaries for the 17th October were submitted and subsequently

stored in the British Library. The campaign showed the Trust’s desire to publicise its

heritage agenda, reflected in its three strategic aims for 2004-07 (Table 5.3). From 2004,

‘Vision / Strategic plan’ was replaced by ‘Core purpose / Strategic aims’, highlighting the

performance-based approach of the charity; and it can be seen that from 2007, the strategic

aims reflected the Trust’s adoption of triple-bottom-line reporting. Both of these are

discussed later. The wording gives a clue as to how priorities developed; for example,

during 2001-03, it was evident that the Trust aimed to give more attention to its urban

audience (2002) but then a year later inserted the caveat ‘where possible’.

Throughout its history, the Trust has publicised its position on environmental affairs

that impact on its properties and conservation work as well as wider issues. During the

1970s for example, the charity defended its decision to cull seals off the Farne Islands on the

grounds of controlling the population of that species. In the 1980s, with the advent of North

Sea oil, attention was focused on East Anglia with the effects of coastal oil drilling. Concern

was also expressed over the erection of aerials and radio masts, as well as plans to expand

Stansted Airport (affecting Hatfield Forest). The government’s road expansion plans in the

early 1990s (the transport debate is discussed in Chapter 6) concerned the Trust on

environmental grounds and the impacts on its properties. More recently, in 2012, the Trust

carefully considered its response to what it termed as two ‘national debates’: the proposed

high-speed rail network HS2 connecting England and Scotland and the government’s

National Planning Policy Framework for building on land. On HS2, the Council reported

that the Trust ‘did not want to get involved in transport policy, [and] we were right to

champion the natural beauty of the countryside’ (National Trust, 2012a: 49). The charity

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decided to maintain a neutral position over the principle of this transport infrastructure

project, and instead concerned itself with the potential impacts of the railway on its

properties, countryside and nearby communities – as part of its core purpose. Three

locations came under the spotlight: the vicinity of Aylesbury and the Chilterns Area of

Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); Hartwell House (an Historic House Hotel) in

Hertfordshire, where the Trust pressed for a land bridge to be constructed in preference to

compulsory acquisition of part of the house’s garden; and Waddeson Manor in

Buckinghamshire, where the Trust believed the proximity of HS2 would adversely affect the

property and surrounding community. It proposed making alterations to the A41 trunk road

to alleviate the situation. The Chairman, as a journalist, was critical of transport ‘mega-

projects’ such as HS2 and latterly HS3 (BBC, 2013; 2014). In his opinion, the opportunity

costs of further investment into commuter capacity or even motorway-building were

compelling. He was also disdainful of ‘politicians who wrap themselves in the flag’

[supporting grand projects such as HS2].

During 2011/12 the Trust was vocal in its opposition to some aspects of the

government’s draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Fiona Reynolds stated:

‘The National Trust does not make a habit of opposing Government

policy’ (National Trust, 2011a).

The charity was concerned with the NPPF’s implied default concession to local planning

applications where there was an absence of response or out-dated policies, because it felt that

preservation of green belt/open space would be overlooked in favour of economic development,

with insufficient attention being paid to the potential of brownfield sites. This position was

reinforced by the Chairman’s own views on the subject (Jenkins, 2011) and, in conjunction with

the RSPB and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Trust commissioned a report

promoting the case for the ‘non-market value’ of land that would be placed under threat (Vivid

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economics, 2012). Additionally, the charity invited all its members to join a petition:

subsequently submitted to parliament with over 200,000 signatures. Earlier in 2009, the

Chairman had reminded his readers that the National Trust was: ‘not political … it lobbies; it

campaigns; it promotes’ (National Trust, 2009b: 26). In 2013, the Trust commissioned the Local

Government Information Unit to survey local councils (N=147) on their planning positions with

green belt land and

Vision 2001-03
To inspire present and future generations with understanding and enjoyment of the historic and
natural environment through exemplary and innovative work in conservation, education and presentation (2001;
2002; 2003)
Core purpose 2004-07
To look after special places for ever for everyone (2004; 2005; 2006; 2007)
Core purpose 2007/08 onwards
Looking after / To look after special places for ever for everyone
Strategic plan 2001-03 “Our priorities”
Countryside:
Show leadership in the regeneration of the countryside (2001)
Show leadership in the regeneration of the countryside and in the towns (2002)
Show leadership in the regeneration of the countryside and, where possible, our towns (2003)
Learning/education:
Expand the provision of lifelong learning and education (2001)
Expand the provision of education and lifelong learning (2002; 2003)
Heritage:
Deepen people’s understanding of our landscape, built and cultural heritage and broaden their
appeal (2001)
Deepen people’s understanding of the meaning and value of heritage (2002)
Deepen our understanding of the meaning and value of heritage (2003)
Strategic aims 2004-07
Countryside:
Show leadership in the regeneration of the countryside (2004; 2005; 2006; 2007)
Learning/education:
Put education and lifelong learning at the heart of everything we do (2004; 2005; 2006;2007)
Cultural heritage:
Deepen understanding of our cultural heritage (2004; 2005; 2006; 2007)
Strategic aims from 2007/8
Supporters:
Engaging supporters (2008; 2009. 2010; 2011;2012; 2013; 2014)
Conservation and the environment:
Improving conservation and environmental performance (2008; 2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014)
People (NT employees and volunteers):
Investing in our people (2008; 2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014)
Finance:
Financing our future (2008; 2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014)

Annual Report headline themes 2008 onwards

Our future – join in (2007/08)

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Time well spent (2008/09)
Going local (2009/10)
Going local (2010/11)
Going local (2011/12)
(No theme) (2012/13)
(2013/14)

Table 5.3 National Trust Strategic Themes 2001-14 (Annual Reports)

brownfield sites. The survey found that over half of councils at that time were likely to

allocate green belt land for development; and over half of councils had brownfield sites

available to meet housing demand, but these had not been considered viable. The Chairman

was openly critical of the government’s approach to planning:

‘The Government’s definition of ‘sustainable’ is in practice being

interpreted as ‘profitable’, and has effectively killed the former
presumption in favour of brownfield land’ (National Trust, 2014d).

The Trust did state though, that it was in favour of ‘plan-led’ systems that were fair and

balanced, in other words, those that took account of land and historic buildings worth

preserving for the benefit of the nation and local residents.

In December 2013, the Trust published its response to the Department for Energy

and Climate Change (DECC)’s proposals for siting the disposal of radio-active waste

products: a ‘Geological Disposal Facility’ (GDF). Here, the Trust stated its opposition to

siting such a facility in the Lake District, which is a National Park in which the Trust owns a

fifth of the land; and, more widely, any part of the country that included National Parks,

AONBs or World Heritage Sites. It considered that decisions for siting GDFs should be

taken from a national geological and environmental point of view, not at a District Council

level. Furthermore, the Trust believed that more open consultation was required before a

National Policy Statement could be approved, prior to any siting process. Such a

consultation process should take account of affected local communities including their

wider interests, including tourism. Again, as so often with controversial issues, the National

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Trust took a neutral position on the principle in question (in this case, nuclear energy or the

underground storage of nuclear waste in principle), but defended its opposition to any

intrusive developments that would affect its core purpose.

Organisational change and governance reform

Although writing about governance in the context of tourism public policy, Hall (2011: 439)

provided some useful pointers to defining the concept, beginning with ‘the act of

governing’, and then a broad meaning that saw governance as a process of the state adapting

to ‘its economic and political environment with respect to how it operates’. Since the 1950s,

the Trust periodically reviewed its organisational structure and governance arrangements

through a succession of internal reviews. Change was sought either in the management

structure as with continuing decentralisation; or in respect of the relationship between the

Council and the membership, lobbying for greater representation of the membership at

AGMs or in committees. At the 1999 AGM, a members’ resolution from the farm tenants’

community achieved a further move towards decentralisation, calling for the Trust to:

‘… reform its over-centralised approach to decision-making, to

adopt a far less satisfied and complacent tone … [so that] … farm
tenants should feel that they are capable of influencing national
policy’ (National Trust, 1999c).

A member of the Council supported the resolution, reminding the meeting:

‘… how local decision-making within a national policy framework

was encouraged and emphasised that regional committees and
management were increasingly consulted in the course of
formulating national policies’ (National Trust, 1999c).

A further example occurred the following year, when the relationship of the Trust’s

governing body with the membership again came to the surface. At the 2000 AGM, a

members’ resolution criticised the standard practice of the Chairman distributing proxy

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votes at his discretion. This was described as lacking in transparency; and there should be a

reinstatement of the former practice of distributing votes in proportion to those already cast

by members. One of the proposers described the image of the governing body as being one

of:

‘… potential authoritarianism, secrecy and – potentially – an

effective dictatorship’ (National Trust, 2000a).
In the event, the proposal was narrowly defeated by some 2,000 votes. Although Lansley’s

(1996) critique of the Trust used the chairman’s discretion to cast proxy votes for elections

to the Council as a lens through which the democratic credentials of the Trust are examined,

Lansley described the Trust’s management as ‘frankly oligarchic’ (p.229). A glimpse of the

Council’s intention to take a more inclusive approach to the views of the membership was

announced by the Chairman, Charles Nunneley, in the 1999/2000 Annual Report:

‘For the first time we have asked our members to let us have their
views … [about which direction the Trust should be taking]’
(National Trust, 2000b: 5).

Towards the end of Nunneley’s tenure during 2000-2002, an organisational review was

instigated with the aim of enabling the Trust to carry out its core work more effectively. The

main outcomes were: a reduction in the number of regions from fifteen to eleven to coincide

with the government’s boundaries of the new Regional Development Agencies;

rationalisation of a number of departments into centrally-located directorates being a new

Conservation Directorate, Customer Services Directorate, and Policy and Strategy

Directorate; the introduction of Lead Curators to support the special characteristics of

regions and properties; a new role of ‘Territory Director’ to strengthen property

representation on the management board; and a new central headquarters to be built in

Swindon, thus amalgamating four offices from Westbury, Melksham, Cirencester and

London (National Trust, 2002b). One thousand appointments were made throughout the new

133
structure, but accompanied by staff turnover amounting to 37 senior and middle managers

leaving the Trust; 78 compulsory redundancies; 121 voluntary redundancies; and a turnover

of just above 19 per cent in 2002/03 (National Trust, 2004b: 4).

In 2002, the Council appointed a Review Group chaired by Lord Blakenham with a

remit of examining the effectiveness of the Council’s and committees’ decision-making.

Jepson (2005: 516) observed that the topic of governance and accountability had gained new

relevance during the 1990s against a background of globalisation, neo-economic theory and

public sector reform dating back to the 1980s (notably in the US and UK), which eventually

led to some concerns about the public accountability of what were described as ‘green-chip

ENGOs, although the National Trust was not included in Jepson’s list of ENGOs. In their

review of governance literature in the political sciences and corporate management studies,

Ruhanen et al. (2010) identified up to forty variables associated with the concept. The six

most frequently identified were: accountability, transparency, involvement, structure,

effectiveness and power: similar issues for the Trust during the early years of the 21st

century.

The ‘Blakenham Report’ as it came to be known, was published in April 2003

(National Trust, 2003a), shortly before William Proby succeeded Charles Nunneley as

Chairman. The report was critical of some of the inherent features of decision-making that

took place between the Council and committees. The report referred to the large number of

internal bodies through which issues requiring decisions had to pass, leading to delay, lack

of clarity and duplication of staff and effort; while the large size of the Council (52

members) hampered fast and efficient decision-making, and made it difficult for individual

trustees to discharge their responsibilities. Following the Benson Report of 1968, the Trust

saw its membership grow from around 150,000 to over 3 million with an operating budget

134
100 times greater than before. The report noted that the Trust had found itself increasingly

involved in external affairs in a more complex regulatory environment where there was

greater competition for funds. Swifter decisions, it argued, were needed to respond to the

financial, social, environmental, regulatory and reputational implications for the charity.

The report (National Trust, 2003) continued by drawing a parallel with the Trust’s

position and that of the world of large business corporations where transparency, clarity and

integrity were increasingly expected by shareholders and stakeholders. Not belonging to the

corporate sector, the Trust’s own principles of good governance and its duties undertaken as

charity trustees were regulated and guided by institutions such as the Charity Commission

and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. The key recommendation of the

Blakenham Report was a new, smaller, single governing body of trustees running the affairs

of the Trust but appointed by the existing Council, supported by a “radical streamlining” in

the number of central committees (National Trust, 2003c: 1-7). Figures 5.1 and 5.2 illustrate

the governance and management structures in place before and after the governance review

of 2002/03. Although the Blakenham Report was published in April 2003 it took a further

two years for the recommendations to be implemented, leading to the appointment of a new

Board of Trustees (Blakenham suggested ‘Governing Body’) taking office from 1st

September 2005. The revised governance structure was formalised under the Charities

(National Trust) Order 2005. From 2005, the Council’s role changed to that of an advisory

body, and the guardian or spirit of the Trust, but the Council would appoint and cal to

account the 12-member Board of Trustees, which was now responsible for the strategic

planning and management of the Trust through the Director-General and Senior

Management Team. Henceforth, the Council would become the ‘shaper of policy’ (National

Trust, 2009c).

135
 During 2009/10, further internal management changes were implemented in line with

the Going local strategy of reduced bureaucracy, which was to become one of the defining

themes of Simon Jenkins’ Chairmanship of 2008-14. The new post of General Manager was

introduced, bringing smaller properties collectively under the control of one manager; and

for larger properties considered to be complex in terms of their management and

interpretation. An example of the staff structure for a mansion property can be viewed on the

following page. A total of 27 Area Managers was replaced by 18 Assistant Directors for

Operations, a post designed to support the general managers and property managers. The

roles of central and regional staff were now designed to provide a consultancy and support

service for properties. From 2011/12, this consultancy role became known as ‘the new

internal Consultancy’ (National Trust, 2012: 49), completing the final stages of the charity’s

‘Change Programme’. In the 2012/13 Annual Report, the Council announced that successive

years of internal re-organisation were drawing to a close, to be replaced by a more demand-

led approach to its stakeholders, in other words the needs of visitors and volunteers:

‘After a long period focused on internal change, the Council was

pleased that the Trust plans to shift its focus to meet the expectations
of our 70,494 volunteers and the 19.2 million people who visit our
properties every year’ (National Trust, 2013d: 31).

Performance-based management

A review of annual reports showed that the Trust began to adopt a performance-based

management approach to its planning during the early 1990s, following the economic

recession of 1990/91; also at a time when the regulation and transparency of large

corporations came under scrutiny. Sir Adrian Cadbury’s report on the financial aspects of

corporate governance (Cadbury, 1992) in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the

collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and Robert Maxwell’s

136
disappearance and the ensuing pensions crisis at the Mirror Group, highlighted the need to

raise standards in this area. In his preface, Cadbury wrote:

‘It is, however, the continuing concern about standards of financial

reporting and accountability, heightened by BCCI, Maxwell and the
controversy over directors’ pay, which has kept corporate
governance in the public eye. Unexpected though this attention may
have been, it reflects a climate of opinion which accepts that
changes are needed and it presents an opportunity to raise standards
of which we should take full advantage’.

Nominations Annual Report

Committee &Accounts
Advisory
Committee Committee
Reporting Constitution Council Audit
+Standing Committee
Committee
Appointments Senior Mgt
Committee Remuneration
Committee

Chairmen’s
Committee
Executive Expert Panels:
Archaeology
Committee
Architecture
Investment Finance Properties Arts
Review Committee Committee Estates
Panel Gardens
Director-General Nature
Conservation

Management
Board
5
Directorates*

Territory
Directors

Country/Regional 11 x Country
& Regional
Directors x 11
Committees

Area Managers x Local

Advisory
27
Committees

Property Manager

Staff&
Volunteers

137
*Directorates: Conservation; Customer Services

Figure 5.1
National Trust structure on the eve of the Blakenham Report 2002/03

Wilson (1992) noted that close parallels could be drawn between the voluntary and

commercial sectors in their strategic adaptations to environmental challenges, where, since

the end of the 1970s, most organisations had been exposed to an increasingly competitive

climate and greater commercialisation, coinciding with the Conservative administrations led

Appointments Audit
Committee Committee
Board of
Investment
Council Trustees
Committee
Senior
Management
Remuneration Advisory
Regional/Country Committee Panels:
Advisory Boards Historic Director- National x8
x8 House Hotels Trust Archaeology
General Architecture
Ltd (Enterprises)
Ltd Arts
Gardens &
Parks
Executive Rural
Team* Enterprises
Natural
Environment
Commercial
Country & Learning &
Regional Engagement
Directors x
8

Assistant
Directors
(Operations)
x8

General
Managers***
Property
Managers**
Staff &
Volunteers

Monitoring and calling LEGEND

account
Advisory function Reporting to

Note:

*Directorates: Finance; Media & External Affairs; People & Legal Services; Brand & Marketing;
Conservation; Museums & Collections; Supporter Development = 7

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*Plus: Chief Information Officer; Chief Operating Officer = 2 + Director-General = 10 on Executive Team

** Not all property Managers report to General Managers

*** Not all General Managers report to Assistant Directors

Figure 5.2
National Trust Governance Structure as at 2012/13

by Margaret Thatcher. This point was reinforced by Halfpenny & Reid (2002), who referred

to the influence of the Charities Acts of 1992 and 1993 in strengthening regulation and

requiring greater accountability within charities. Shipley & Kovacs (2008) pointed to the

international context where poor governance was viewed as a contributory factor to the

collapse of some prominent corporations such as Enron in 2001, producing a ripple-effect

where not-for-profit organisations examined their own governance policies. Highlighted

principles included performance, transparency and accountability. Under the

Chorley/Stirling partnership at the Trust then, planning began on a 3-4 year cycle with the

charity’s Medium-Term Plan for 1993/94-1997/98, leading to the first National Strategic

Plan for 1998-2001, at which time the Director-General Martin Drury was succeeded by

Fiona Reynolds in 2001.

From 2008, strategic aims reflected a triple-bottom-line performance approach

(Norman & MacDonald, 2003; Stoddard et al., 2012), translated into four areas: supporters

(members and visitors); conservation and the environment; people (employees and

volunteers); and finance (Table 5.3 previously). Under the William Proby (Chairman) and

Fiona Reynolds (Director-General) partnership of 2003-08, the Trust expanded its

membership from 3 million to 3.5 million; and continued to professionalise itself in several

areas. A combined planning and budgetary process, plus new information technology

systems were meant to provide an improved link between expenditure and strategic

139
priorities, including specific property-based projects (National Trust, 2003b: 21). The

2002/03 Annual Report introduced reporting on performance targets for visitor numbers and

member recruitment, as part of Property Management Plans. In 2009, Property Management

Plans were re-named Property Business Plans, reflecting the charity’s move towards more

of a business and empowerment culture. With regard to human resources, performance and

development reviews for staff were announced alongside a training and development

strategy agreement with the Prospects trades union signed in April 2003. The Autumn

Newsletter for 2002 portrayed Proby’s background in merchant banking and corporate

finance (National Trust, 2002b: 8), which may have influenced the introduction of this

performance culture.

From September 2001, in response to the Charity Commission’s Statement of

Recommended Practice (SORP), the Council developed a risk management framework

which was formalised in 2002/03 when the main governance, operational, financial,

reputational and regulatory risks were identified, which were seen to impact on the Trust’s

core purposes and key objectives. These came to be known as Key Risk Areas (KRAs), split

into 1) a ‘bottom-up’ approach identifying live risks; and 2) a top-down assessment of key

generic risks. These risks were to be reported on a quarterly basis throughout the regional

directorates. From Proby’s tenure onwards, performance achievement against set targets

became a regular feature in annual reports. The Conservation Performance Indicator (CPI)

was introduced in 2004, becoming one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each

property. Conservation objectives were formulated for each property, and then progress

reported annually against a CPI score. As at 2014, the Trust’s four KPIs relate directly to its

four objectives agreed in 2006/07 (Table 5.4).

140
 The Annual Report for 2012/13 expressed disappointment on a 62 per cent rating for

‘visits as very enjoyable’; whereas for staff satisfaction, a 2 per cent increase on a modest

target of 53 per cent prompted the rather selective comment:

‘This year’s survey results show us that we are doing well in

motivating and developing our staff’ (National Trust, 2013d: 15).

In 2003/04, Laurie Magnus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, introduced the first

Strategic Financial Plan for the charity. Although the Trust’s surplus had risen by 44.9 per

cent on the previous year and its investment portfolio had increased by 16.8 per cent to £650

million, the Trust was concerned about its diminishing General Fund – capital reserves to

fund the core conservation work. Accordingly, the plan set a target to increase the General

Fund, which is the Trust’s working reserve, from its low point of £3.9 million in 2003/04 to

more than £20 million in 2006/07 alongside a 20 per cent net gain target (National Trust,

2004c). This 20 per cent target continues to apply in 2014/15. By 2013, the General Fund

had continued to rise, reaching £26.9 million, against a target of £50 million. The evidence

seems to point to the arrival of a strong period in the management of the Trust’s finances.

The Trust’s vulnerability to the changing fortunes of the equity market was illustrated by its

reporting a loss of £5.6 million in 2012 against a gain of £84 million in 2013 (p.22). On a

technical point, the Charity Commission allows the Trust to distribute part of its capital

growth to properties, thus refreshing the General Fund.

Measure of success 2012/13 2012/13

Target Actual
Engaging our supporters
Visitors rating visit very enjoyable (%) 75 62
Net promoter Score (members only) (%) 31.0 34.5
Improving conservation and environmental performance
Properties which have completed a CPI review (%) 100 100
Properties with completed CPI review and reporting an improved score (%) 85 78
Energy reduction (%) 12 4
Investing in our people

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Overall staff satisfaction (%) 53 55
Operational management satisfaction (%) 77 62
Volunteer recommendation indicator (%) 64 63
Financing our future
Net Gain/total ordinary income (%) 9.2 8.2
Properties beating their baseline targets (%) 90 88
Member numbers (million) 4.03 3.94

Table 5.4 Key Performance Indicators (National Trust, 2013d: 10)

Reading through the financial reviews in the annual reports for the last ten years, the

National Trust’s financial reporting resembled that of a sizeable private corporation in the

for-profit sector. This is not surprising, given the extent of its financial operations, with

annual income of nearly £500 million and net assets exceeding £1 billion in 2012/13. The

National Trust operates principally as a voluntary sector organisation with public values, but

naturally adopts the rigour and culture of a private enterprise in its approach to financial

performance. This is probably attributed to its statutory duty to manage sizeable assets, costs

and revenue streams. The principal value delivered by for-profit organisations is financial

return for shareholders; whereas for non-profit, it is the achievement of social purposes and

the cause (Moore, 2000). Presently, the measurement of the social element of TBL in the

Trust’s annual reports is limited to staff satisfaction and visitor satisfaction. The Public

Services (Social Value) Act 2012 required public sector agencies to consider how the

service they procured could bring added economic, environmental and social benefits (HM

Government, 2014). Although a charity independent of government, the definition of social

benefit, its identification and reporting, could bring an extra dimension to the reporting of

the Trust’s TBL performance. However, this might be viewed as an unwanted bureaucratic

cost working against the Trust’s core purpose. The charity’s aim to be inclusive, ‘making

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everyone feel like a member’ by 2020, might warrant consideration of any accrued social

benefits experienced by a widened audience and membership.

Leadership and professionalization of the charity

Since 1995, the Trust has been led by six Chairman/Director-General partnerships with the

seventh due to take place in November 2014. As Table 5.5 shows, there are invariably

cross-overs in partnerships where the Chairman’s post is a fixed term for three years with

one renewal, and the Director-General’s length of tenure more flexible. A chronological

account of each partnership is not relevant for this study; some of these achievements

though, become self-evident throughout this chapter and the following chapter.

Years* Chairman Director-General

1995-1996 Roger Chorley Martin Drury
1997-2000 Charles Nunneley Martin Drury
2001-2002 Charles Nunneley Fiona Reynolds
2002-2008 William Proby Fiona Reynolds
2009-2012 Simon Jenkins Fiona Reynolds
2012-2014 Simon Jenkins Helen Ghosh
2014- Tim Parker** Helen Ghosh
* Partnerships often cross-over in a year
**Tim Parker is due to succeed Simon Jenkins at the end of 2014

Table 5.5 Chairman/Director-General partnerships at the National Trust, 1995-2014

Fiona Reynolds’ term of office spanned the first decade of the 21st century, a period of

major re-organisation at the Trust including: the opening of Heelis; progressive

development in the Trust’s climate change policy; consolidation of the Trust’s return to a

focus on the outdoors; and a growing interest in acquiring places that reflected a wider

social purpose, prime examples being the Birmingham Back-to-Backs and Southwell

Workhouse in Nottinghamshire (National Trust, 2012a) Reynolds was also the first female

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Director-General in the Trust’s history, and served for nearly twelve years, similar to Sir

Angus Stirling’s term of office during 1983-95 (Jennifer Jenkins was the first female Chair,

1986-89). Given the time-span of this research (2006-14), aspects of leadership and

professionalisation over the past twenty years naturally focus on the period of Fiona

Reynolds’ tenure.

Newsletters and annual reports for the period suggested that Reynolds revitalised the

values of the Trust, and navigated it through further internal organisation as well as bringing

about a change in the way the charity communicated with the outside world. She gave

priority to inclusivity, and during the AGM in 2001, reminded the audience that 40 per cent

of the Trust’s estate was within 20 miles of the UK’s largest cities, thus aiming to bridge a

gap between urban and rural communities (National Trust, 2001c). The following year, it

was reported that such initiatives had taken place in Liverpool, South London and

Birmingham; including a project aimed at 48 children from refugee and asylum-seeking

families, clients from NHS mental health services, and the homeless; and poetry-reading in

Sudbury open prison (National Trust, 2002c). Her term of office coincided with the growth

of the concept ‘management by values’ (Dolan & Garcia, 2002; Dolan & Richley, 2006;

Jaakson, 2010), and discussion on strategic values (Wenstøp & Myrmel, 2006).

Management by values (MBV) was seen as the emerging strategic leadership tool in

preference to the former management by instructions (MBI) and management by objectives

(MBO). From 2008, ‘Investing in our people’, closely resembling the human resources

organisational award Investors in People, became one of the Trust’s four strategic aims.

Interviews conducted with Trust staff, discussed in Chapter 7, alluded to her effective

leadership qualities in bringing about a cultural change to the organisation. One senior

manager showed his enthusiasm for Fiona Reynolds’ appointment:

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 ‘Fiona has set a very clear vision … which is about connecting
better with people …we’re not just an organisation that preserves
things for ever in isolation, in some kind of vacuum, we’re actually
about: quality of life, fantastic experiences, individuals, families and
communities, and getting the best things from life, and enjoying
things … a sense of reconnecting with people … Fiona has
energised this … and that’s the art of leadership … and that gives
back light to our founding cause … [asked about bringing a culture
change to the Trust]: undoubtedly yes – when Fiona arrived –
instead of arms closed and looking inwards - arms open – we need to
look outwards – [our] latest strategy is a brilliant iteration and so
inspiring – to reach everybody – we are prepared to go through pain
to achieve the vision, the (task) is monstrous’ (Interview 2).

During 2009-10, a few articles began to appear in business journals, featuring the Trust’s

approach to management and leadership (Measures & Bagshaw, 2009; Desmond, 2010;

Chocqueel-Mangan, 2010). Martin Measures was Head of Training & Development with

the National Trust. Measures & Bagshaw publicised the Trust’s new ‘competency

framework’, developed for a set of plausible reasons that included aligning leadership and

management development with the charity’s strategic direction; developing the careers and

skills of the Trust’s employees; as a tool for performance management; and introducing

transparency in behavioural skills expected in management and leadership roles. An element

of desired compliance from management was evident:

‘…we see it as important that the [competency] framework needs to align

behaviour with the Trust’s vision and values, and to find what
differentiates good from less good’ (Measures & Bagshaw, 2009: 356).

The framework was designed around a set of nine competencies that were seen to be

common to each managerial role, rather than trying to identify technical skills required for

each role. Taking a proscriptive approach, the project continued by designing behaviour

groups and statements for four management levels.

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 The introduction of this model was reviewed a few years later by Chocqueel-

Mangan (2010), who interviewed the Director-General. Fiona Reynolds said that, in her

opinion, the framework was working well because property managers were achieving their

targets, which were aligned to the triple-bottom-line. Chocqueel-Mangan also quoted Paul

Boniface’s (Director of People and Governance) evaluation of the framework’s performance

in relation to the Trust’s continued path towards decentralisation, held together by the

introduction of the General Manager posts:

‘…our experience so far shows that those properties that embrace

this approach [empowerment] are better run, and fulfil their triple
bottom line obligations more fully than when they were more
centrally controlled’ (Chocqueel-Mangan, 2010: 38).

Chocqueel-Mangan further suggested that the ‘strict delineation’ (citing Zaleznik, 1977)

between leaders (tolerating chaos and lack of structure) and managers (seeking order and

control) did not represent what he found at the National Trust, implying that combining

management and leadership in the competency framework had proved to be effective. To

support General Managers in their role, the Trust commissioned Ashridge Consulting, based

in Hertfordshire, to develop the role of the Functional Advisor. This new post aimed to

change the approach of the advisors from a tactical role to more of a strategic role, using

their expertise to develop collaborative and consultative skills (Desmond, 2010). It was

argued that underpinning the whole decentralisation and empowerment strategy was a

requirement for a supporting consultancy role.

The Trust’s continuing internal reorganisation towards greater devolvement

implemented through the Going local theme and the appointment of General Managers,

supported by the Consultancy, the constitutional reform with the creation of the Board of

Trustees, in addition to the design and opening of Heelis, were all significant developments

at the Trust during Reynolds’ term of office. This is not to suggest that all these changes

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were instigated by her alone. The modernisation and professionalisation of the Trust’s

working practices had gained momentum during Angus Stirling’s tenure during 1983-95,

and the most recent major internal review was introduced in 1999/2000 by Reynolds’

predecessor, Martin Drury. As suggested earlier, change at the Trust reflected legacies

associated with each Director-General/Chairman partnership. The Proby/Reynolds era for

example, was defined by constitutional reform and financial planning; whereas during the

Jenkins/Reynolds years, Going local, reducing bureaucracy and bringing properties to life

became defining themes – these continue under the present Jenkins/Ghosh partnership.

Developments in leadership and management at the Trust throughout 2001-12 then,

appeared to resemble contemporary management practice, notably in aspects of human

resource management (HRM) and approaches to leadership such as instrumental and

transformational styles (Dionne et al., 2004; Schneider & George 2011; Eisenbeiß &

Boerner, 2013; Antonakis & House, 2014). Elements of a strategic or human resources-

based approach to leadership (Ridder & McCandless, 2010); and ‘talent management’

(Lewis & Heckman, 2006) are evident in the Trust’s financial planning and management on

a whole-Trust basis, as well as the move towards further reductions in bureaucracy

accompanied with professional development. Elements of this were noted in the Chairman’s

statement in the 2010/11 Annual Report (emphasis added):

‘We are pruning our hierarchy, simplifying reporting lines and

processes and creating more collaborative working. I am convinced
these changes will reduce bureaucracy in the Trust. It has not been
an easy change, but I am impressed by the commitment and
professionalism shown on all sides. It is intended to make a more
efficient Trust and aid the conservation and presentation of all our
places’ (National Trust, 2011: 2).

Engagement of members, supporters, and unreached audiences

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Bringing properties to life was mentioned earlier as a defining theme in Simon Jenkins’

term of office as Chairman, as part of a culture change towards the charity being seen as

more welcome and accessible for a wide audience. This approach became part of the Going

local strategy in 2010/11, together with the aim of ‘Performing at our best through

leadership and delegation’ (National Trust, 2011). On being interviewed in the final months

of his chairmanship, Simon Jenkins said that empowerment of property managers and

bringing properties to life meant the most to him during his tenure. He described these as

‘big internal matters’. On bringing properties to life (Photograph 1):

‘I’m most proud of that because people notice it – taking away the
ropes, letting them play the piano, lighting fires in grates where you
can, encouraging staff to stage events in the house … all the things
which I think make a house feel more friendly, more welcoming’
(National Trust, 2014e: 30).

Photograph 1: Croquet lawn

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A review of annual reports since the 1960s identified at least two references to the origins of

this approach. In the summer of 1961 for example, the British Travel and Holidays

Association, with help of the Trust, carried out a visitor survey at Hardwick Hall and

Clandon Park. The survey reported (emphasis added):

‘…the major enjoyment of the visit can only perhaps be described

satisfactorily as the thrill of direct contact with the past. The exercise
of the visitors’ imagination, particularly in thinking about people
who lived in the house, is the most frequently mentioned experience’
(National Trust, 1962: 15).

By the end of the 1990s, Martin Drury had recognised that the Trust’s traditional approach

of a formal welcome and a guide book may no longer be sufficient to sustain interest. In the

summer newsletter for 2000, he referred to a growing leisure market that ‘is also becoming

more fragmented and sophisticated’ (National Trust, 2000c: 19). Drury went on to voice the

need to find innovative ways to draw out the distinctiveness of each property, particularly

with regard to the people who had lived and worked there; this approach was to be

formalised into a ‘statement of significance’ for each property (National Trust, 2000b). This

new approach, combined with some property staff taking on an actor’s role wearing period

costume for example, attracted disdain amongst some of the membership, who saw a danger

in the Trust straying into ‘disneyfication’ (National Trust, 2011), but the Chairman rebuffed

this criticism on the grounds that improving the quality of the welcome received by visitors

could only add to the enjoyment of the visitor experience:

‘Our places must move on from a period when they have been
presented essentially as museums, to seeing them as sources of
enjoyment …’ (National Trust, 2011: 2).

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 A members’ resolution for the AGM in November 2014 partly echoed Drury’s

earlier sentiments. The resolution called for the National Trust to place Memorial 2007 (a

registered charity that aims to raise awareness of the slave trade) collection boxes in

properties that had been founded and built on the proceeds from the trans-Atlantic slave

trade, in support of raising people’s awareness of the legacy of the slave trade associated

with a property, as well as contributing to funding the planned memorial to be erected in

London’s Hyde Park. The resolution was worded to avoid any political or cultural statement

on the part of the Trust; more, to promote the juxtaposition of the property’s distinctiveness

with the manner in which the wealth had been created. The Board of Trustees recommended

that members should vote against the resolution on the grounds that, whilst the Board

thought it important for visitors to be made aware of a property’s antecedents, the proposal

to locate collection boxes for another charity was not part of its core purpose and that

ultimately, it lay with the discretion of property managers if there were felt to be ‘good local

reasons to help’. It was made clear that a national policy was to be avoided on such an issue

(National Trust, 2014f). The resolution was defeated at the AGM in November 2014.

In 2012, ‘Getting outdoors and closer to nature’ was launched as part of a plan for

the Trust to be recognised for the outdoors as much as country houses and art collections

(National Trust, 2012b). The programme was promoted by reviving Octavia Hill’s late 19th

century legacy during the charity’s founding era:

‘The need of quiet, the need of air, the need of exercise, and the
sight of sky and things growing, seem human needs common to all’
(Octavia Hill, cited in National trust, 2012b: 5).

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Four work streams provided a framework for the programme: engagement and raising

awareness; creating memorable experiences; developing income streams from outdoor

enterprises; and enabling Trust staff and volunteers to work to the highest standards

(National Trust, 2012b). Several initiatives were introduced, notably in the last two years,

the ‘50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ campaign and the Trust’s Natural Childhood

project have been promoted actively at properties and on the website. Based on its research,

the Trust claimed that children in the 21st century had lost touch with the natural

environment, experiencing fewer opportunities than previous generations to access and

benefit from the outdoors. This lost or reduced connection, it was argued, affected

children’s understanding and appreciation of nature and ultimately their understanding of

environmental issues that will need to be addressed in the future. Enjoying the outdoors was

promoted for its physical as well as mental well-being through events such as autumn

rambles (Photograph 2). The Trust used research conducted by institutions such as the

USA’s National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (2000); Green Alliance &

Demos (2004); England Marketing (2009); King’s College London (2011); and the press:

Monbiot (2013).

On taking office in 2001, Fiona Reynolds had publicised her ambition for the Trust

to widen its audience and narrow the gap between rural and urban lifestyles and

expectations in terms of the charity’s appeal. Over the past twenty years there have been

diverse examples of the Trust’s endeavours in this respect, ranging from the acquisition of

properties associated with poorer sectors of society (Birmingham Back-to-Backs and

Southwell Workhouse have already been mentioned), or appealing to wider tastes, such as

the acquisition of 575 Wandsworth Road in London SW8 or the former homes of John

Lennon and Paul McCartney (National Trust, 2014: 166 & 268).

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 Photograph 2: Autumn ramble

Participation was another strategy: inviting visitors to get involved in live conservation

projects such as Tyntesfield, near Bristol; or the publicised renovation of Seaton Delaval

Hall in Northumberland, which involved the local community; and even staging pop

concerts at some of its properties. This diversity was meant to contribute to a vision formed

in 2010, to ‘make everyone feel like a member’ of the Trust, and to reach a target of five

million members by 2020 (National Trust, 2011). In discussing how the Trust could make

everyone feel like a member, a senior manager at the Trust was asked whether he thought

the charity was connecting with more diverse audiences such as people who lived in council

estates. His answer indicated that, to begin with, the Trust would find that connection

challenging. The presence of a National Trust property was advantageous in trying to

promote any messages but, where there were few or no properties in the vicinity, as in the

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case of some urban locations, the Trust had a legal mandate to promote its message via three

levels of engagement, ensuring people would: 1) know the identity of the Trust; 2)

understand the Trust’s activities; and 3) value the Trust’s work. This task could be helped

by:

‘… finding ways, a tone of voice, that enables you to … help people

appreciate the wonders of nature and heritage which might make them
change a little bit about what they do in their daily life …’ (Interview).

The interviewee saw this 2020 challenge partly as a social purpose for the charity.

Bringing properties to life, previously discussed, was to be achieved through giving

more freedom to General Managers and Property Managers to be innovative, as part of the

decentralised approach inherent in Going local. In turn, this was part of fulfilling the Trust’s

second strategic aim from 2008: ‘Engaging our supporters’. Annual reports for this period

revealed examples of properties creating themes and events to liven-up the visitor

experience, typically presented in the format of a ‘story to tell’. The importance attached to

this aim was reflected in changes to the 2010/11 Directorates (Table 5.6), when Customer

Services was renamed Supporter Development; and a new Directorate of Brand and

Marketing was created. It is also worth noting how Media became a shared title with

External Affairs. Finance and Conservation have retained their titles since their inception,

reflecting the charity’s consistent approach to financing its core work of conservation. The

reduction in Directorates from nine in 2010/11 to six in 2012/13 reflects the stated aim to

reduce bureaucracy.

On the BBC Radio Four programme ‘Saturday Live’ in June 2014, one of the guests

was the Chairman of the National Trust. He was asked how much his attitude had changed

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about the Trust since he had taken up his post. Extracts from his answer confirmed the

strategy of bringing properties to life as well as a renewed focus on the outdoors; and the

observation that the charity’s core purpose inevitably draws it into politics (a point made by

Cannadine (1995) in his review of the Trust’s first hundred years):

‘I thought the Trust was a bit stuffy …. The dead hand of the Trust
fell on its properties … now we are far more focused on the outdoors
… houses used to be under threat; now the landscape is under threat
… nothing is more important in politics than rescuing the landscape’
(BBC, 2014a).

2005/06 Directorates 2010/11 Directorates 2012/13 Directorates

Human Resources &Legal Services People &Legal Services (New) People &Legal Services
Policy &Strategy External Affairs Media & External Affairs (New)
Finance Finance Finance
Customer Services Supporter Development (New) Supporter Development
Business Improvement Business Improvement
Operations Operations
Conservation Conservation Conservation
People & Governance (New)
Brand & Marketing (New) Brand & Marketing
Colour code: = Continuity

Table 5.6 Changing titles of Directorates at the National Trust, 2005-2014

Chapter summary

The major developments taking place at the National Trust since 1995 have been reviewed.

This latter period in the charity’s history has seen its membership double to approximately 4

million alongside events and changes that have materialised as defining themes. These have

been discussed under advocacy and external affairs; organisational change and governance

reform; performance-based management; leadership and professionalization of the charity;

and engagement of members, supporters and unreached audiences.

Over the past twenty years, the Trust has continued to involve itself in a range of

national issues that affected its core purpose, notably agriculture (foot and mouth disease,

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and bovine tuberculosis); heritage (its History Matters campaign); transport (the HS2

debate); land management (fracking and on-shore wind turbines); and planning

development (opposition to some aspects of the government’s NPPF). In his remarks on

NPPF on the Saturday Live programme in June 2014, Simon Jenkins said quite confidently

that the Trust should engage itself in controversial matters that affected its estates and core

purpose:

‘We’re not shorn of controversy, from badgers to fracking … I’m rather

proud that it does raise controversy [NPPF]… bubbling with
controversy … that’s what makes it so much fun’ (BBC, 2014a).

His words resonate with a common theme identified in this study, and one discussed by the

Council as far back as 1919, which is to what extent should the Trust be a campaigning

organisation? The Trust does not hesitate to defend its statutory purpose in the arena of

external affairs. On issues with more of an ideological or moral complexion though, such as

deer and fox hunting, or more recently slavery, the charity resists pressure exerted by some

partisan sectors of the membership and seeks to maintain a neutral stance with a default

position on its core purpose.

The origins of a more rigorous, performance-based approach to financial affairs date

from the early 1990s coinciding with an economic recession. The Trust’s financial position

has fluctuated over the years, but certainly during William Proby’s Chairmanship, strong

reserves were built-up for its core work, combined with the introduction of the 20 per cent

net gain target (income in excess of expenditure). Since the mid-2000s, a culture of

performance targets has directed the charity’s management, underpinned by the triple-

bottom-line approach to reporting. The Trust has also attached increased importance to the

role of tourism with increased visitor numbers in contributing to financial targets, but at

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times this has conflicted with achieving both revenue targets and energy-reduction targets.

The reporting of the charity’s environmental performance in the public domain has so far

concentrated on publishing energy reduction targets and completing conservation reviews

using the Conservation Performance Index. Social aspects of the TBL have focused so far

on staff and visitor satisfaction targets.

Since 1999, the National Trust has implemented significant organisational change

and governance reform. Organic change has taken place throughout the charity’s history in

response to the demands placed upon it by a growing membership and increase in the size of

its assets and sphere of work. Particular events have precipitated change, such as the

Rawnsley affair in the 1960s during the early years of Enterprise Neptune eventually

leading to the Benson Report of 1968 and subsequent National Trust Act of 1971.

Decentralisation and empowerment have been the underpinning strategies since 2000,

coinciding with a gradual culture change towards a more open, contemporary and accessible

National Trust, not least due to the ideas and leadership of Fiona Reynolds. The period

under review was defined by the opening of the new headquarters (Heelis) in Swindon,

which centralised some of the charity’s operations under one roof, at the same time creating

a team of Directorates overseen by the new 12-member Board of Trustees. As the Benson

Report defined the 1960s, so the Blakenham Report defined the 2000s.

The move towards properties taking more control over their affairs was supported by

the introduction of a new post, the General Manager, designed to oversee a group of

properties and/or manage the larger and more complex estates. The strategy of Going local

has gradually introduced a culture of empowerment at property level, but this had to be

supported by re-structuring the advisory functions, becoming a new ‘internal consultancy’.

Central and regional functions, as well as continuing to provide policy and operational

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leadership, were now designed to provide a consultancy and support service for properties.

Organisational re-structuring resulted in a social cost of redundancies and job changes that

some staff found challenging. At the same time, the Trust sought to develop its management

staff through contemporary human resource management training and practice, some of it

outsourced to Ashridge Consulting. This initiative though, was introduced primarily to

support people appointed to the new posts of General Manager. Looking back over the

events of the previous twenty years, elements of both management by objectives and

management by values are evident in the way the charity combines its core purpose with

running a commercially viable organisation. Succession planning has led to the periodic

appointment of the key senior figures Chairman and Director-General. These partnerships

have contributed their own defining eras to the charity’s history.

Particularly under Simon Jenkins’ chairmanship 2008-14, the Trust has sought to

widen its appeal to its membership, supporters and visitors through a dual strategy of

bringing properties to life and promoting enjoyment of the outdoors. The operational

management of these initiatives has been driven by further decentralisation and a culture of

empowerment supported by a more centralised approach to consultancy. Measures to bring

properties to life have been discussed in this chapter and the review has shown that this

approach has been seen as a commercial reality to maintain and increase visitor revenue that

can be channelled into the charity’s conservation work. Additionally though, this move can

be seen as part of a bigger culture change taking place within the National Trust: an attempt

perhaps to shed its patrician antecedents and associated stereotypes. In aiming to make

‘everyone feel like a member of the National Trust’, the current mantra, the charity

continues in its quest to connect with as yet unreached audiences.

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158
 CHAPTER 6

THE EVOLUTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AT THE NATIONAL TRUST

Introduction

This chapter charts why and how a climate change policy came into existence at the

National Trust. Documents in the public domain, mainly the charity’s AGM minutes, annual

reports and newsletters over a period dating back to 1970, provided most of the sources for

this chapter. Many of these documents were accessed in the archives department at Heelis.

Additionally, a number of internal documents such as memoranda and briefing papers

became available and proved to be valuable data sources. Appendix 6.1 is a time-line

charting how various developments associated with climate change arrived in the public

domain. These events are colour-coded in green.

The chapter has seven sections. To begin with, the emergence of sustainable

development and the modern environmental era are traced back to the mid-1960s,

continuing into the 1990s: a decade that saw much discussion on transport issues at the

National Trust. Discussion on the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, coinciding with the incoming

Labour government is the chapter’s mid-point. Thereafter, the charity’s climate change

policy picked up momentum and the chapter reviews a series of initiatives implemented

during the 2000s. The final two sections address the National Trust’s energy policy that

came to fruition in 2010 with its aim of reducing dependence on fossil fuel sources, most

notably oil; it will be seen that the charity’s climate change policy became effectively

subsumed into its energy policy, at least in terms of mitigation.

Enterprise Neptune 1965

The National Trust had been founded to promote the permanent preservation of land and

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buildings considered to possess the qualities of beauty and historic interest. Until the late

1930s, its efforts had been directed more towards protecting the countryside and coast from

development than saving buildings of historic interest. The Benson Report of 1968 noted

that during those early years, the Trust: ‘assumed the role of national watchdog and

regarded any issue affecting unspoilt country or good buildings as its natural concern

(National Trust, 1968: 21). Cannadine (1995) referred to a conservative philosophy

prevailing at the Trust during the inter-war years under the leadership of John Bailey

(Secretary, 1922-1931), who is reputed to have said that preservation of properties should

always take precedence over access. This approach was set against a background of a

rapidly growing membership: from 850 in 1925, to 4,850 by 1935 (Jenkins & James, 1994:

337). During the 1920s and 1930s, despite the depression in industrialised economies,

Britain experienced a growth in low-cost tourism driven by patronage of sea-side resorts and

holiday camps, notably Butlins (Page, 2011: 46-48). Planning legislation had to be

introduced in the 1930s to curb, and in some cases reverse, the popular development of

second homes on green belt land and coastal areas. Car ownership had risen from 132,015 in

1914 to 683,913 by 1926. In the early 1930s, 3 million of Britain’s population were entitled

to holiday with pay; by 1939, this had risen to 11 million (p.48). Britain’s inter-war boom in

domestic tourism would have contributed to the growing popularity of the National Trust.

Against this background of growth in leisure and tourism, in 1930, under the

direction of G.M. Trevelyan, the well-known historian, benefactor and chairman of one of

the Trust’s head office committees, the Trust began a survey of England, Wales and

Northern Ireland’s 3,000-mile coastline with the purpose of identifying stretches that were

considered to be ‘outstanding beauty and worthy of preservation’ (Waterson, 1995: 165).

The survey was a long-term project designed to span three decades, during which time the

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Trust saw continued growth in its membership: 7,850 in 1945 to 157,581 by 1965 (Jenkins

& James, 1994: 337). At the 1963 AGM, it was emphasised that: ‘Trust ownership or

protection by Trust covenants is the only permanent safeguard’ against the threat to unspoilt

beaches and coastline (National Trust, 1963: 6). The meeting referred to a perceived threat

facing the coastline, posed by the growth of motorways and business development

opportunities. By 1965, the Trust had decided to launch an appeal called Enterprise

Neptune, with the purpose of acquiring 900 miles of coastline deemed to be of outstanding

beauty through a capital fund. Appendix 5.1 shows that regular updates on its progress

featured in most AGMS over successive decades. Approaching its 25th anniversary,

Enterprise Neptune was reported as having acquired 500 miles of coast (National Trust,

1989b); and the 1991 AGM described Neptune as the Trust’s most sustainable acquisition

programme (National Trust, 1991b). By 2014 the campaign was called ‘Enterprise Coastline

Campaign’ with custody over nearly 750 miles of coast. The Trust’s website reports that

there are still 40 sites ‘identified for urgent coastal adaptation’ (National Trust, 2014a).

Although the campaign was launched in the 1960s as a response to preserve coastline from

post-war development, it is pertinent to note that in 2014, climate change and the threat of

rising sea levels and coastal erosion featured prominently in the campaign’s newsletters and

associated literature.

The emergence of sustainable development at the National Trust: 1970s and 1980s

Sustainable development and public policy were reviewed in Chapters 2 and 3. Discussing

sustainable development in relation to the National Trust, Cope (1995) highlighted why the

intergenerational dimension of sustainable development had particular relevance for the

charity. He recognised the Trust’s custodial role of caring for assets that future generations

would have the opportunity of experiencing (presumably for their benefit). The year 1970

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has been associated with the beginning of the modern environmental era, exemplified by the

USA’s ‘Earth Day’ (Gigliotti, 1993: 15). In the same year, Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist

and well-known British author of A Land (1951), wrote an article for the Trust’s newsletter

in which she suggested the Trust was looking to the government to show some leadership in

addressing damage being inflicted on the environment; and that financial resources needed

to be allocated to ensure the necessary conservation work would take place:

‘The National Trust believes most strongly that there is an urgent need
for the state to step up the search for possible ways of reducing the
damage being done to our environment … In other words, the Trust
believes that a fundamental reappraisal of priorities is needed … above
all … conservation costs money …but everyone’s future well-being [is
at stake]. Even economists are opening their eyes. The alarm clock has
sounded’. (National Trust, 1970a: 1).

This was identified as the first reference appearing in the Trust’s public domain from the

1970s addressing wider environmental issues. In considering which would be the most

effective channels for communicating with the government on environmental issues, the

establishment in 1970 of the Department of the Environment was welcomed by the Trust,

not least because it provided a ‘a single point of communication for any representation we

might wish to make’ (National Trust, 1970a: 1). The year 1970 was also European

Conservation Year, in which the Trust recognised that it had been ‘practising for seventy-

five years what has recently been preached …’ (National Trust, 1970b: 5).

Aside from Enterprise Neptune, other reported environmental issues during the

1980s that concerned the Trust’s leadership included: its opposition to the proposed

expansion to Stansted Airport because of proximity to Hatfield Forest; problems of

overcrowding at properties and trying to strike a balance between access and conservation;

acid rain; road schemes; oil drilling; the erection of radio masts and aerials; and erosion and

degradation of top soil in the Lake District (National Trust, 1982a; 1982b; 1984).

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Awareness of these issues though, did not necessarily result in the Trust committing itself at

the time to any of its own research, made clear at the 1984 AGM:

‘The Trust is not a research organisation and will rely on others doing
this work and reaching conclusions’ (National Trust, 1984: 19).

As to the identity of ‘others’, the Trust was probably referring to the government,

universities, climate change research institutions and environmental NGOs (for example,

WWF, RSPB, Friends of the Earth). However, the charity’s reports on environmental issues

from the late 1990s onwards suggest a change to this viewpoint. The end of the 1980s was

an eventful time for environmental issues. There was a convergence of international climate

change science and politics; a growing sustainability agenda following the WCED’s 1987

conference held in Oslo, out of which came the ‘Brundtland Report’ Our Common Future;

and a series of extreme weather events across the world, including southern England’s Great

Storm of 1987 with the loss of 15 million trees, 250,000 of which belonged to the Trust

(National Trust, 1987: 7).

AGM minutes and annual reports of 1988-90 indicated some of the Trust’s

willingness to collaborate with other ENGOs as well as contributing to discussions at

government level and the European Commission (National Trust, 1989a). In the 1989

annual report for example, Angus Stirling (Director-General) referred to a ‘surge of public

concern’ over the environment; this was followed by the first reference to global warming

reported in the Trust’s public literature: ‘climatic warming and pollution of the atmosphere’

(National Trust, 1989b : 6). In collaboration with the Countryside Commission, RSPB,

CPRE and the Ramblers’ Association, the Trust also drew attention to what it considered

were inadequate safeguards for protecting landscapes in the Water Bill (privatisation of the

water utilities). The Trust showed its support for strengthening the conservation element in a

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range of legislation dealing with the built and natural environment: the Heritage Act, 1980;

Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981; and Agricultural Holdings Act, 1984. Phillips (1995)

commented on the Trust’s role as an environmental campaigner going back to its early pre-

First World War days, adding that as its portfolio of land and buildings, and responsibilities

increased, so less time and energy were devoted to campaigning. However, as Phillips

pointed out, during the 1980s and early 1990s, the Trust increasingly participated in debates

on environmental issues that included agriculture, planning and roads. In his opinion, it was

time for the Trust to clarify how, and why it engaged in such advocacy, ‘especially as there

is some concern within the Trust that it might drift into becoming a campaigning

organisation’ (p.45). Phillips anticipated that, as the 21st century drew closer, the Trust

would find itself influencing public policy on a range of environmental issues including

energy policy, transport policy, and marine pollution. For Phillips, the Trust’s advantage lay

in its extensive experience as a landowner and custodian of substantial assets of natural and

built heritage; and as such, advocacy by example was its most effective strategy for

influencing wider policy. In some ways then, by the end of the 20th century, the National

Trust was still unsure of how its role as a campaigning organisation and the evidence

suggests that within the charity there was a view that the organisation should keep to its core

preservation and conservation work.

Climate change and energy policy arrive on the agenda during the 1990s

One of the earliest references in National Trust documents to climate change was made

in the 1990 Annual Report (25th anniversary of Enterprise Neptune), when Angus Stirling

(Director-General) commented:

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 ‘National boundaries are proving no barrier to the threats of pollution,
over-exploitation of natural resources, the pressures of tourism or
climatic change’ (National Trust, 1990b: 6). (Emphasis added).

This was followed by an intention to share research and information with European

associates as well as taking full opportunity to access grant aid from the European

Commission for conservation work: a different approach taken since the 1984 AGM, when

the Trust seemed to distance itself from engaging in research. The review of annual reports,

AGM minutes and newsletters indicated that the Trust was maximising available European

funding, and sought to involve itself with wider environmental policy-making coinciding

with the UK’s progress towards the single European market in the early 1990s. Most of the

issues related to climate change at this time centred on coastal management, such as the

effects of global warming on softer and low-level coastlines (National Trust, 1990a).

Anticipated issues for the 1990s, it was reported, included the government’s road expansion

programme and the growth of tourism (National Trust, 1991a); although no reference was

made to carbon emissions in the context of transport and tourism.

In March 1990 the Trust announced an environmental audit would take place of all

its properties and activities, to include the areas of transport, renewable energy and energy

conservation (National Trust, 1990a: 9). The audit’s purpose was a broad environmental

impact assessment of the Trust’s various policies and practices. No further details were

given, but the statement shows that the origins of the Trust’s energy policy – central to its

current climate change policy – can be traced to the beginning of the 1990s. Using the

government’s proposed road expansion scheme as a platform, the new Chairman, Roger

Chorley in his first preface, urged the government to adopt broader and more rigorous

procedures for ‘Environmental Assessment’ (National Trust, 1991a: 3). Environmental

values, Chorley claimed, should be considered at the conceptual stage of any proposed

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scheme, although the annual report did not expand on the substance of those values. Support

was also offered for the government’s intention to increase the number of ‘Environmentally

Sensitive Areas’. Although environmental awareness and the beginnings of a performance-

related approach to conservation and energy became evident at the beginning of the 1990s,

climate change as a discernible issue still had a low profile in the Trust’s public documents.

Externally, further collaboration with NGOs and QUANGOs on environmental

issues was reported in 1992 by the Director-General (National Trust, 1992). In conjunction

with nine other conservation organisations forming the Green Alliance, the Trust asked the

government for a co-ordinated response to diverse threats to the coast such as erosion and

the endangering of bird and marine life as part of coastal zone management. Working with

the Countryside Commission, the Trust participated in a workshop on coastal zone

management attended by eleven EC member states, plus Sweden. The dangers of rising sea

levels featured in the process. At this time, following the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, the

government alongside the other G7 countries announced its commitment to implement

Agenda 21 (individual countries’ adoption of sustainable development) (Connelly & Smith,

1999: 264). By 1994 the government had published a number of environmental White

Papers including the UK’s first sustainable development strategy (HM Government, 1994).

These wider, macro developments are likely to have informed the charity’s own approach to

developing a sustainable development model.

In his introduction to the 1993/94 Annual Report, Chorley welcomed the

government’s commitment to sustainable development, and considered that the voluntary

sector ‘has a major contribution to make and in this field the Trust is pre-eminent’ (National

Trust, 1994a: 5), indicating a degree of self-confidence in the charity’s role, while also

making it clear that he did not see the Trust undertaking a campaigning role. This was

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reinforced by Angus Stirling, the Director-General at the Trust’s 1995 Centenary

Countryside Conference in Manchester:

‘[The Trust] should emphatically not seek to become a campaigning

organisation. It should not, and has no need to preach. It should engage
by offering the example of its own best management practice and
experience …’ (National Trust, 1995a: 46).

However, Stirling did point out that the Trust had a duty to engage in political debate on

wider environmental and cultural issues, reflecting Andresen & Gulbrandsen’s (2006)

‘insider strategy’ of a ‘green NGO’ seeking to influence governments and negotiators by

providing policy solutions and expert advice/advocacy, in preference to the more activist

‘outsider strategy’ pursued by organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

In contemplating the future challenges of sustainable development Chorley had projected

that some degree of organisational behaviour change would be required (National Trust,

1994a: 5). He set out five approaches through which the Trust could contribute to the

voluntary sector’s adoption of sustainable development. Two of them: 1), the Council’s

formal adoption of a statement on energy policy committing the Trust to reducing its use of

fossil fuels and 2), the production of full Environmental Impact Assessments for exploiting

renewable energy proposals, were the fore-runners of the Trust’s formal position on climate

change that would be announced following the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

A section entitled ‘Environmental Practices’ appeared for the first time in annual

reports from 1993/94. It was reported that with the support of the Midland Bank, an Energy

Management Training Projec’ was being piloted in the Trust’s Wessex region. The project

used an approach to energy management in current practice: auditing buildings’ energy use,

setting reduction targets on fossil fuel consumption, and providing staff training on energy

awareness. In 1994, Eastern Electricity’s Energy Systems Department seconded to the Trust

an officer who would examine fifty of its properties in East Anglia with the aim of reducing

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energy consumption by at least 10 per cent in the first two years (National Trust, 1994: 15).

This initiative led to the beginning of an association with selected energy companies,

latterly National Trust Green Energy in partnership with NPower launched in the spring of

2011 (National Trust, 2011e). The current partner is Good Energy, launched in 2013.

National Trust members and supporters were incentivised to switch their energy supply

tariffs to the new company, which sourced its energy from 100 per cent renewables The

first mention of an energy policy appeared in the Trust’s Medium Term Plan for 1993/94 to

1997/98. Additionally, the post of Environmental Practices Adviser was created in 1993/94

to offer support throughout the regions. By the early 1990s then, climate change began to

appear in the Trust’s environmental lexicon allied to the inception of the charity’s energy

policy, part of a wider commitment to sustainable development.

The transport debate of the 1990s

Concern over government road-construction policies proposed in the White Paper Roads to

Prosperity of 1989 and their potential impact on Trust properties, had been highlighted in

Roger Chorley’s opening statement as the new Chairman (National Trust, 1991a: 3) and,

throughout his term of office, they remained one of the more important issues of the day.

The Trust has always recognised that the rural location of many of its properties

necessitated car transport, leading to measures that had been introduced to promote

‘greener’ options. These included offering discounts to visitors arriving by rail; a free pot of

tea for visitors arriving by bus; greater efforts to promote public transport links; and support

shown for Sustrans, an organisation created in 1995 with the help of a £43.5 million grant

from the Millennium Commission to develop a National Cycle Network of over 6,000 miles

of cycle paths (National Trust, 1996; Tibenham, 2001). Prior Park, on the outskirts of Bath,

had already attracted publicity because the Trust was not able to find a suitable location for

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constructing a car park, and so alternative transport to the property had to be provided. This

situation led to a claim that it was part of a ‘brave new transport policy’ (Brown, 1996).

Concern over car transport also became apparent following a resolution carried at the 1995

AGM carried by 52,463 votes against13,785 that committed the Trust to reducing car

journeys to its properties from 90 per cent to 60 per cent by 2020 (a ‘tall order’: Brown,

1996). The Council were expected to make increased efforts in working with local councils

and public transport operators to design alternatives (National Trust, 1995b). One member

at the AGM urged the planting of trees to counteract the effects of the car. Debate was

centred on the adverse impacts of increased traffic on Trust properties in terms of visitor

enjoyment and conservation. Although concerned with environmental issues, climate

change was not mentioned in the dialogue.

Brown (1996) reported that the Trust already had a new green transport strategy in

place before the 1995 AGM, with a dual aim of firstly, trying to persuade members and

visitors to use alternative transport; and secondly, more importantly in the view of the

Director-General, a social purpose:

‘… to encourage the large segment of the population who have never

visited a Trust property to do so. Many of them live in inner cities and
have no access to a car’ (Brown, 1996).

Martin Drury, the new Director-General in 1995, summed-up the Trust’s position by

generally supporting the government’s concern over inadequate public transport in rural

areas, but at the same time avoiding penalising visitors using their cars in rural areas where

there were few or no alternatives. Brown (1996) noted that the Trust’s transport strategy

had been refined in the light of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s recent

report (HM Government, 1995), which broadly endorsed the government’s earlier

sustainable transport policy set out in 1994 (HM Government, 1994):

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 ‘Avoiding serious environmental damage, while preserving the access
people want for their livelihoods and for leisure, requires a
fundamentally different approach to transport policy and a radical
modification of recent trends [in other words, road expansion
programmes]’ (HM Government, 1995: 233, paragraph 14.1).

The Royal Commission stressed the inter-generational imperative of any transport strategy.

The Trust’s statutory duties in the 1907 Act to ‘permanently preserve’ and ‘promote for the

benefit of the nation’ can lead to a conflict of interest between conservation and access, with

implications for the Trust’s environmental record with many of its properties reliant on car-

borne access.

It was not until the 2012 AGM that a member asked about the Trust’s long-term

business planning for addressing the causes and impacts of climate change directly in

relation to car dependency. The Chairman upheld the Trust’s attempts to make it easier for

visitors to use public transport to reach properties, but made it clear that it was impractical

and undesirable to try and prevent car-borne travel to properties. He continued by referring

to the Trust’s high dependency on energy for its many activities and the need to identify

further sources of renewable energy (National Trust, 2013d). Later in the meeting, another

member asked whether arrangements could be made for public or private transport to carry

people without cars to visit properties: reflecting the social arm of its transport policy

introduced in the 1990s. Senior management confirmed that demand for such services had

been so small that it was not a viable option. Although during the 1990s the Trust reported

its concern over environmental issues associated with car-borne travel, the narrative was

directed at the physical (congestion, pollution) and social (enjoyment of the visitor

experience) impacts on properties. This was entirely understandable as a practical response.

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Climate change had yet to become a visible issue associated with sustainable tourism,

especially transport to properties.

The Labour Government of 1997 and the Kyoto Protocol

The election of Labour in 1997 was generally welcomed by the Trust, partly because it saw

opportunities for promoting its cause through the Regional Development Agencies created

in 1998. At this time, the Trust redrew the boundaries of its regions to match those of the

RDAs. One of the objectives in the Trust’s first National Strategic Plan (1998-2001), was to

use its practical experience more effectively in contributing to national and EU

environmental policy. It seemed that the new government was interested to gain the views

of the charity: during 1998/99 for example, the Trust responded to at least eighty

consultation papers (National Trust, 1999a: 10). The 1998 summer newsletter included the

first full-length article on climate change written jointly by the Trust’s Environmental

Practices Adviser and UKCIP’s programme co-ordinator (Jarman & McKenzie, 1998). The

article publicised some of the measures the Trust had recently taken to reduce its

greenhouse gas emissions such as energy/water conservation and green transport initiatives.

Later, in the 1999 autumn newsletter, the Trust was

‘… calling for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and is actively

promoting benign energy’ (National Trust, 1999b: 11).

Trust archives of press cuttings, press releases and a number of internal memoranda for

1997-99 showed that the charity was monitoring developments on climate change taking

place internationally and at home. In one internal memorandum, the Head of Conservation

emphasised that the Trust should be aware of the scientific uncertainties associated with

climate change projections (National Trust, 1997a). It became apparent that senior

management at the time were not necessarily unanimous that a climate change strategy was

needed with one senior officer claiming that he remained:

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 ‘… to be persuaded as to whether or not the Trust should prepare a
Strategy for Climate Change’ (National Trust, 1997a: 2).

Further correspondence at the time of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, indicated that the Trust

was beginning to formulate its position on climate change, with much of the preparatory

work being undertaken by the Head of Conservation and the Environmental Practices

Adviser (National Trust, 1997b; 1997c; 1997d; 1997e).

A key paper was written in November 1997 (National Trust 1997d). In it, the

background to climate change was summarised before a review of the political context that

encompassed the macro and meso policy zones: the United Nations, the EU, the UK

government, and NGOs across the world. The paper made specific reference to EU

initiatives that focused on energy efficiency and renewable energies: measures that the Trust

was beginning to implement. Impact areas for the Trust to address were: the coast; nature

conservation; gardens; archaeology; soil; tourism; agriculture; water; buildings; forestry;

and energy. A timescale for responses to these policy areas was drawn-up in 1998 (Table

6.1). By 1997, the Trust had presented policy papers to the UK government as well as the

EU (National Trust, 1997d: 8). These papers were based on reducing GHGs through the

promotion of energy efficiency and the development of non-fossil fuels, thereby focusing on

mitigation. The charity projected the likely impacts it would experience following the EU’s

adoption of the Communication The Energy Dimension of Climate Change, which defined

the policy initiatives needed to achieve GHG emissions targets (National Trust, 1997d: 4).

Projected impacts included an increase in operating costs and a decrease in visitor income

because of the likely increase in energy costs; increased development of renewable energies

(a National Trust Renewable Energy Policy was approved by the Council in 1995); and

transport infrastructure developments: the Trust believed it had a role in influencing national

and local transport developments in response to EU and UK government initiatives to

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introduce environmentally-friendly transport routes and services (National Trust, 1997d: 9).

The Trust also sought to minimise any ‘undesirable effects’ of these plans on its estate.

Response Response will

Issue needed in take more
less than 2 than
years 5 years
Wind energy planning bids #
Transport strategy #
Biomass production #
Solar PV #
Energy costs #
Renewable energy on properties #
Water conservation #
Private water supplies #
Farm practices, rural economy #
Building specifications #
Visitor patterns, facilities, means of access #
Property acquisition criteria #
Statements of significance #
Conservation plans #
Coastal management #

Table 6.1: National Trust climate change issues (National Trust, 1998a)

The table indicates that climate change was treated as a cross-departmental issue. Senior

level research and discussion carried out earlier in 1997 led to a ‘statement of intent’ in

response to climate change being produced in December 1997, beginning with a general

expression of concern:

‘The National Trust is concerned with the reality of climate change and
its impacts on the natural and cultural environment of its properties’
(National Trust, 1997e).

This was followed by a series of media briefings in January 1998 (National Trust, 1998b;

1998c), including a sounding-out of the position of a major oil company on the issue

(National Trust, 1998d). The Trust was also copied into correspondence between the Prime

Minister’s office and a leading campaigning environmental NGO on matters related to

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Kyoto (National Trust, 2001a). A press cutting from the journal Planning though,

characterised the Trust’s essentially conservative approach:

‘The National Trust, not a body noted for its radical planning
scenarios, announced a policy programme specifically aimed at
combating the effects of climate change … Organisations that are light
on their feet will be in the best position to respond appropriately …’
(Fyson, 1998).

The phrase ‘light on their feet’ recurred during interviews held with National Trust

management (Chapter 6). Later, in the 1999/2000 Annual Report, as part of ‘Our work as an

Environmental Organisation’ a section allocated for climate change appeared for the first

time. The short piece reported that by 2000 the Trust had completed three regional studies in

the NE, SW and SE of England, which found that some of the Trust’s land had already been

affected by rising sea levels. Shifting Sands (Woodside, 2000), one of the earliest reports to

address climate change, and written for the Trust’s Annual Archaeological Review,

concluded that coastal properties were the most at risk from the effects of global warming.

A press release in November 1999 announced that in conjunction with the RHS and UKCIP,

the Trust was conducting the first climate change impact study on gardens (National Trust,

1999d). In the same year a soil protection strategy appeared (National Trust, 1999e).

Reports such as Shifting Sands indicated that the Trust was already adapting to climate

change impacts through its on-going conservation work. In the 1999/2000 Annual Report

the section ‘Green Transport’ was separate to ‘Climate Change’, even though the former

included reports on several relevant initiatives to climate change: a new bus route servicing

several properties in Kent; work on increasing cycle access to properties;, and requirements

for commercial vehicles to use cleaner fuel – all of which could be classed as mitigation

measures.

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 Developments throughout the 1990s showed that the National Trust had engaged in

advocacy and policy-making related to climate change outside its immediate field of

operations. Adaptation measures were publicised through reports such as Shifting Sands

whilst mitigation measures, dependent on energy conservation, were yet to come to the fore.

An effort was made to develop a few green transport initiatives but these were not directly

associated with climate change mitigation.

Formative years in shaping climate change policy: 2000-2007

During 2000/01 the Trust began to conduct climate change impact studies on its properties

and publicised its belief that sea-level rise, warmer weather and extreme weather events

were already affecting properties. Examples included Toys Hill in Kent where woodland

was damaged by the 1987 storms; floods and landslips; and erosion of the White Cliffs of

Dover and stretches of Studland Bay. These impacts were attributed to the symptoms of

global warming, where the Trust declared it would adapt to these changes but nevertheless,

emphasised the importance of mitigation responses via energy efficiency measures and

renewable energy generation (National Trust, 2001b: 13). The 2001 Annual Report featured

eliminating the use of peat for compost, argued on the grounds of protecting animal and

plant life in upland and lowland bogs, but, surprisingly, with no reference being made to the

function of peat as a valuable carbon sink. The peat-free question had been debated at the

1999 AGM, when a members’ resolution to call on the Trust to declare itself a peat-free

organisation was carried overwhelmingly by 99,020 votes against 6,157 against (National

Trust, 1999c). At the 2002 AGM held in Birmingham, in response to a member’s question,

the Chairman agreed there was further scope to provide alternative transport to the car for

visitors to properties and that a cycling strategy would shortly be introduced. The term

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‘green transport’ was used, but again, without any reference to climate change (National

Trust, 2002a: 8).

Three years later, climate change was debated for the first time at the 2005 AGM

through a members’ resolution. The resolution was lodged as ‘travel to properties’ and was

introduced as a follow-up to the successful 1995 resolution to reduce car-borne travel from

90 to 60 per cent by 2020. The Minutes recorded a broader aim:

‘… emphasise that climate change is an issue we all share

responsibility for tackling and to ask what the Trust and its members
were going to do to lead the way and set an example that others could
follow’ (National Trust, 2005f: 5) (emphasis added).

The Council’s response was twofold: firstly, it argued, car travel presented a continuing

dilemma of access and environmental damage for the Trust; and secondly, the Trust had

already supported eighty green transport initiatives, and did members consider it should be

doing more? The Minutes reported a general intention to continue providing alternatives to

car travel if practical:

‘… in reality the alternatives to the car were often very limited … The
Trust should provide alternatives where practical and cost-effective’
(National Trust, 2005f: 5)

The resolution sought to develop a wider debate on collective responsibility for climate

change, but the discussion centred on the reasons for the under-performance of various

transport initiatives. Despite the proposer emphasising that the resolution was not an ‘anti-

car resolution’, the Council’s response was that, in reality, there were few alternatives to the

car to reach properties and, where practical and cost-effective, the Trust would continue to

provide alternatives in partnership with other transport providers. The discussion being

framed in this way suggests that the original thrust of the resolution became diluted during

the meeting; and in the event, the resolution was defeated with 10,696 votes cast for, and

39,164 against. This would have been a disappointing outcome for the supporters of the

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resolution on the Trust’s wider environmental responsibilities, although the Minutes record

that the topic attracted a positive and lively debate.

A year later the Trust appeared to take a more pro-active approach on the issue. At

the 2006 AGM, a member expressed concern at:

‘… the lack of Government leadership and inconsistent policies regarding

CO2 emissions and urged the Trust, as a leading and respected environmental
body, to fill this void’ (National Trust, 2006a: 3).

The Minutes interpreted the Head of Conservation’s response thus:

‘… climate change was probably the Trust’s single greatest challenge.

Therefore, reducing the Trust’s environmental footprint was a key element
in the Trust’s new strategy [the creation of the Environmental Footprint
and Climate Change Group] and two directors had been charged with
championing the issue … The Trust agreed that it should demonstrate and
champion the climate change issue..’(emphasis added) (National Trust,
2006a: 3)

The following year at the 2007 AGM, another member asked the panel whether funding

should be prioritised for counter-climate change initiatives instead of the protection of

antiquities. The Director of Conservation’s answer indicated that the protection of the

environment was complementary to the Trust’s on-going conservation work, which by

definition would include antiquities. Reducing the Trust’s ‘environmental footprint’ was

Trust, 2007a: 4).

Discussion so far on this period has centred on discussion at AGMs during 2000-07

because the minutes show that a very small proportion of members felt compelled to initiate

debate on the charity’s wider environmental responsibilities, at a time when UK government

initiatives in tackling climate change were already in place and in the public domain (HM

Government, 2006). It should be noted that during the 2000s, attendance at AGMs averaged

between 600-700 out of a membership of some 3 million, and the number of votes cast

usually totalled to some 30,000, about 1 per cent of the membership. Environmental

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concerns expressed by members at AGMs therefore, represented the views of only a small

fraction of the wider membership. This reiterates an earlier point made by Lansley (1996)

that large voluntary organisations (the National Trust being the UK’s largest voluntary

organisation) often represent a paradox, in that the organisation is invariably formed by a

group of people sharing a common goal but in practice, the majority of its membership have

little involvement [or want to be involved] in policy-making and running of the association.

In considering factors that were likely to influence members’ participation in the running of

a voluntary organisation such as the National Trust, Lansley identified ideology, above all,

as ‘crucial to member concern about Trust policy …’ (p.237). Lansley used the example of

hunting: on the surface, a broad question that often attracted simplified responses to

complex issues, but nevertheless appealed to a set of ‘basic values that led members to

support the Trust in the first place’. According to Lansley, the potency of ideology lies with

its ability to transcend the concerns of any one body, leading to lively debate. He implied

that at times, the Trust’s leadership did not exactly embrace such debate, but, such interest

could ‘yet be harnessed to positive ends’ (p.237). He saw the Trust placed firmly in an

‘environmental matrix’, which would not exclude the charity from any such future conflict.

To date though, climate change has not precipitated the scale of response among the

membership as did previous issues on, for example, deer hunting (EGM in 1994) or the

principle of inalienability (the Bradenham affair – EGM in 1982).

Although debate on climate change so far had received minor attention at AGMs,

and then from the floor, significant progress meanwhile had been made in developing a

strategy for the whole Trust. Climate change began to receive regular coverage in annual

reports and newsletters coinciding with Enterprise Neptune approaching its 40th anniversary

in 2005. Climate-related threats to the coast and countryside had become accepted as issues

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to be addressed (for example, National Trust, 2005b; 2006b). Further evidence of

collaboration with NGOs saw the publication of a report on the impacts of climate change

on gardens in the UK produced in conjunction with UKCIP and the RHS (mentioned

earlier) with research by the University of Reading’s Plant Sciences Department. The report

was funded jointly by Anglian Water; DEFRA; English Heritage; the Forestry Commission;

Notcutts; Kew Gardens; RHS; and UKCIP. One of its recommendations reflected the

Trust’s general approach to policy-making at this time: namely the encouragement of

networking amongst the relevant organisations and a sharing of information to inform

policy decisions, as well as the implementation of practical adaptation measures (National

Trust, UKCIP & RHS, 2000). On the latter, the Trust claimed it had helped to persuade the

government on the need to formulate a national adaptation strategy, as well as contributed to

the DfT’s work on developing green travel options through ‘travel planning’, aimed at

reducing growth in leisure traffic (National Trust, 2005b: 11).

Documents from 2004-07 indicated that a climate change policy had been

established as part of a broader environmental strategy. By 2004, the Trust had written a

policy statement to the effect that:

‘Climate change awareness and planning is to be integrated within

decision-making throughout the organisation’ (National Trust, 2004a).

This was soon followed by the issue of ‘A Statement of Intent’ in 2005 (Box 6.1), which

became the basis of the Trust’s centralised policy (National Trust, 2005a; Appendix 6.4).

The causes of climate change required urgent action, the statement maintained, although

uncertainties in predictions were acknowledged. Adaptation and mitigation should be

integrated throughout all of the charity’s decision-making; and the Trust believed it should

be proactive in raising awareness and seeking to influence people’s behaviour.

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 Taking gardens and parks as a case, the Trust adopted the following approach for the

various sectors. It set out the evidence for climate change; articulated the principles and

guidelines behind adaptation and mitigation; and then provided a final instruction from the

Conservation Directorate for each property to produce a climate change strategy which

would form part of the Property Management Plan. Adaptation required an assessment of a

garden’s stock to determine which plant collections were most at risk from a changing

climate (typically experienced as extreme weather events such as flooding, drought,

late/early springs). This was followed by consideration of which species needed re-planting

because of their vulnerability and/or historic importance. A more flexible approach could be

taken with less important plants, where the Trust would ‘generally go with the flow of

nature’. Mitigation was closely associated with the Trust’s ‘Sustainable Practices Guidance’

on the Trust’s intranet, which focused on the local sourcing of materials to reduce transport

emissions, conserving resources through measures such as water harvesting, and

encouraging pro-environmental behaviour by encouraging visitors to use greener transport

and share car journeys.

In the run-up to the Labour government’s White Paper Climate Change The UK

Programme (HM Government, 2006), a consultation period enabled the Trust to write its

own response (National Trust, 2005c). To begin with, the basis of the Trust’s energy policy

at the end of the 1990s appeared to reflect the approach of the previous White Paper (DETR,

2000) in which the government set out a strategy to meet its Kyoto commitment to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions. The Trust’s Review of the UK Climate Change Programme in

2005 is the most complete account of its approach to climate change. Box 6.2 summarises

the Trust’s main recommendations. Overall, its four positions on the consultation were: to

support the government’s target of a minimum 60 per cent reduction of carbon dioxide

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emissions by 2050; to argue for a stronger focus on developing energy efficiency and micro-

generation from renewable energy sources, citing its own energy policy and practice as an

example; to support the need to combat emissions from the transport sector, with a proposal

that the concept of work and school travel plans should be developed to include ‘visitor

travel plans’; and to support the need for a national adaptation strategy to combat climate

change impacts, including a reference to changing attitudes and behaviour through:

‘…enhanced forms of public dialogue about the choices we all face in

living with climate change’ (p.1).

CLIMATE CHANGE & THE NATIONAL TRUST

A Statement of Intent

1) The National Trust accepts that climate change is real and that key contributors to it are
greenhouse gas emissions, in particular from the use of fossil fuels but also from the misuse
of natural resources (especially land-based carbon stores of soil, peat and vegetation).

2) The causes of climate change need urgent action. The Trust is committed to reducing its
own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions from all of its activities.

3) The Trust considers that the positive and negative impacts of climate change, present and
future, need to be understood and integrated into all of its decision making. We recognise
that we have to adapt to climate change and will seek to optimise the opportunities and
minimise the risks arising from climate change.

4) The Trust understands that climate change cannot be accurately predicted – there will be
considerable variation in time and space in projected and actual changes, globally and
locally. This uncertainty requires us to be ultra-vigilant and adaptable so as to be prepared
for whatever situation does actually transpire.

5) The Trust will be proactive in raising awareness of climate change and in seeking to
influence people’s behaviour, internally and externally, individually and corporately.

(Attached as Appendix A (Draft) to a submission to Council on Adaptation to Climate

Change, 7th April, 2005).

Box 6.1 A Statement of Intent on Climate Change: National Trust (2005a)

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 Mitigation measures Adaptation measures

Support for the government’s 60% reduction in Support for the government’s planned National
CO2 emissions by 2050. Adaptation Framework.

a) Building standards: sustainability goals are a) Improved public dialogue: ‘the evidence of
reconcilable with costs: the costs of energy the reality of climate change impacts on our
efficiency measures are often over-estimated, as properties is overwhelming …’; ‘greater
evidenced by the Trust’s 710-house scheme at investment in skills, knowledge and confidence
Stamford Brook in Cheshire. of risk managers and communicators …’ e.g. in
Environment Agency and local authorities, to
help meet cultural challenge of learning to live
with climate change.

b) Micro-generation: support for localised b) Spatial planning for natural resource

energy generation schemes utilising off-shore protection: the NT identified limited focus of the
wind turbines in preference to the more land use planning system on ‘development’, and
controversial on-shore turbines; opportunities to saw the River Basin Management Plan required
change public attitudes and behaviour. under the Water Framework Directive as an
example of effective ‘local accountability for
delivery’; wider spatial planning for natural
resources needed a statutory basis, e.g.
embedding the recommendations of Catchment
Flood Management Plans; go beyond EU
compliance.

c) Transport: focus on mitigation of leisure c) Funding and risk: current arrangements

transport: car and air travel; more effective long- offered inadequate insurance and compensation;
term funding of alternatives to the car for leisure a broader approach needed for risk-based
journeys (‘Visitor Travel Plans’); promotion of approach to managing change; the NT
domestic tourism to off-set overseas travel for highlighted what it saw as social inequities:
leisure tourism. poorer households were less able to adapt (e.g.
re-locating or funding private initiatives);
transitional support required.

Box 6.2: National Trust’s main recommendations in response to

UK Climate Change Programme (HM Government, 2006)
Adapted from National Trust (2005c)

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While giving support to the government’s programme, as well as declaring a commitment to

the wider environmental cause, the Trust said that it took the opportunity to promote and

develop its own approach to environmental activities. In April 2005, shortly after the

Trust’s response to the government’s consultation process on the White Paper, a

recommendation was made to the Council for a framework of action that would become the

charity’s adaptation strategy (National Trust, 2005a). The key points included: the Trust’s

statutory purpose of conserving properties required a risk assessment; property managers

were looking for guidance on how to adapt to impacts of climate change already being

experienced; public discussion about climate change should be promoted, including

opportunities to communicate with visitors; and an intention to influence government

policy, where the Trust considered its contribution to the framework. This would become

the 2008 framework (DEFRA, 2008a).

Later, in the same year (National Trust, 2005d), in its response to the Stern Review

on the Economics of Climate Change (Stern, 2007), the charity emphasised four aspects

related to its work and the impact of climate change: it claimed to be a ‘major public

communicator’ at all levels, with the potential to communicate understanding of climate

change and associated risks to a wide audience. The Trust’s statutory and charitable purpose

in its conservation work required it to ‘assess the long term risks to conservation and people

at each site’, taking account of legal and cost restrictions. Also the Trust laid claim to its

‘considerable experience and expertise’ and authority on ‘land and resource management’ as

Europe’s largest conservation charity, placing itself in a strong position to manage change

and associated risks of climate change. Finally, the Trust wished to remind the government

that it in addition to its role as a conservation charity, it was a ‘major business, from tourism

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to catering’ with assets at risk from climate change, but also with benefits to be gained from

‘a proactive and integrated approach to adaptation and mitigation’.

The Trust subsequently established its Environmental Footprint and Climate Change

Group. In a briefing paper on the new forum (National Trust, 2006c), it was made clear that

the strategy to reduce the Trust’s footprint should optimise communication with supporters,

stakeholders and staff; and that the strategy required the reduction of the environmental

footprint to deliver ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL) benefits to the Trust, defined as ‘the

economic, social and environmental accountability’ of a firm or organisation (Stoddard et

al., 2012: 235). Although sometimes used in a commercial context, the concept implies that

benefits from an organisation’s performance should extend to the local community. The

footprint, the briefing paper explained, would be reduced through four priorities: energy,

water, sustainable resource use, and climate change (mitigation and adaptation). A risk

assessment of climate change impacts for the Trust was undertaken (National Trust, 2007b;

2007h), various staff briefings were carried out, and a leaflet published on the website

explaining some simple measures that could be taken to reduce an individual’s carbon

footprint (National Trust 2007c). A scoping paper (National Trust, 2007d) though, indicated

a shortage of central resources to support adaptation work at property level. Furthermore, an

internal discussion paper identified several areas where the charity was less confident,

including an on-going challenge on stakeholder and public involvement, and a perceived

adaptation skills gap (National Trust, 2008a). By 2008 then, when the Trust introduced its

Our strategy to 2010 and beyond (National Trust, 2008b), its response to climate change

was evident in two main areas: firstly, adaptation, through impact projections and on-going

conservation work with a focus on coastal properties and land; and secondly, through

mitigation, where energy efficiency and renewable energy sources took centre-stage as part

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of the Trust’s energy policy. A review of documents showed the Environmental Footprint &

Climate Change Group to be the main force at work since 2006 (National Trust 2007e;

2007f).

Energy performance: 2008 onwards

In its overall strategy for 2007-2010, the Trust’s climate change policy was most visible in

the first two strategic aims. Under ‘Engaging supporters’, there was a commitment to

publicise the impacts of climate change and influence pro-environmental behaviour via a

communication theme entitled ‘Green living’, offering every-day practical tips for energy-

saving and carbon reduction measures, a form of small-step lifestyle changes favoured by

social marketing approaches (Crompton, 2008). The second aim, ‘Improving conservation

and environmental performance’, incorporated measures as part of ‘Addressing our

environmental footprint’ assisted by the Environmental Practices Advisers across all eleven

National Trust regions. Such initiatives tended to focus on mitigation projects to reduce a

property’s carbon footprint. A few projects were highlighted under ‘Inspiring by example’

such as the ‘Energy Busters’ programme at Brancaster Millenium Activity Centre in

Norfolk. This project claimed to have ‘taught hundreds of Norfolk schoolchildren how to

cut their own schools’ energy use’ (National Trust, 2008b: 17). A further example was the

installation of photo-voltaic panels on the roof of Dunster Castle in Somerset in order to

maximise solar radiation. The Trust chose to use homely and picturesque language to appeal

to the readership (emphasis added):

‘Our glorious landscapes and buildings … Photo-voltaic panels nestle

in the battlements of Dunster Castle …’ (p.17).

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The introduction of the Conservation Performance Indicator (CPI) in 2007/08 was designed

as a self-review process undertaken by individual properties to assess what progress was

being made in their conservation work. Together with energy reduction targets, the Trust

used these criteria to publish results on how properties were improving their conservation

and environmental performance (Table 6.2).

Measure of success 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2012/13

Actual Actual Target Actual
Properties which have completed a CPI 63 99 100 100%
review (%)
Properties with completed CPI review and
Reporting an improved score (%) 82 84 85 78%
Energy reduction (%) 3 16 12 4%

Table 6.2 ‘Improving conservation and environmental performance’

(National Trust, 2013a: 10)

The charity’s energy consumption reduction target is 20 per cent by 2020, of which 50 per

cent should be fossil-fuel consumption. Targets are relative to base-line energy usage in

2009 (National Trust, 2013f: 11), usually measured in MWh (megawatts) of energy.

Electricity use was subject to the most monitoring. Measures designed to reduce

consumption were described very broadly and included: the replacement, where practicable,

of fossil fuel use with alternative energy sources; improving energy efficiency of buildings;

and installing energy-efficient light bulbs in all properties. The Annual Report for 2012/13

summarised CPI performance over the past three years. Energy reduction was the criterion

associated most closely with mitigation towards climate change, and the results show that

collectively, during 2012/13, properties were short of the 12 per cent target. The annual

report attributed this dip in performance to the wet, cool weather during 2012/13, and longer

opening hours: both factors placing extra demands on energy consumption. The report went

on to praise the performance of Wales, which had managed to achieve a 33 per cent

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reduction, using an ‘environmental management system’. A reference was made to

introducing this system nationally during 2013. Earlier, in 2008, the Trust had indicated that

a carbon indicator for the charity’s activities was to be developed, but as at 2012/13, there

was no evidence of this initiative in the public domain.

The Trust uses broad targets to report on environmental performance in its annual

reports so that its readership is provided with concise information. In comparison, both

English Heritage and Natural England (public agencies) publish their environmental

performance in annual reports using more precise and detailed quantitative data. This is

because from from 2010, the government required public bodies to publish their progress

against funding agreements using sustainability indicators that included: greenhouse gas

emissions (CO2 emissions; related energy consumption; financial expenditure on energy);

waste (tonnes produced/recycled/cost of disposal); and water (amount supplied/cost)

(English Heritage, 2011; 2012; 2013; Natural England, 2011). Aggregated data published by

English Heritage for example, on its greenhouse gas emissions in tonnes and by cost, relate

to electricity and gas consumption across its sites and the organisation’s business travel

(road, rail and air). Such data are also collected by the Trust across individual properties,

including the central office Heelis and other branches of administration, although it appears

that the data have yet to be aggregated into some form of carbon footprint for the whole

organisation; although reports on the progress of various projects are periodically

highlighted. The following example is an extract from the Trust’s energy policy Energy:

Grow your own (National Trust, 2010: 15):

‘Growing our own heat – wood fuel

We now have 44 biomass (wood chip/wood pellet/log) boilers in our

properties, with an installed capacity of 2.3 MW and producing
approximately 1500 MWh of heat per year, the latest being a 450 kW
wood pellet boiler at Chirk Castle in North Wales. The Big Lottery

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 Fund has financed 12 wood fuel projects on Trust properties worth
nearly £0.5 million over the last two years. The award-winning 440 kW
wood chip boiler recently installed at Castle Drogo on Dartmoor is
expected to save £20,000 on previous oil heating costs and 325 tonnes
of CO2. We have plans to install more than 50 new wood fuel boilers
over the next five years. Many of our cottages and farms use wood
burning stoves for domestic heating’.

During 2008 the Trust produced a number of reports on conservation work where climate

change was portrayed as part of the wider environmental challenges faced by the charity and

the country as a whole. These included Shifting Shores, a study on Northern Ireland’s

coastal management (National Trust, 2007g); From Source to Sea, a report on the

conservation and improvement of water (National Trust, 2008c); and Nature’s Capital, a

case for investing in four of the key environmental services the Trust claimed were essential

for the nation’s land (clean water; flood risk mitigation; carbon stewardship; and access to

green space) (National Trust, 2008d). The Trust also commissioned research by universities

such as Essex University’s report on the benefits of utilising green space in the east of

England (National Trust, 2008f). In 2009 the Trust also ran a campaign on ‘National Trust

Green Living’ themed around people’s houses, gardens, and leisure pursuits, aimed at

creating interest in reducing a household’s environmental footprint (National Trust, 2009b).

Another project focused on local action is the Low Carbon Village (Coleshill in

Oxfordshire, and Cambo on the Trust’s Wallington estate in Northumberland), supported by

£600,000 funding from the Trust’s former energy partner Npower. Part of the criteria for

initiating these projects was, in the Trust’s view:

‘… the disillusionment and helplessness that many people feel about

climate change’ (National Trust, 2013b).

A sizeable assumption on the part of the charity? A website ‘Energy map’, locating the type

of renewable energy being generated at National Trust properties, is a further innovation

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that aims to bring the energy issue into people’s homes. Further promotional and social

marketing language included such extracts as:

‘We've put together a range of tips from our experts on how you can
reduce the environmental impact of everyday life, around your home
and garden - which are both good for the planet and your wallet’
(National Trust, 2013b).

With the National Trust website’s content and access having been improved since the early

2000s, these reports are located under ‘Energy and climate change’, one of the ‘Big issues’

publicised on the website in 2013. By July 2014 though, ‘Energy and climate change’ was

replaced with ‘Energy and environment’. The other five big issues were Food and farming;

Nature and outdoors; Art and heritage; Transport and tourism; and Land-use and planning.

This is evidence that climate change has been gradually subsumed into the energy agenda. It

receives most coverage under ‘Energy and environment’ in which recently, two projects

have been publicised: Snowdonia’s first hydro turbine and Plas Newydd’s marine source

heat pump as part of its Renewable Energy Investment Programme in 2014.

Several references are made under ‘Transport and tourism’ to generalised aspects of

sustainable tourism, reliance on car-borne visits to properties and some of the greener

options that may be considered by visitors, as well as ‘Visitor Travel Plans’. These visitor

travel plans are required for new tourism developments, and should be introduced for

existing sites. On a point of detail, the 2014 website is still quoting national tourism

statistics for 2003. Under transport and tourism, most coverage is devoted to the Trust’s

position on the proposed High-Speed Railway Link (HS2) and its possible impact on the

charity’s properties along the route. The Chairman openly voiced his opposition to this

project (Jenkins, 2014c) as well as the HS3 mega-project mooted: a high-speed rail line

across the Pennines (Jenkins, 2014d). Also made clear, was the Trust’s opposition to

expanding Heathrow Airport by building a third runway, on the ground of loss of open

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green space, noise pollution, and ‘aspects’ related to climate change (National Trust,

2014b). Further references to climate change are included under the portal ‘What we

protect’, with features on the Trust as a peat-free organisation practising mitigation: peat’s

role as a carbon sink, with 3 billion tonnes of CO2 stored in the UK’s peat stock). The

ongoing Neptune Coastline Campaign features adaptation as coastal protection against

rising sea levels (National Trust, 2014a). Rising river levels were also a concern.

Photographs 3 and 4 taken at Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, illustrate how a property

communicates some of potential impacts of climate change outdoors. Photograph 3 shows a

benign river on a visit to the property in June 2011, close to which is a representation

(Photograph 4) of how the river might look in fifty years’ time as a result of rising water

levels, together with some explanatory notes for visitors. Photograph 5 illustrates

information made available to visitors about the sustainable approach taken to re-roofing

Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, where a solar hot water system using solar thermal panels

positioned on the roof had been installed to supply hot water to the flats at the top of the

building. The poster also depicts other energy-saving devices such as the ubiquitous low-

energy light bulbs and the capture of rain water.

Getting off oil

Writing in the 2009 autumn newsletter shortly before the Copenhagen climate change

summit, Vidal (2009) viewed the Trust’s energy policy taking a dual approach: firstly to

considered to be an insecure and financially risky; and secondly to reduce the Trust’s carbon

emissions. Over several years, the Trust had already experienced the effects of extreme

weather. Since 2001, over 400 insurance claims had been made due to damage inflicted,

worth in excess of £3.2 million; furthermore, 375 miles of coast were projected to be

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affected by coastal erosion due to rising sea levels over the next 75 years. By 2010, Energy:

Grow your own, the charity’s energy policy, was the central plank of the Trust’s mitigation

response to climate change. The two goals of reducing energy consumption and switching to

non-fossil fuel (renewable) sources were driving the Trust’s energy policy firstly, to achieve

savings on expenditure – the Trust spent almost £6 million a year on electricity, oil and gas

(National Trust, 2010a) – thus freeing-up funds to be spent on conservation work; and

secondly, as a mitigation measure that was meant to be part of sustainable living and

contributing to a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Photograph 3:
Bridge over the River Rother, at Bodiam Castle, East Sussex, June 2011 – normal river level

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 Photograph 4:
Information about climate change at Bodiam Castle, East Sussex

Photograph 5:
Sustainable re-roofing project at Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire

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 In a recent paper for the Board of Trustees (National Trust, 2013c), it was projected

that an investment of £35.5 million into renewable energy sources by 2018/19 would

produce a net annual profit of £4.3 million with a total internal rate of return of 10.2 per cent

(46 renewable energy installations phased over 6 years, reducing oil dependency from 20

per cent to 3 per cent by 2019). This investment, it was said, would lead to a projected

reduction of 2,586 tonnes of CO2 per annum. Energy policy was devolved through the

regions to individual properties, where each general manager or property manager

incorporated energy reduction targets into the property’s business plan, consistent with the

decentralised approach promoted in the Going local strategy. Plas Newydd in North Wales,

already mentioned, has received recent media attention where its marine source heat pump

costing £600,000 is expected to save the property £40,000 a year in operating costs

(Harrabin, 2014). At the 2013 AGM, The Trust’s newly appointed Director-General, Helen

Ghosh, believed the Trust had a wider role to play beyond its heritage tourism activities, in

contributing to the environmental debates that would be of concern to the country,

particularly with regard to energy. The following extract is taken from the charity’s website

news:

‘Our membership and the nation more generally, expect us to stand up

for cultural heritage and the environment of course. We are not just a
heritage operator – we have a contribution to make to the debates that
matter in this country… We are worried about carbon emissions and
the effects of climate change on our properties and the wider world’
(National Trust, 2014c).

Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas (fracking) is another climate change-related subject on

which the Trust, in collaboration with other conservation charities, has expressed

reservations over the government’s speed in rolling out the extraction programme (National

Trust, 2014e). The paper said that a more robust regulatory framework should be in place,

and that adequate protection be given to the natural and historic environment, for example

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by creating shale gas extraction exclusion zones. Adverse environmental impact was a

concern, where the charities recommended mandatory Environmental Impact Assessments

for shale gas extraction proposals. It was also highlighted that shale gas had higher carbon

intensity than renewable energy sources, and that fracking could lead to dangerous leaks of

methane gas (considered to be a potent GHG) where, already, 30 per cent of methane leaks

came from the fossil fuel industry. The charity’s mission to reduce fossil fuel dependency

and replace it with renewable sources, together with achieving ongoing energy efficiencies,

remains the overall aim of its energy policy within which the climate change mitigation

agenda continues to function.

Chapter summary

Although Enterprise Neptune was launched in 1965 as a campaign to protect a target of 900

miles of unspoilt coastline in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from inappropriate

planning and development, the current campaign publicises the threats posed by climate

change, principally rising sea levels and subsequent coastal erosion. In this sense Neptune

can be seen as a precursor to the National Trust’s climate change policy. The origins of its

climate change policy may be found during the late 1980s, at a time when climate change

arrived on the international policy-making scene.

A review of Trust documents for the 1970s and 1980s showed the charity’s

awareness of wider environmental issues ranging from culling seals, to acid rain, airport

expansion and the potential impacts of North Sea oil production on the East Anglian coast;

but with no reference to climate change. During Angus Stirling’s term of office (1983-95)

the Trust sought to widen its sphere of influence in public policy matters concerning, in

particular, agriculture and the countryside. It was not until 1993, a year after the 1992 Rio

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Summit, that sustainable development appeared in the Trust’s lexicon. The Trust opposed

the government’s road expansion plans in the early 1990s on the grounds of environmental

degradation and adverse consequences of road congestion, which, it was argued, would have

negative consequences for properties and the visitor experience; but again, with no overt

reference to climate change. The first full article on climate change in the Trust’s public

domain appeared in 1990. During Angus Stirling’s era the Trust expanded its advocacy role

and laid the foundations for a fuller implementation of its climate change policy under

Martin Drury and Fiona Reynolds.

The Trust’s increasing presence and involvement in public policy with other

environmental charities and NGOs reflected Marsh’s (1998:15) view that policy networking

was a contemporary approach for the 1980s. To reiterate an earlier point, Stirling had

pointed out that the Trust should engage in political debate on wider environmental and

cultural issues, resembling the insider strategy of a green NGO (Andresen & Gulbrandsen,

2006) that sought to influence government. Quiet advocacy was preferred to the more

activist outsider strategy pursued by organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the

Earth. Further examples of the Trust’s involvement in environmental policy occurred in

partnerships with other ENGOs (the Green Alliance is a prime example), as well as at

government level such as the publication of I will if you will by the Sustainable

Development Commission & National Consumer Council (2006), and the You, Me and the

Climate initiative (aimed at young people aged 16-19) supported by DEFRA (Participation

Works Partnership in 2007). These initiatives resonate with Rhodes’ (1997) characteristics

of a policy community for understanding policy-making in the meso zone (Parsons, 2005;

Hall & Jenkins, 1995).

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 Following the emergence of the Trust’s formal position on climate change in 1998,

and its statement of intent on the issue in 2005, it subsequently responded to the

government’s consultation process on the White Paper Climate Change The UK Programme

(HM Government, 2006), the Stern Review, and the government’s proposed National

Adaptation Strategy. At this time it was also commissioning various research projects into

climate change impact in collaboration with other like-minded organisations and public

agencies. Having ‘gone public’ on climate change, the Trust’s climate change policy

gradually became dispersed throughout the organisation in most activities, with support and

structure provided by the Environmental Footprint and Climate Change Group, whose work

related directly to the TBL criteria for performance measurement.

Since 2009, initiatives on climate change have been publicised increasingly via the

Trust’s website, which have promoted the charity’s own behavioural-change projects, for

example low-carbon villages and educational projects. Additionally, projects have been

designed to promote small-step changes to individual lifestyles through its website, with the

theme of green living adopting the mantra of ‘think globally, act locally’. Until 2012/13,

climate change appeared on the website as a ‘Big Issue’, but from 2014, the issue has been

reported under ‘Energy and environment’. The Trust’s energy policy has taken centre-stage

as the charity’s mitigation response to climate change. Over a period of some twenty years,

the Trust’s climate change policy has remained a centralised policy originating from its

statement of intent, but implemented widely across the charity’s many activities formalised

in sector statements. A review of documents in the public domain has shown that the

charity’s climate change policy identified with several features of environmental

sustainability indicators such as some of the possible targets listed by Roberts & Tribe

(2008: 587 – Appendix 2.1) for developing sustainability indicators for small tourism

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enterprises: the undertaking of environmental assessments; developing an energy

conservation plan; monitoring energy use; use of energy saving devices; promotion of water

conservation; and informing staff and customers of the benefits of energy efficiency. Going

local’s strategy of decentralisation and empowerment has arguably given General Managers

and Property Managers more freedom to develop local solutions to local issues and promote

climate change messages that cross over into adaptation and mitigation measures.

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 CHAPTER 7

VIEWS OF NATIONAL TRUST STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS

ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Introduction

This chapter considers the study’s fourth question, which explores the views of National

Trust staff and volunteers on climate change and their level of consensus with the charity’s

climate change policy, and whether their views provide any insights for future policy-

making. The previous chapter concluded that a centralised policy was widely devolved

throughout the organisation, supported by a structure and governance that has adapted over

the past twenty years in order to meet the challenges of an expanding membership and

external issues affecting many aspects of the charity’s core purpose. Chapter 7, therefore,

aims to corroborate these findings by exploring staff and volunteer perceptions through

eight themes (Box 7.1). The development of the interview guides was discussed in the

methodology. The chapter is structured through a discussion of each theme in term utilising

results from the interviews and the two surveys.

1 The importance of climate change as an issue for the National Trust.

2 The form and function of the National Trust’s climate change policy.
3 Mitigation and adaptation in response to climate change.
4 Sustainable development and the National Trust’s climate change policy.
5 The National Trust as a contributor to environmental public policy; external affairs.
6 The Trust’s recently reformed governance arrangements facilitating climate change
strategy and other issues that concern the ‘whole’ Trust.
7 The Trust’s current strategy Going local supporting an effective and sustainable
approach in managing climate change issues.
8 The balance between access and conservation as part of sustainable tourism and
implications for responding to climate change.

Box 7.1 Interview topics for discussion

Interviews took place at several locations: the Trust’s central office in Swindon (Heelis), a

private address, and at various offices and properties in the West Midlands region. Eight

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senior policy-makers participated in the study’s first survey, an exploratory questionnaire

that aimed to capture their views on aspects of policy-making, governance, climate change,

broader environmental thinking, and the Trust’s overall response to climate change

(Appendix 4.2). Twelve interviews were conducted with staff representing different levels

within the charity spanning Council/Board of Trustees, Senior Management Team, Regional

Director and Advisor, and General/Property Managers. Additionally, two group interviews

were held, one with a regional environmental group, and the other with a volunteer forum at

a property. Additionally, views were obtained from two senior policy-makers through e-

mail correspondence.

In Chapter 4 it was explained that volunteer workers were regarded as indispensable

front-line staff in enabling the charity to fulfil its core purpose as well as engaging directly

with the Trust’s members, visitors and supporters. The study sought to gain their views on

the charity’s approach to climate change as well as wider environmental issues. Volunteers

were interviewed in the study’s second survey, an on-line questionnaire (Appendix 4.4)

completed by 139 respondents, 136 of which were usable. The survey utilised questions

from the visitor survey (Chapter 8) to explore volunteers’ level of agreement with visitors,

as well as how the volunteers felt about engaging with visitors on environmental issues and

to what extent they felt in touch with issues disseminated from the Trust’s headquarters. In

this way, the volunteers formed a bridge between the charity’s climate change policy and its

membership and visitors. Appendix 7.1 presents the results of the quantitative and

qualitative data collected from the volunteer survey. The identity of respondents who took

part in the interviews and the volunteer survey was protected for the production of

transcripts and notes. In the discussion that follows, the participants are referred to as

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manager, senior policy-maker, interviewee, respondent and participant to reflect the

perspectives of the views given by each group, and to avoid repetition of generic terms used.

The importance of climate change as an issue for the National Trust

Most interviewees believed climate change was an important issue for the charity. In the

extract below for example, the respondent saw climate change as posing a global threat to

humankind as well as affecting the Trust’s core purpose of conservation:

‘I’m wholly convinced that climate change is happening, driven largely by

human behaviour, probably the biggest single issue for humanity, and
certainly a big issue for the National Trust’ (Interview 2).

Five out of the eight senior policy-makers who responded to the exploratory questionnaire

agreed with the statement that climate change was ‘the most challenging environmental

issue that the Trust has faced to date’; and two agreed that although it was an environmental

issue, the threats of climate change had been exaggerated. Another interviewee considered

the issue to be of ‘massive’ importance for a number of reasons. Properties were

experiencing the physical impacts of extreme weather events. The effects of climate change

could be expensive for the charity, for example with its conservation work, or possibly

affecting visitor flows, which could impact on revenue generation from membership

subscriptions and property income to fund conservation work. Additionally, climate change

was seen to be:

‘… big for society, and the environment as a whole … [and] what role we play
in moving towards a more sustainable agenda I suppose’ (Interview 5).

Importance was attached to the Trust’s long-term responsibilities for the care of property

and land in perpetuity with an imperative to manage climate change impacts. Climate

change was viewed as posing a challenge to the Trust’s role of conservation as well as

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people’s enjoyment of the charity’s properties and estates, thus underlining the inter-

dependence of conservation and tourism:

‘It’s about judgement … climate change is one of the most important

factors affecting our ability to deliver our purpose in terms of conserving
our properties … enabling people to enjoy our properties … our ability to
do that is directly affected by climate change … climate change may well
require a change in lifestyle habits [but] the Trust is not setting out to make
it uncomfortable for people … we’re setting out to provide solutions in
such a way that people can still enjoy themselves … providing an
alternative way of doing and seeing things’ (Interview 2).

During the first interview conducted for this research in 2007 it was pointed out that the

mind-set of the Trust had gradually shifted from preservation to conservation and that the

implications of climate change meant some properties or land may have to be written-off in

the face of physical impacts, as with land/buildings close to coastal erosion:

‘Sacred cows may have to be sacrificed! Preserve integrity but don’t

pickle it’ (Interview 1).

However, half of the senior policy-makers in the exploratory survey maintained a neutral

position on the Trust having to accept that some of its properties may have to be sacrificed

as a result of climate change impacts. At one rural property, the financial costs of

responding to extreme weather events were emphasised by reference to drought, flooding

and extremes of heat and cold. Following a recent prolonged drought, it had cost one

property £200,000 to re-connect to mains water supply (Interview 11). Asked the same

question on the importance of climate change for the Trust, a general manager showed

strong affinity with the charity’s core purpose, believing this commitment was shared by

most staff (see interview extract on following page). During this particular interview, policy

documents and information sheets addressing climate change produced at Heelis were

acknowledged as useful; but for the manager, a more effective outcome could be gained by

talking to visitors about the practical measures taken to combat climate change such as roof

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repairs, insulation, and energy-saving measures: measures people could relate to their own

homes, rather than any debate on the wider climate change issue. Bringing about change to

visitor attitudes and behaviour was seen by the manager as a key challenge, where the

property’s business model depended on car travel: ‘… our members are welded to their

cars’.

‘[Our staff are] … fully signed-up to the cause … the vast majority of us
have joined the Trust because we see it as a cause and we agree with its
values and it’s very clear where the Trust stands on climate change, and I
don’t think I’ve ever had a discussion with a member of staff who isn’t
fully signed up to it’ (Interview 9).

The potential role of volunteers and staff to communicate environmental messages such as

the importance of climate change to visitors was underlined (see following responses from

volunteers). Interviewee 9 was confident all the property’s staff were ‘fully signed up to it’

but that in the case of volunteers, it was a ‘slightly different issue’. The manager believed

that volunteers had diverse motivations in working for the Trust, often related to a single

issue or interest. Some volunteers held a very traditional outlook; and:

‘… we have to work hard with them to get them on board … you’ve got to
get your team on board first … otherwise you can’t engage with visitors’
(Interview 9).

There was a perception that outdoor volunteers were more knowledgeable about, and

showed more affinity with, climate change, than their indoor counterparts who tended to be

motivated more by interests in heritage and preservation.

Most volunteers surveyed (over 90 per cent) were middle-aged/retired, being born

between 1920 and 1964, with a slight bias towards females. The most frequent length of

service was between 1 and 10 years (79 per cent), and the majority of volunteers worked

either in the house (typically as a room guide/reception) or in the gardens and estate. Two-

thirds of volunteers agreed that global warming posed a significant threat to civilisation,

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and over 80 per cent felt that as individuals they had a moral duty to reduce their carbon

footprint; and agreed with the idea that ‘nature has equal rights to humans’. Most of the

respondents agreed that the National Trust had an important role to play in generally

encouraging pro-environmental behaviour, and that the government should be more active

in tackling climate change. These policy views scored slightly higher than the mean for

visitors (Table 7.1). The results from Question 3 (ANOVA) in Appendix 7.1 show strong

similarities with the results for the same questions in the visitor survey where female

respondents score higher than males on the perception of the threat of global warming, a

personal moral duty to reduce one’s carbon footprint (the most significant difference with a

p-value of 0.01), and the proposition that nature should have equal rights to humans. The

age of volunteers did not make any significant difference to environmental attitudes. Taken

as a whole, with the exception of reducing one’s carbon footprint, volunteers’ attitudes

towards these issues (Table 7.1) were slightly more pro-environmental than the mean scores

for visitors, suggesting the potential value of volunteers in discussing issues of climate

change.

Statement N Mean N Mean

(Agree = 5 Disagree = 1) score score

Volunteers Visitors
Global warming is a very real threat to 136 3.86 843 3.72
civilisation
I have a moral duty to reduce my carbon footprint 136 4.15 843 4.20

Nature has equal rights to humans 136 4.15 837 3.97

The government should be doing more to tackle 136 4.02 834 3.98
climate change
NT has an important role in getting people to 136 4.29 843 3.83
think about pro-environmental behaviour
Conservation work helps to reduce the impacts 136 3.92 840 3.76
of climate change
Tourism is harmful to conservation work 136 2.24 839 2.66

Table 7.1 Volunteer survey: environmental and policy attitudes vs. Visitor survey

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 Although strong agreement was evident for the Trust encouraging pro-environmental

behaviour (highest mean score of 4.29 in Table 7.1), less than half of volunteers said they

would look for opportunities to talk about environmental issues with visitors (Table 7.2).

However, there was a strong indication (4.50 in Table 7.2) for responding well to team

work, which holds some potential for conveying environmental messages. Less than two-

thirds of volunteers though, saw the Trust as a leading example of how an organisation

should respond to climate change (Table 7.2) although there was slightly more agreement

that the Trust had an important role to play (Table 7.1).

Statement N Agree/ Not Disagree/ Mean

Slightly Sure Slightly Score
I look for opportunities to talk about environmental 136 45% 13% 42% 2.91
issues with visitors
I respond well to a teamwork approach when 136 91% 7% 2% 4.50
working on new initiatives/projects
I see the Trust as a leading example of how an 136 64% 20% 16% 3.74
organisation should respond to climate change
I feel connected to issues coming from the Trust’s 136 40% 30% 30% 3.11
Central office (Heelis)

Table 7.2 Volunteer survey: Question 6

The results from the survey generally show volunteers to have a fairly conservative pro-

environmental approach towards climate change issues and the charity’s role in tackling

climate change, although a few individuals were more outspoken in their doubts about the

robustness of Trust’s response and the extent of human influence on climate change:

‘As far as I am aware, the Trust has no specific policies with regards to
climate change; Not sure. They are probably responding more to general
environmental [issues] rather than specifically climate change issues; I
believe so-called climate change is a naturally occurring cyclical process
and we make far too much fuss about it; government and the NT use the
term for their own agendas e.g. political power and a nice way of
advertising; I am unaware of the NT’s response to climate change …; I
find the climate change debate to be a red herring; A lot of talk but not a
lot of action’ (Multiple extracts from the Volunteer Survey, Summer
2013).

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The form and function of the Trust’s climate change policy

The second theme explored in the interviews and surveys aimed to gauge to how much

interviewees identified with a uniformly visible climate change policy throughout the

charity and the nature of its implementation. Thompson & Martin (2010: 52/294) suggested

that policy followed and supported an overall strategy:

‘Strategies emerge from the culture and values of key players, typically the
strategic leader … very much affected by the wider picture perspective …
policies are guidelines relating to decisions and approaches which support
organisational efforts to achieve stated and intended objectives’.

This was evident in Chapter 6, where the Trust’s climate change policy was shown to be

part of its broader environmental agenda (conservation and energy performance) and

periodic organisational strategies. As one interviewee put it:

‘Policy is about guidance, a position; at a lower level than strategy; it’s how
you achieve the strategy. We have a policy relating to climate change, on
energy, to badgers and bovine disease … you name it … driven by having to
make a decision as to what to do on the ground’ (Interview 2).

Referring to the broader policy literature (John, 2003; Parsons, 2005), policy is understood

to be an overall framework of intent for a course of action. On the question of whether the

Trust had a single, discernible climate change policy, one interviewee believed it was more

of a case of several policies woven into many areas of the charity’s work as opposed to one

overall, driving policy:

‘… so that sustainability permeates what we do in response to climate

change [as opposed to] one joined-up strategy …we have a policy around
energy … water … we’ve tended to pick it off by theme rather than an
over-arching policy … put into bite-sized chunks … but I think partly it’s
because we have such a broad agenda … getting our own house in order
… influencing public policy … the whole engagement piece with visitors

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 and supporters and influence there as well … as we’ve got multiple fronts
we’ve tended to go for the ‘weave it into everything approach’ as opposed
to one joined-up strategy. Interestingly, you might get a very different
view from someone in what we call ‘whole Trust’, the central structure …
but that is how it looks from my perspective’ (Interview 5).

After some brief hesitation, climate change policy was associated with being part of the

charity’s wider energy policy:

‘I think it does, yes, um … I would probably say our climate change

policy is our energy policy, which is to reduce our energy use overall, and
reduce reliance on fossil fuels, so that encompasses mitigation and
adaptation, so yes, I would say that we do’ (Interview 6).

And another manager was not entirely sure about the existence of a single climate change

policy, but also readily made a connection with energy policy:

‘Can’t remember if we do have one; one of our key performance indicators is

energy consumption; regional and national targets for lowering energy use;
alternative sources, for example solar energy’ (Interview 7).
The notes for Interviewee 8’s response to this question read:

‘Not a distinct climate change policy; energy policy yes; energy

conservation, changeover from fossil to non-fossil dependency; local
visitors; cut down on carbon footprint; from my perspective: daily
operational rather than grand scheme’ (Interviewer’s notes).

One manager, having only recently been appointed, was not confident in identifying a single

policy:

‘When I got here … not really … first thing I knew … fracking debate
recently; obviously I’ve seen HS2 but that’s different … nothing on
climate change specifically, no’ (Interview 12).

Asked whether the Trust had a single, unified view on climate change, one interviewee at

Heelis expressed confidence that those who worked for the charity supported the cause and

with it, targets such as halving fossil fuel use by 2010; and continued with a more general

reference to environmental behaviour:

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 ‘… that’s something the staff have to deliver … people’s attitude and their
cultures of working are going to have to change [referring to members
supporters and visitors] … and that will be a challenge’ (Interview 3).

Six out of eight senior policy-makers agreed that the Trust had a climate change policy

although only four felt able to identify a year in which climate change began to be addressed

by the Trust; these years were all different: 1991, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Another senior

participant referred to the Trust’s ‘statement of principles’ on climate change extended

through sector statements/policies, and emphasised the possibility of trying to encourage

lifestyle changes amongst the charity’s members and supporters through the ‘real passion’

shown by staff on these issues:

‘Climate change may well require a change in lifestyle habits … we’re

setting out to provide solutions in such a way that people can still enjoy
themselves … providing an alternative way of doing and seeing things …
the real passion comes from our staff who are actually dealing with this’
(Interview 2).

During the interviews, a recurring area of agreement lay with communicating climate

change messages. The Trust believed an effective strategy to reach its target audience was

through practical demonstrations of the charity’s work, such as with renovation works that

factored-in adaptation to extreme weather events; or energy-saving devices that could be

used in the home. This approach was seen to be more appropriate and effective than any

attempt to lecture visitors on climate change science. As one participant explained:

‘That’s always been a strength about the Trust: policy from practice … if
we express a view about something we can demonstrate we’ve
experienced it on the ground … and that’s a huge strength … in terms of
local food … trying to change people’s behaviour … inspire them to
source more local and seasonal food … that has had huge traction because
we can create allotments on our land and let kids help grow stuff in the
walled kitchen garden … we’re not only a campaigning organisation. We

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 did some research a few years ago – on climate change – how do people
feel if you start lecturing them on greener living, and the answer is: they
don’t respond very well! Particularly if they’ve come for a nice day out …
so we found that the way in to that work is much more through pragmatic
things … like food … like seeing a boiler in action … it’s that sort of stuff
that we can really add to the party’ (Interview 5).

Mitigation and adaptation measures in response to climate change

Mitigation measures aim to cut GHG emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuel

sources, thus decreasing the carbon footprint of an individual, organisation or destination.

Switching to renewable energy sources has been part of the Trust’s climate change policy

since 1995. Adaptation, on the other hand, is essentially a defensive process, which aims to

reduce the impacts of climate change on landscape and buildings. The National Trust’s

current adaptation strategy was formulated in 2005. Discussion on mitigation and adaptation

measures took place mainly during interviews at properties in order to establish an

operational, practical perspective on these different strategies in dealing with climate

change. Energy became the emerging theme from the discussions, where most interviewees

reiterated the importance of meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) through targets on

energy reduction and efficiencies using a number of measures. These included: switching to

renewable energy sources through commissioning biomass boilers; the wholesale adoption

of low-energy light bulbs; ‘smart’ monitoring of energy consumption at properties;

installation of photovoltaic solar roof panels; water harvesting (collecting rainwater from

roofs); water conservation measures; and the sale of logs to the local community

(Photograph 5 on following page). Interviewees confirmed their understanding of these

initiatives as examples of mitigation. One manager made the point that renewable energy

sources alone were not enough, and needed to be combined with on-going efficiencies in

energy use, confirming the Trust’s dual priorities in its energy policy:

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 ‘… we’re not just going to burn the same amount of energy with biomass
boilers as we did with fossil fuels … energy saving measures are needed
[in addition to renewable energy]’ (Interview11).

Photograph 6: Logs for sale

Another respondent (Interview 7) who managed woodland and countryside highlighted a

‘big push’ on selling locally-felled wood, thereby maintaining a neutral CO2 cycle with no

net loss or gain. His work required effective forestry management and managing

biodiversity, both of which fed into the wood cycle, as opposed to planting trees for the

production of timber. A popular area of countryside on the edge of a major conurbation,

much of the conservation work involved repairing landscape following extreme weather

events, such as rebuilding a collapsed car park bank, cordoning off pockets of erosion,

replacing drainage systems and repairing footpaths. The manager of a large estate with a

park and gardens, referred to the constant task of maintenance in response to heavy rainfall

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and flash flooding, necessitating the installation of soak-aways on sloped drives (twice in

the last ten years); as well as managing the garden cycle in response to changing seasons

(Interview 8). During the visitor’s survey (Chapter 8), a Head Gardener also recounted some

of the impacts of changing seasons brought on by early springs and autumns and milder

weather, where planting decisions had to be revised; and the maintenance of footpaths had

to be re-scheduled due to early leaf-fall in the autumn. Changeable weather emerged as the

main issue for planning, maintenance, and health and safety considerations for visitors.

One interviewee described some of the problems experienced with heat waves. After

a late spring, the heat dried out the ground on the house’s parterre (a formal garden with

patterned flower and herb beds) ‘to an extent never known before’ (Interview 12). The

manager also recounted how visitor numbers decreased during heat waves (in his opinion,

an optimum temperature for visiting was 16-23˚ Celsius). The house contained collections

that required an evenly-balanced humidity: when the humidity was too low and the house

was also warm, the heating system would automatically fire-up, leading to unpleasantly hot

conditions for both visitors and staff. Severe weather also impacted on the planning of

events held at properties. Extreme weather events had resulted in the cancellation or low

attendance at events, outdoors especially, leading to issues with insurance claims,

contractors and reduced net income. Planning was now conducted on a shorter time-horizon

with more realistic targets and cancellation clauses being negotiated between the property

and any outside agency required for the event (Interview 12).

Open answers from the volunteer survey (Appendix 7.1) showed an awareness of

both local and wider issues associated with climate change. Two respondents believed a

nearby river could be harnessed to produce hydro-electric power:

‘Instead of pulling down the weir … which runs through the property,
install a hydro-electric generator. You might have to raise the weir slightly

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 but the power generated could be a good example for others to copy and in
the long run save money’ (Volunteer survey).
And:

‘I have mentioned, in the past, on several occasions that electricity could

easily be generated at …. by installing a water wheel in the river at the
weir. I have been told that (we) can't afford it’ (Volunteer survey).

Others highlighted transport issues: encouraging cycling and improving public transport

access. Renewable energy sources, re-cycling and sourcing local food were also mentioned;

including the challenges of procuring adequate funds to maintain conservation work:

‘The Trust desperately needs more cash to tackle conservation and hence
changes in the climate. They must do research into new methods of
disposing of waste product and fully utilising the resources that are
abundant on NT properties (wood chip burners etc.). New methods to tackle
old problems will be the key to the future’ (Volunteer survey).

Sustainable development and the National Trust’s climate change policy

The concept of sustainable development was discussed in Chapter 2; and previously,

Chapter 6 showed that the Trust’s climate change policy evolved from its overall sustainable

development agenda, driven principally by the charity’s energy and conservation

performance. It is worth reiterating Cope’s (1995) observation that for some, the concept’s

‘vagueness and all-encompassing sweep’ is conducive for including diverse viewpoints on

the subject; but this imprecision, Cope said, does not provide a firm basis for future policy

at the National Trust. O’Neill (2001) also remarked that widespread use of the term, an

elastic concept, had led to a certain amount of green rhetoric and understandable suspicion.

For Cope, the Trust’s statutory core purpose by definition required a sustainable approach,

where ‘permanent preservation for the benefit of the Nation’ implies intergenerational

responsibility: the preservation and conservation of its assets for future generations, with the

Trust acting as ‘a major guardian of the critical natural capital of the nation’ (p.55). In

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fulfilling its functions, the environmental footprint of the Trust extends over a diverse and

far-reaching range of activities as both a conservation and tourism enterprise. With this in

mind, the interviews sought to gain a sense of the relevance of the concept to the Trust’s

climate change policy. At the charity’s most senior level, half of the respondents to the

exploratory survey maintained a neutral position on the relevance of sustainable

development and sustainable tourism as reasons for addressing climate change; and five out

of eight considered sustainable development to be more of a mantra than a practical

strategy. These findings show some consistency with Cope’s (1995) view on sustainable

development. Despite this, the survey indicated that most of the senior respondents saw

responding to climate change as part of sustainable development.

A senior policy-maker generally endorsed the concept, indicating that it provided the

basis for the Trust’s triple-bottom-line approach to performance:

‘Yes … it catches some very useful ideas for the Trust, fits with long-
termism, fits with our triple-bottom line … [but] I find I don’t use the
term so often now because its values have been over-used - beaten out
of it’ (Interview 4).

This interviewee also expressed some doubt though, as to how often the term would in

practice be used at high-level meetings. Another participant chose to discuss the role of

sustainable technology, and seemed to suggest that the Trust was not entirely consistent in

its approach:

‘…so I think sustainable development is very important to us, and it

should be more important than it is, because we’re trying to tackle climate
change; but if the new buildings we’re putting up, or our renovated
properties are not using the best sustainable technology, then we’re kind of
shooting ourselves in the foot and creating further problems down the line,
and we won’t meet our energy strategy target either … so I think it’s a
very relevant concept … I think it is, whether the organisation realises

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 how important it is, I don’t think they do, but I think we’ll get there’
(Interview 6).

At another interview, some degree of scepticism was associated with the concept, or at least

some of the attempts at definition:

‘I think the definitions that float around are nonsense, by and large …
[but] … sustainable development means that an activity can go on in
perpetuity without depleting resources or damaging the environment’; and:
‘… it’s debatable that there is any truth in that statement sustainable
development’ (Two extracts from Group Interview 1).

However, as the discussion continued, the value of sustainable development being promoted

outside the Trust was expressed by one of the participants:

‘And the other thing is, Fiona said this, she nailed her colours to the mast
6 or 7 years ago, ‘what’s the point of having 650 nice places if the rest of
the country is falling around your ears … and that’s a very powerful
statement … and you’ve got to be careful … what the National Trust’s
aspirations are and what my personal aspirations are …but I’ve always
thought the Trust had a role to play, a much wider, bigger role in society,
and environmental things … in getting people and getting the history …
and making them reflect on the past for the benefit of the future …’
(Extract, Group Interview 1).

A later question on the significance of Going local in managing climate change illustrated

the importance of the Trust’s properties being seen as the centre of the local community, as

well as an employer. During most interviews, sustainable development was linked to the

charity’s TBL performance criteria (discussed in Chapter 5). However, maintaining a

sustainable approach was not necessarily seen as a foregone conclusion. Asked about the

relevance of the concept in tackling climate change, one interviewee, although endorsing the

relevance of TBL to the long-term horizon, pointed to differences between the ‘core, purist

conservation agenda’ for example peat restoration in the Peak District; and ‘where it gets

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more challenging for us’: the more short-term priorities associated with visitor business,

such as with planning a new visitor centre:

‘… how much sustainable thinking really goes into that? That’s where
more short-term thinking tends to drive things – we need something now –
we need it to work … that’s where we sometimes struggle to get the more
sustainable thinking to play out.’ (Interview 5).
This particular interview continued with a statement that ‘getting off the fossil fuel agenda’

had the most resonance for sustainable development, as in the case of installing bio-mass

boilers at properties. The more complicated issue for the respondent though, concerned a

business model based on around 300,000 people a year travelling by car to properties in the

Midlands, underscoring the charity’s reliance on this relatively unsustainable form of

transport:

‘That’s where I think we’ve put that into the ‘too hard to think about’ box
… what do you do? [if people did not travel by car] … it would
fundamentally change our business model’ (Interview 5).

The National Trust as a contributor to environmental public policy; external affairs

Literature reviewed in the Trust’s public domain and some of their internal documents

showed that the Trust has contributed to public policy through quiet advocacy, policy

networking and occasionally more active campaigns, as in the case of the charity’s

criticisms of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. The charity

has engaged in public policy-making as a response to issues it considered affected its core

purpose and management of assets. This process comes under the Directorate of Media and

External Affairs. This section explores how much importance interviewees attached to this

dimension of the Trust’s work in relation to climate change. A senior manager underlined

the purpose of networking:

‘Yes – networking is the most effective way to achieve our conservation

objectives … not because we want to change the world because we’re the
National Trust … because if we want to conserve our wonderful places we

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 can’t manage our places as islands, therefore the external environment,
political above all, but also social and environmental, has a direct impact
on that; so we need to help influence the context around our properties to
enable us to manage them effectively …’ (Interview 2).

He continued by likening the Trust to the ‘last, truly great mutual organisation’, which by

virtue of the size of its assets, membership and being a ‘neutral contributor’, would make

the charity a natural choice for the government to approach for its views.

Interviewee 3 made a distinction between partnerships and networks. For him,

partnerships were about working with organisations and creating structures, even with those

where conflict existed; whereas networking was seen to be more of a communication

process between individuals. Both processes were seen as important for the Trust, which

needed to be ‘very open and outward in engaging [with partnerships]’. Continuing with the

subject of networking, Interviewee 4 endorsed the composition of the Council with half of

the members appointed from relevant organisations to the charity’s core purpose, drawn

from such areas as the arts, countryside, heritage, natural environment, and tourism. The

Green Alliance and the Wildlife and Countryside Link were partnership organisations cited

as having particular relevance for the Trust’s work on climate change. The charity was

considered to be well-connected:

‘… the range of contacts we have across public sector, government

departments and civil society organisations is huge …’ (Interview 3).

However, the exploratory survey revealed that only one out of the eight senior respondents

was able to identify a range of external organisations the Trust consulted on matters related

to climate change, despite the majority believing networking to be necessary for developing

an effective climate change policy. Asked directly whether the National Trust had been

approached by the government to contribute to policy-making, this interviewee responded

by saying:

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 ‘Yes … We have a central external affairs team based in London, who
work with government departments; specifically on climate change, it
would be DECC and DEFRA … they tend to get us involved before they
go out for consultation on a policy’ (Interview 6).

An insight into how the Board of Trustees should respond to national issues at different

levels came through a paper on what positions the Trust could take on the controversial

topic of aviation policy in the UK (Interview 4, Paper). Four zones of existing and/or

potential engagement are shown in Table 7.3.

Level of engagement NT’s operating zone Impact

International policies Outside our scope General impact on the
environment
National aviation policy – Zone to which we are Impact on all properties – via
and related policies moving and where most climate change and sea level
questions arise rise
Regional/national policy on Wider zone where we General impact on
airport expansion operate countryside properties
Site specific issues, e.g. Traditional ‘comfort zone’ Direct impact on
airport expansion neighbouring property

Table 7.3 Type of impact/Level of engagement

(Adapted from Interview 4, Paper)

Examples of the type of engagement the Trust could consider were as follows:

1) Being wholly reactive, for example in deciding whether or not to respond to a

government consultation paper;
2) Being more pro-active, for example undertaking or commissioning studies
(subsequently used at public inquiries or distributed as publications);
3) Direct action: the Trust could choose to join, or ‘even organise’ public
demonstrations.

Any one, or all of these options, could be undertaken by the Trust on its own, or in various

ad hoc or permanent alliances with like-minded organisations. The paper’s author made

clear that the Board had not yet really discussed how to approach this type of issue. In his

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view, it was important for the Board to refer to the Trust’s core purposes and take a realistic

view of what could be achieved by way of influence. The Trust’s long-term interests (such

as climate change) would be best served by taking account of these three criteria: type of

impact (aviation in this case); level of engagement; and type of engagement. As one senior

manager put it:

‘Big question is – can our actions influence the wider environment?

Advocacy and practical action have to be balanced; no point in
pontificating while we could be taking action’ (Interview 2).

During one discussion, the importance of partnerships with other conservation charities in

order to develop conservation projects was underlined. On the eastern moors of the Peak

District, in partnership with the RSPB, the Trust recently took out a lease arrangement with

the National Park so that the two charities could undertake conservation work in an uplands

area:

‘I think those partnerships are essential to tackle those huge issues like
climate change … we won’t get anywhere trying to tackle that on our
own’ (Interview 5).

Another respondent alluded to a change in culture at the Trust, which, previously was seen

as tending to be introspective in its approach to common issues:

‘It’s all matrix [now] …this is a new approach … the Trust has traditionally
been inward-looking, not looking outside its boundaries … but other
organisations are working towards similar ends … there’s been a huge shift
[towards working in partnerships]’ (Group Interview 1).

A local example of how some the Trust’s recent initiatives (in this case associated with

climate change) were being publicised related to a planning application for solar panels:

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 ‘… a church in Moseley [Birmingham] had had its application for solar
panels in its roof turned down … someone in the meeting said ‘well I
know that Hanbury Hall managed to get their panels up, we need to
contact the National Trust to see how they got permission to do it’ … that
for me is a first’ (Group Interview 1).
One Trust manager believed the Trust should be capable of raising the level of debate in

public affairs, and seemed to imply that climate change was a vehicle for this:

‘… we could be the nation’s carbon bankers … we mange our land better

… and with 3.5 million members … that should give us quite a position of
influence and raising the level of debate, because there’s a pretty poor
level of debate in the country at the moment … but I think that’s part and
parcel of why the Trust has got involved in the climate change issue’
(Group Interview 1).

In discussing the Trust’s involvement in public policy, interviewees usually took the

opportunity to comment on the Trust’s role as a campaigning organisation, although not

always directly related to climate change. A senior policy-maker summarised his view of

the Trust’s position on campaigning thus:

‘I do not believe the NT should, in general, be a ‘campaigning’ body.

Exceptions to this are when a National Trust property, or aspects of that
property, are threatened. Another is when issues arise that relate to our
founding Act, even though they may not directly affect any Trust property.
A current example is the proposals for reform of the planning policy
system’ (E-mail correspondence 1).

At another interview, it was suggested that although the Trust was not an active campaigner

such as Greenpeace, the charity nevertheless took opportunities to communicate pro-

environmental messages. This comment implied that the Trust was becoming more

confident with this idea, and potentially could exert influence:

‘Yes, I think that’s something that has changed in the organisation; maybe
we are becoming more confident on the campaigning; sometimes we are

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 frightened of our own power; massive organisation, 4 million members; in
Shropshire, 15% of households are members of the Trust; we have the
potential for massive influence’ (Interview 9).

Continuing with this theme, one manager alluded to a charity such as the RSPB as having a

stronger sense of its cause amongst its members, than was the case in the National Trust.

The Trust had been founded as a campaigning organisation, and the manager implied it had

the potential to become more active in this area:

‘… and looking at membership … 99 per cent of people join the Trust

because it’s a good deal in financial terms: free entry, free car parking …
actually, could we introduce a membership that costs a lot less … that’s
about do you want to support our cause? I’m sure most people are
members of the RSPB because they believe in what it does and what they
stand for … so how do we tap into that? I think it’s about the cause,
because actually if you look back to why we were founded, we weren’t
founded to own stately homes and provide nice days out to people; we
were founded as a campaigning, cause-based organisation, that just
through circumstance happened to move more into owning properties and
that was the way we delivered our cause’ (Interview 6).

The Trust’s governance arrangements and climate change

Governance is defined by Thompson & Martin (2010: 787) as ‘the location of power and

responsibility at the head of an organisation’; and Jepson (2005; 518) contended:

‘A key purpose of governance is to ensure that an organisation’s assets

are managed and developed in a manner that will maximise delivery on
its mission’.

The key asset of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations, and indeed the ‘third

sector’ in general, Jessop maintained, was public trust’. Reform of the National Trust’s

governance arrangements and organisational changes were discussed in Chapter 6. As a

reminder, the Blakenham Report of 2003 led to the transfer of the highest level of decision-

making within the Trust from the 53-strong Council (the Chairman is the 53rd member) to a

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12-member Board of Trustees. Thereafter, the Council’s role was designed to represent both

the ‘guardian spirit’ and ‘shaper of policy’ for the charity, assuming more of an advisory

role to the Board. Being a relatively recent change at the Trust, the interviews sought to

explore perceptions of whether the charity’s current governance arrangements supported an

effective response to climate change in terms of policy formation and implementation.

Disappointingly, the interviews produced few, if any, links to climate change; and largely

served to largely endorse the outcome of the Blakenham Report that led to the creation of

the smaller executive decision-making Board of Trustees.

Initially though, not all Council/Board members who took part in the exploratory

survey agreed that the Council was the shaper of policy: instead, that role was seen to

belong to the Senior Management Team (SMT). However, respondents were unanimous

about the Council’s primary role as the Trust’s guardian or advisor. Although one informant

remained unconvinced about the usefulness of the Council’s new role:

‘That’s the problem – Council does not make policy. Recent policy
decisions have been made by the Trustees and Council were then informed
… Council has been largely side-lined … and a useful role for its 52
highly experienced members has not yet been identified’ (E-mail
correspondence 2).

On the other hand, a senior policy-maker endorsed the new arrangements:

‘Unwieldy? [the Council in its former role] Yes; but also counter-
democratic. It appears to be democratic, but in practice you get small,
internal bodies that take decisions. [It was] clumsy, unfocused, and open
to all sorts of inefficiencies. So the turkeys as it were, voted for Christmas
… it became much more practical for this small body to delegate
prescribed decisions to SMT’ (Interview 4).

The Chairman, he explained, was keen for Council to utilise the Regional Chairs’ local

knowledge and Advisory Panels’ expertise in shaping policy, thus bringing together three

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constituencies for making strategic decisions. Asked whether the current governance

arrangements were more effective, another senior manager did not hesitate to say: ‘Yes;

without a shadow of doubt’ (Interview 2). He confirmed that the Board’s decisions were

delegated to the SMT through the Director-General on the basis of finance and reputation

being the principal criteria: ‘… reputation is arguably the Trust’s most important asset’

(Interview 2). Half of the Council/Board respondents in the exploratory survey believed

policy development at the Trust represented a ‘top-down’ more than ‘bottom-up’ process,

and that grassroots opinions and values of members and visitors did not influence policy

development. This indicated the prevalence of a centralised approach to policy-making.

Going local and managing climate change

Discussed in Chapter 5, the Trust’s current strategy Going local was introduced in 2010

with the aim of empowering property managers as part of longer-term decentralisation. The

introduction of General Managers (GMs) in 2007 was a move designed to help strengthen

the operational and functional divisions of the Trust to enable the charity to place properties

at the centre of its activities. GMs were appointed at that time to manage forty of the Trust’s

most complex properties; and in doing so, were ‘charged with the corporate goals of

engagement’ (Desmond, 2010: 9) with various stakeholders in local communities and the

visiting public. To support this shift of power towards property level, Functional Advisors in

areas such as Human Resources, Archaeology, and Conservation, were given training to

develop consultancy and influence skills to both support and challenge GMs, who had to

balance commercial and conservation outcomes whilst keeping pace with the delivery of the

strategic change set by the Trust. Interviews were conducted with the aim of exploring

managers’ views on the effectiveness of the Going local strategy in relation to managing

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climate change-related issues. An initial endorsement came via six out of the eight

Council/Board members who saw the strategy as an effective way of promoting pro-

environmental behaviour, in other words at property-level and amongst local communities.

One interviewee chose to emphasise that in his view, while freeing-up property

managers with more autonomy had led to greater effectiveness associated with swifter

decision-making and a more demand-led, active involvement in the local community,

nevertheless ‘the whole is more than the sum of parts’; implying that a central policy would

always hold sway. In the case of climate change:

‘… the ability to take a helicopter view of what’s going on and act as a

barometer – is very relevant to climate change; if you’ve got all those case
studies, and the ability to take that overview, … and we can join up all the
dots to see the picture … we have to retain that ability as well as be
effective at local level’ (Interview 2).

This point was reinforced by another property manager (Interviewee 8), who saw the value

of promoting the Trust’s conservation and adaptation measures undertaken in other regions

to visitors at their local properties,. Visitors to inland properties in the West Midlands might

be interested to view exhibitions presenting work carried out at coastal locations tackling

erosion. This would reinforce the notion of the ‘whole Trust’. This also applied to the

setting of targets for property managers:

‘… what the agenda [Going local] cannot do is drive ambitious stretch

targets … that [those] will almost always have to come from the
central organisation … [Going local] needs to sit within a bigger
framework’ (Interview 5).

The practical implications of the Going local strategy were illustrated by a manager of one

of the larger properties in the West Midlands. His account reinforced four important

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operational themes: the perceived effectiveness of Going local as a motivating force for

property managers in being able to run a property with more autonomy; the expectation of

receiving centralised budgets and targets from the whole Trust; the contribution of Trust

properties and estates to the local economy and as an employer; and the opportunity to

develop local and repeat business (visits) as part of a sustainable approach to heritage

tourism, although at times conflicting with energy reduction targets. The extract provides a

comprehensive account of the relationship between Heelis and a large, complex field of

operations for a property.

‘I’m a great advocate of it, it’s one of the things I really like about the Trust;
because we’re a big bureaucratic organisation but the fact is our properties
… they have national value but they are at the heart of their local
communities whether we like it or not … the vision for my property business
plan is for XXX to be full of life and locally loved … because most of our
visitors come from within a 10-mile radius … so we’re talking about
sustainability … although most of my visitors arrive by car they are making
very short journeys to get here … increases in petrol prices have forced
people to visit more locally … we’re the biggest employer in the locality …
we are the 2nd biggest tourist destination in the WMs; we’re really important
for the local economy, local suppliers, businesses, commercial fairs; tenant
farmers, 50 tenanted properties on the wider estate so we’re a big landlord,
all the small villages; all my volunteers being drawn from the local
community … but on the other side, I expect decision making and budget
signed-off to be delegated down to my level … so that I can be making
decisions close to where it has an impact … the Trust sets the national
strategy … that’s very clear … generating income, engaging visitors,
improving conservation performance, developing our team; clear policies
and procedures, climate change being one of them, energy reduction,
reducing carbon footprint; my expectation is that central and region set a
very clear framework and rule book which we have all signed up to … I then
produce my business plan locally, which reflects that strategy … I have KPIs
… it’s that balanced scorecard … some of it quite contradictory … XXX has
experienced massive growth (364-day opening) but will have to work against
20% energy reduction’ (Interview 9).

One manager recognised that an organisation the size of the National Trust needed to have

‘nationally driven joined-up policies’ but, while he was in broad agreement with the aims of

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Going local and looked forward to developing some of his own ideas, with regard to

catering, retail (visitor shop) and plant sales, he estimated that up to 80 per cent of the

merchandise on offer in these areas was decided by Heelis; and consequently:

‘But the way we’re going at the moment, we do risk some of the
individuality of properties … [and in developing local initiatives] you
have to be really quite bold and get on with it … there’s so many rules and
guidance on everything …’ (Interview 12).

National contracts on food and drink sold in property tea rooms and restaurants came across

as a disincentive to forging local initiatives. He related the following story about a souvenir,

which had a questionable provenance in terms of its sustainability:

‘…this is an item we’re selling in our shop which is made in Germany,

shipped to the Chinese to put together then shipped back again; no-one’s
been able to explain to me why we’re selling that, why it’s appropriate to
have it …’ (Interview 12).

However, the manager had since been able to introduce several local initiatives to encourage

repeat business, one of them being to allow dog-walkers greater access to the estate; or, with

the co-operation of the local authority, running a shop in the local country park, which

helped to promote the Trust’s presence in the area.

The balance between access and conservation as part of sustainable tourism and
implications for responding to climate change

As early as 1960/61, the growth of tourism had come to the attention of senior figures at the

Trust. This extract illustrates their concern at the time over the impacts of increased

numbers on a property’s integrity:

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 ‘It is difficult to combine tranquillity with a disproportionate number of
visitors … Where the Trust once had to cater only for the walker,
countless visitors now arrive in droves by car, bus and motor cycle … an
increasing number also wish to camp in tents and caravans’ (National
Trust, 1961: 5).

The concepts of sustainable development and its derivative sustainable tourism were

discussed in Chapter 2. During the interviews the two concepts were used inter-changeably,

as both share the three pillars (Hall, 2010: 133) of economic, socio-cultural and

environmental sustainability. The National Trust Act 1907 intended the preservation of

natural and built heritage for the benefit of the nation to be promoted, as well as providing

opportunities for recreation: ‘the maintenance and management of lands as open spaces or

places of public resort and buildings for purposes of public recreation resort or instruction’

(Section 4 (2), National Trust, 2009a: 4). As one senior manager remarked:

‘The verb to ‘promote’ goes beyond simply owning and acquiring … [it
means] enjoy historic and natural assets, which then links into
sustainability’ (Interview 2).

Asked whether tourism and conservation were compatible partners, he was:

‘… unequivocally in agreement if done in the right way …[referring to]

sustainable development’.

This part of the interview process therefore, sought to explore if managers considered the

Trust was achieving a proportionate balance between its conservation work and tourism

activities, so that a sustainable approach to heritage tourism was realisable, taking into

account climate change (Gössling et al, 2009). In the volunteer survey, the issue was

addressed through a negatively-worded question where 62 per cent of respondents disagreed

that tourism was harmful to conservation. With regard to climate change, two-thirds agreed

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that conservation work helped to address the impacts of climate change. These responses

from volunteers indicated a relatively positive view of tourism’s potential to contribute

towards conservation of the built and natural environment.

At least three interviewees made a direct reference to areas of potential conflict

between conservation and tourism. There was an implicit recognition that increased visits

would potentially impact on a property’s conservation needs, for example repair and

maintenance work; but also, increased visits, invariably made by car, contributed to the

Trust’s carbon footprint. In this case:

‘I think there’s always the potential for conflict between conservation and
access, and it’s something the Trust has struggled with for many years,
but, yes, intrinsically, the argument is that if you increase access it’s going
to be detrimental to conservation, whether you’re talking about
conservation of the building and chattels or … reducing your carbon
footprint … if you think differently about doing things and act differently
… there are ways of achieving both’ (Interview 6).

And:

‘… [there are] opportunities to tell people about what we’re doing, to try
to tackle climate change; it will make us more sustainable financially; then
we’ll have more money to plough back into the business to tackle climate
change issues, help us become more adapted … so I think there is
potential for conflict, if it’s handled well it shouldn’t be a problem’
(Interview 6).

Another respondent saw some benefit in the Trust’s ‘open 364 days a year’ initiative in

helping to even-out seasonality, also recognising that collectively, properties were in some

way self-regulating with their individual visitor capacities:

‘We are an organisation about people and places; we want people to enjoy
our properties; that income goes towards conservation; it is getting that
balance right; the great thing about the Trust is its differences; some places

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 might be up to capacity, others have headroom; 364 has helped to even out
the season’ (Interview 8).

When it came to visitors using alternative transport to their cars:

‘…it’s not so much telling people that they could use alternatives, more a
case of having all the information to hand when people ask’ (Interview 8).

Another manager took the opportunity to highlight the remote rural location of his property

with its heavy reliance on car-borne transport to reach the site, posing the dilemma that a

healthy visitor income had to be maintained. However with a small local population, only a

limited number of visits could be expected; in this respect, the conurbation market offered

more potential. Thought had to be given to a property’s use, and its appeal and utility for as

yet unreached audiences:

‘… but there’s a lot we can do with the communicating and the messages
with our visitors; having said that we are totally reliant on 99% of our
visitors arriving by car and this is one area we’re struggling with …very
rural location; public transport links very poor …growth in our properties
will rely on people day-tripping probably from south-west conurbation in
Birmingham, because the growth that we need to sustain cannot be
provided alone from a local population of 186,000; there will be some
people that we will just never reach us because it will not fit into their
lifestyle …we are going to struggle and that does bother me; I don’t know
whether it’s fixable’ (Interview 11).

But, thinking about intra- and inter-generational needs:

‘…I think the balance is right; the difference is in how we encourage

people to use our properties; we have to think not just about those
members who might have passed away in 10-20 years but future
generations: what is it they will want to protect about places forever for
everyone?’ (Interview11).

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Throughout the interviews, energy reduction targets set by Heelis frequently came up in

conversation as presenting a dilemma between increasing visitor numbers to fund

conservation work conflicting with making energy savings. Increasingly, properties were

opening ‘364’ (every day of the year except for Christmas Day) but this in turn led to

greater energy consumption for heating houses throughout the winter; the cold winter of

2012/13 winter was a case in point. Furthermore, the 2009 base-line energy targets were set

before properties started to extend their opening hours since 2012 (Interview 12). One

manager summed-up the balancing act thus:

‘… the need to make money balanced against those green policies … it’s
hard work and requires a lot of thought … and it requires your entire team,
including consultancies, particularly building surveyors … [they are]
really critical in helping you reduce energy use and [the property’s] carbon
footprint’ (Interview 9).

Similarly:

‘…we want to grow our visitor business because that is what drives the
income that allows us to do the conservation work, and yet it’s difficult for
us to grow our visitor business without increasing our energy and water
use …’ (Interview 5).

Going local was again mentioned as a strategy that could encourage more frequent local

visits and possibly contribute to reducing the Trust’s carbon footprint, but only if there was

enough interest being generated in and around the local property. As one interviewee put it:

‘Car-based visitors could ultimately … be our undoing’ (Group Interview 1). Extracts from

a property business plan illustrated the dual objectives of increasing visitor was to be

achieved via the Going local strategy:

‘[Objective] To increase visitor numbers and membership of the National

Trust through our local community repeat visiting and valuing our
properties in the same way as our members currently do … [and] we will
have to get out there, into our communities and show them what we have

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 to offer … [and] we will woo visitors through providing great customer
service, improved facilities and activities all year round which will lead to
converting them to members’ (Interview 11, Property Business Plan).

Secondly, the objective:

‘To reduce our impact on the environment we will improve our properties
environmental performance and move towards renewable energy’.

Meeting this objective depended on a number of measures: carrying out carbon audits of

properties; involving the region’s ‘green champions’, who were staff responsible mainly for

supporting the communication and implementation of energy policy at properties and

making a transition to renewable energy; as well as promoting pro-environmental

behavioural change. A property’s targets for 2014-16 are shown below in Table 7.4.

Measure 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16

Forecast Target Target Target

Visitors rating visits as very enjoyable (%) 63 65 70 75

Conservation Performance Index Score (%) 67.27 67.9 68.5 69
Energy reduction (%) 0 4.7 11.7 14.4

Table 7.4 Extract from a Property Business Plan

Chapter summary

This chapter explored the views of a sample of National Trust staff and volunteers taken

from different levels within the charity ranging from an exploratory survey of Council and

Board of Trustee members, to three levels of management and then to a sample of

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volunteers workers. Identifying how much consistency was shown by the different

respondents in their views towards climate change and the charity’s response was an

underlying purpose of the data collection, and will contribute towards an overall evaluation

of the effectiveness of the Trust’s policy on climate change and its practice of sustainable

heritage tourism. The eight themes that directed the qualitative data collection mentioned in

the beginning of this chapter have been condensed into five as a chapter summary.

The importance of climate change for the National Trust and the perception of its climate
change policy; sustainable development

The interviews and volunteer survey indicated general agreement on the importance of

climate change as a wider environmental issue as well as a situation to which the National

Trust had to respond. Some volunteers expressed a more sceptical view about the influence

of human activities in causing accelerated global warming, as well as the Trust’s motives for

involving itself in such issues. There was a view that climate change impacted directly on

the charity’s ability to deliver its core purpose, because of the physical impacts on

conservation work.

Senior policy-makers at the Trust were in broad agreement that theoretically, policy

was part of a broader strategy, and this applied in the case of the charity’s climate change

policy working towards achieving its energy and conservation objectives, which belonged to

the Trust’s periodic strategies (currently Going local). Policy was seen essentially as a

position, providing guidance for implementation. Some respondents from across all levels

were not able to identify a single, discernible climate change policy; but readily associated

climate change with the Trust’s energy policy. Climate change policy was seen to be

integrated throughout many aspects of the charity’s work such as gardens, coastal

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protection, building maintenance, land management and other sectors – in effect, as

subsidiary policies.

How the Trust chose to communicate climate change issues to its audience emerged

from the interviews. There was widespread agreement that tactics such as lecturing visitors

about making changes to their lifestyles would be ineffective, and not appropriate for

engaging audiences. The preferred approach was to communicate through practical

demonstrations, such as showing how climate change affected essential conservation work.

Senior management expected staff throughout the organisation to deliver these messages;

and there was a belief that attitudes and culture would need to change as part of the greater

effort in responding pro-environmentally to climate change. Discussing and/or presenting

these issues to visitors were seen as opportunities to enrich the visitor experience.

Volunteers though, were not entirely enthusiastic about discussing these issues with visitors

on a one-to-one basis; more support was shown for a team-work approach to projects.

Adopting the most effective methods for the Trust to adopt in communicating its concern

about climate change to members, supporters and visitors, emerged as an important

consideration from the field work.

Chapter 6 discussed how the Trust’s climate change policy formed part of the

charity’s wider sustainable development agenda. The interviews revealed differing opinions

with this concept. On the one hand, sustainable development was seen to neatly encapsulate

the charity’s triple-bottom-line performance framework. On the other hand, respondents

from all levels within the organisation expressed some reservations with both the definition

of the concept, and its practical implementation, especially with regard to long and short-

term horizons. The concept was open to different interpretations, but was viewed as a

relevant framework for the charity’s climate change policy.

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Practical measures in response to climate change

Preoccupation with meeting KPI targets on energy reduction was a recurrent theme during

the interviews. The Trust’s energy policy emerged as the driver of mitigation. Although

renewable energy sources were highlighted as part of the strategy, it was stressed that a

steady reduction in energy consumption also formed part of the centralised policy. Most

respondents at some point recalled their experiences in dealing with extreme weather events,

most commonly associated with flood or drought. Extreme weather impacted the fabric of

land and buildings as well as planned events, seen as valuable revenue streams but

increasingly subjected to cancellation, poor attendance, and in some cases disputes over

insurance claims.

Mitigation and adaptation measures were treated overall by managers as sensible,

risk-averse strategies to meet both the charity’s energy targets and maintain conservation

work. As indicated earlier in the chapter, volunteers who provided written responses on their

questionnaire were aware of the various approaches to mitigation and adaptation.

Capitalising on volunteers’ local knowledge offers potential for managing local issues.

External affairs related to climate change

This interview topic largely confirmed Chapter 6’s findings that the Trust continues to

involve itself in public policy advocacy on environmental matters, through being invited to

participate in the government’s consultation process. Some thought had been given as to

how the Board of Trustees should respond to various levels of engagement depending on

what the charity saw as its operating zone (international down to site specific) and any

subsequent impacts. Interviewees confirmed that the Trust increasingly attached importance

to collaborating with like-minded organisations, understood as a process of networking. A

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distinction was drawn between working in partnerships, where structures were created; and

networking, which was seen more as a communication activity undertaken by individuals. A

view was expressed that networking was conducted with great skill by individuals higher up

the Trust’s organisation. From one or two interviews, a sense was gained that perhaps the

Trust should be bolder as a campaigning organisation, even mooting the idea that people

could support the charity (paying a subscription) primarily for its cause, rather than for

access to visitor attractions.

Governance and organisational structure supporting climate change policy

The reform of the Trust’s governance arrangements following the Blakenham Report of

2003 was mostly endorsed by the more senior members of the charity interviewed. The new

12-member Board of Trustees was seen as a swifter, more efficient decision-making body

than the 52-member Council. The Council was viewed as continuing to take important

decisions on behalf of the charity, but that its role had changed to become the guardian of

the spirit of the Trust. However, in consideration of the Council’s role as a shaper of policy,

several respondents believed in practice, this was implemented by the Senior Management

Team.

The organisational review leading up to the introduction of the Going local strategy

in 2010, saw further empowerment of property managers and the introduction of the new

post of General Manager to oversee a group of properties and/or take on more complex

operations. The interviews gave the impression that empowerment combined with the

delegation of centralised targets was seen as a largely effective way to manage properties,

opening up opportunities for property initiatives centred on the surrounding community.

These could include measures that bore some relevance to climate change, both locally and

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further afield. One or two managers though, alluded to some frustration with restrictions

imposed by centralised policies.

The balance of conservation and tourism as part of sustainable heritage tourism

The National Trust Act 1907 gave statutory powers for the promotion and preservation of

natural and built heritage including public access for recreation, leisure and educational

activities. Chapter 6 identified some concern shown by the leaders of the Trust in the 1960s

over tourism encroaching onto conservation priorities. To some extent, this view also

emerged from some interviews. Overall, most interviewees acknowledged that visitor

revenue was essential for funding conservation work, but with some inevitable trade-off

between the financial benefits of increased visitors against the requirement to reduce energy

consumption and protect landscape and buildings. The interviews clearly showed that car-

borne travel remains a dilemma for the Trust, arguably the ‘Achilles heel’ of the Trust’s

carbon footprint and its contribution to sustainable heritage tourism.

Participation in National Trust policy-making

Taken together, the exploratory survey, interviews and volunteer survey have shown three

different responses to how policy-making, not just climate change policy, is perceived at the

charity. At the highest level, policy was mostly seen as a ‘top-down’ process, which is

largely immune from the influences of grass-root views or opinions. At property manager

level, the direction and target culture provided by centralised policies were seen to be

conducive to the business model, but with scope for an individual approach enabled by the

Trust’s belief in the benefits to be found in decentralisation and empowerment. The Trust

views volunteers as an indispensable part of their workforce: in 2014, there were 60,080

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volunteers who worked 4.2 million hours, estimated to equate with a value of £38.2 million

of time given (National Trust, 2015b: 43-46). This study’s survey indicated that only 40 per

cent of volunteers who responded to the survey felt connected with issues communicated by

Heelis, and less than two-thirds saw the National Trust as a leading example of how an

organisation should respond to climate change. Given the number of volunteers who work

for the Trust and their accumulated experience and knowledge, arguably this sector within

the charity offers some potential in contributing to policy-making. One of the interviews

conducted took place at a volunteers’ forum, where ideas were fed into the management of

the property in question. This is re-visited in Chapter 9.

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 CHAPTER 8

VISITORS’ TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR AND ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES

Introduction

This chapter aims to answer the research’s fifth question through an exploration of the travel

behaviour and attitudes towards climate change and associated environmental issues from a

sample of visitors from five National Trust properties in the West Midlands region. It

further considers whether their views can provide any insights for the Trust’s climate

change policy-making. Kim (2012) pointed out that visitor management strategies have

increasingly looked to promoting environmentally responsible behaviour in trying to

manage the balance between tourism and environmental protection. In Chapter 2 it was

underlined that transport was the largest contributor of greenhouse gases from the tourism

industry, and although aviation accounts for most emissions (54 to 75% of tourism

transport), overall the car is the most popular mode of transport, but has received less

attention from tourism researchers (Simpson et al., 2008). In Great Britain, 63 per cent of

day visitors use a car for their journey (Visit England et al., 2013) with passenger cars

overall accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions from domestic and

international transport (DfT, 2008). Chapters 6 and 7 revealed that car-borne transport to

properties remains a dilemma for the National Trust. For these reasons, through a visitor

questionnaire survey, this chapter explores possible motivations and attitudes of visitors in

their choice of transport mode. Additionally, visitors were asked to comment on a range of

environmental issues as part of gauging their pro-environmental attitudes. Chapters 2 and 3

underlined the contribution of pro-environmental behaviour to achieving sustainable tourism

and Chapter 6 identified that the National Trust’s first climate change policy document

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made a specific commitment to engaging its wider audience on climate change issues.

Accordingly, this chapter explores these aspects.

A copy of the visitor survey is at Appendix 4.3 and its design was explained in

Chapter 4. Briefly though, the first part of the questionnaire aimed to capture categorical

data about respondents’ travel patterns and choice of transport mode. Using ordinal data, the

second half of the survey probed reasons for car users to consider, or not consider,

alternative transport to their cars. This was followed by an exploration of attitudes to climate

change and environmental issues, as well as the roles of government and charities such as

the National Trust in tackling climate change. The survey collected data on age, gender and

membership. An open question asked respondents to record their awareness of climate

change measures introduced by the National Trust. The properties surveyed are shown in

Table 8.1. The survey achieved a sample of 847 responses, with an overall response rate of

60% through a combination of face-to-face interviews and mail-back questionnaires. Table

8.1.1 in Appendix 8.1 shows the breakdown of response rates.

County Property Type Sample size (N)

Birmingham/Black Country Back-to-Backs Urban dwelling 227
Warwickshire Charlecote Park Country mansion 220
Worcestershire Clent Hills Open countryside (urban fringe) 238
Staffordshire Moseley Old Hall Mansion (urban fringe) 43
Herefordshire The Weir Rural garden 118
Total sample 847

Table 8.1 National Trust West Midlands properties surveyed for the study

Throughout the chapter, many of the findings are presented as tables and figures with added

commentary. Quantitative data are presented using descriptive statistics (principally bar

charts), with further analysis employing inferential statistical techniques. One-sample T-

tests were conducted to calculate the mean scores and standard deviations of the attitude

statements (Appendix 8.1, Table 8.1.3). A Chi-square test determined any significant

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association between travel behaviour and properties visited (Appendix 8.1, Table 8.1.4). To

establish the degree of variation in the results according to the independent variables of age,

gender and membership, a series of ANOVA tests (Analysis of Variance) were carried out

(Appendix 8.1, Tables 8.1.5 to 8.1.7). Some of these tables are reproduced in the text to

assist clarity.

The term ‘significant’ is used extensively: this refers to the level of confidence

sought from the statistical tests. This chapter adopts a 95 per cent confidence that the results

were not arrived at by chance or coincidence, which is normal practice for social science

research. The tables show a ‘P reading’ expressed as, for example, p<0.05, where the

confidence level is 95 per cent or more. A final comment on quantitative data relates to

generalisation. It was explained in Chapter 4, that although a larger than expected sample

size was obtained, the nature of the sampling process (purposive /convenience) was not

appropriate for making any generalisations claimed for the National Trust. Appendix 8.2 is a

collection of charts and visitors’ comments that summarise the qualitative data from the

three open-ended questions (purpose of visit; climate change measures; post code).

The chapter’s findings are presented over three sections. First, a profile is provided

on visitor responses according to the characteristics of gender, age and membership. Socio-

demographic profiling is commonly used to research environmental policy insights (Anable,

2005; Torgler & García-Valiňas, 2007; Tjernström & Tietenberg, 2008; Zeleny et al., 2000;

McKercher et al., 2011; Kim & Weiler, 2013). Second, visitors’ travel behaviour is explored

from the perspective of different properties (Nilsson & Küller, 2000; Steg et al., 2001;

Klockner & Matthies, 2004; Schultz et al., 2004; Bamberg et al., 2007; Dickinson et al.,

2004; 2010; 2013). The third section explores attitudes to climate change and environmental

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issues (Stern & Dietz, 1994; Dryzek, 1997; Naess, 2003; DEFRA, 2007; 2008b; Thornton et

al., 2011). The chapter ends with a discussion of policy insights and a chapter summary.

Overview of visitor profiles

Visits to properties and choice of transport

References are made to the results presented in Table 8.2 on the following page. Across all

five properties the female 45-64 year-old National Trust member was the most frequent

visitor followed by the male 45-64 year-old member. Overall, three-quarters of all visitors

were aged over 45 years. The least frequent visitor category was the younger 15-29 year-

old, very few of whom were members. Two-thirds of all participants were members of the

National Trust. Moving onto visitors’ postcodes, of the 582 respondents who supplied this

information, nearly three-quarters lived in the Midlands. Moseley Old Hall and the Clent

Hills received the highest proportion of local visitors, arguably because of their close

proximity to the West Midlands conurbation; whereas the highest number of visitors from

outside the Midlands occurred at Charlecote Park, possibly because of nearby Stratford-

upon-Avon, a popular tourist destination. The majority of visitors were visiting the property

of their choice for the first time, the actual visit being the main purpose of the day trip,

having travelled between 5 and 25 miles from their start point. The majority of visitors used

their car for travel (77 per cent) with over 90 per cent of these journeys being shared. Only

14 per cent of journeys were made using public transport and these occurred solely at the

Birmingham Back-to-Backs. When asked, most car users would not consider an alternative

mode of transport for environmental or other reasons. A Chi-square test (Table 8.1.4 in

Appendix 8.1) indicated that there was no significant association between sharing a car

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journey to travel to a particular property; whereas all other characteristics of travel

behaviour (visit patterns, transport choice) were significantly related to individual

properties.

Question 1 MOH TWR CLH CHP B2B Aggregated

How often do you visit this property? N % N % N % N % N % N %
Daily/few days a week 0 0 1 1 17 7 2 1 4 2 24 3
A few times a month 4 10 6 5 42 18 8 4 4 2 64 7
Once a month 2 5 3 2 13 5 3 1 0 0 21 2
A few times a year 3 6 24 21 88 37 32 15 2 1 149 18
Once a year 2 5 4 3 23 10 7 3 4 2 40 5
Once every few years 9 21 8 7 17 7 28 13 21 9 83 10
First visit 23 53 72 61 37 16 140 63 192 84 464 55
N/% 43 100 118 100 237 100 220 100 227 100 845 100
Question 2
Is your visit to this property:
Return trip: main purpose of the visit? 26 74 55 51 192 86 116 55 67 40 456 61
Return trip being part of other plans? 7 20 32 30 29 13 56 27 69 41 193 26
En-route, part of a tour? 2 6 20 19 2 1 38 18 32 19 94 13
N/% 35 100 107 100 223 100 210 100 168 100 743 100
Question 3
How far travelled to get to the property?
Within 5 miles from start point 12 29 24 21 113 48 21 10 29 13 199 24
Approximately 5-25 miles from start 21 50 56 48 97 42 85 39 80 36 339 41
Over 25 miles from start 9 21 36 31 24 10 110 51 114 51 293 35
N/% 42 100 116 100 234 100 216 100 223 100 831 100
Question 4
How did you travel to this property today?
Car 40 93 114 97 216 92 194 88 90 38 654 77
Bicycle 7 3 1 1 8 1
On foot 3 7 1 2 12 5 1 1 9 4 26 3
Bus 20 8 20 2
Coach tour 23 10 8 3 31 4
Motorbike 1 1 -
Rail/foot 80 34 80 9
Rail/bicycle 1 1 1 -
Rail/taxi 11 5 11 1
Rail/bus 14 6 14 2
Taxi 2 1 2 1
Other 2 2
N/% 43 100 117 100 236 100 219 100 235 100 848 100
Question 5
Is today’s car journey:
Just by yourself? 4 10 11 10 14 6 16 9 3 3 48 7
Shared with someone else/group? 36 90 103 90 202 94 171 91 90 97 602 93
N/% 40 100 114 100 216 100 187 100 93 100 650 100
Question 6
Travelled car: consider alternative mode?
Yes 5 12 5 5 30 14 11 6 36 37 87 14
Maybe 4 10 12 10 53 24 37 18 30 31 136 20
No 31 78 98 85 134 62 148 76 31 32 442 66
N/% 40 100 115 100 217 100 196 100 97 100 665 100
Question 11
Male 11 25 57 50 113 48 102 47 82 39 365 45

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 Female 32 75 57 50 120 52 114 53 129 61 452 55
N/% 43 100 114 100 233 100 216 100 211 100 817 100
Age 15-29 0 - 0 44 19 8 3 8 3 60 7
Age 30-44 15 35 8 7 64 27 28 13 24 11 139 17
Age 45-64 20 47 53 46 100 42 106 49 107 48 386 46
Age 65 and over 8 18 54 47 29 12 75 35 85 38 251 30
N/% 43 100 115 100 237 100 217 100 224 100 836 100
National Trust member or volunteer - Yes 36 84 109 92 78 33 185 84 153 67 561 66
National Trust member or volunteer - No 7 16 9 8 160 67 35 16 74 33 285 34
N/% 43 100 118 100 238 100 220 100 227 100 846 100

Legend: MOH Moseley Old Hall; TWR The Weir; CLH Clent Hills; CHP Charlecote Park; B2B Back-to-Backs

Table 8.2 Property visitor survey – categorical data

Environmental attitudes
Using ANOVA tests, several significant differences were found among travel and

environmental attitudes according to gender, age and membership/non-membership of the

Trust, as summarised in Table 8.3. Female visitors for example, showed a stronger

allegiance to climate change issues (Figure 8.1).

Travel attitudes/Environmental attitudes Visitor characteristics < P 0.05

Gender N Age N NT Mem N

Reasons for not (or possibly not) using car: P value P value P value
Savings on travel costs 0.091 0.351 0.487
Reducing my personal carbon footprint 0.002 204 0.035 191 0.009 210
Personal health and fitness 0.910 0.718 0.088
Supporting local economy 0.162 0.001 186 0.589
Social reasons 0.182 0.569 0.024 206
Reasons for continuing to use car:
Long distance/challenging road conditions 0.040 379 0.345 0.106
Health/mobility 0.784 0.101 0.144
Carrying family/passengers/equipment 0.776 0.001 362 0.066
Lack of/limited public transport 0.635 0.953 0.158
Loss of flexibility 0.644 0.002 373 0.675
Environmental issues/role of NT:
Global warming greatest environmental threat 0.003 815 0.111 0.523
Personal moral duty to reduce CO2 0.001 814 0.004 831 0.502
Human contributions CO2 exaggerated 0.400 0.001 827 0.211
Nature has equal rights to humans 0.631 0.013 825 0.650
Radical rethink of UK govt. policy needed to reduce CO2 0.061 0.001 823 0.031 834
Individual/local action is effective for reducing CO2 0.001 809 0.001 826 0.229
NT has an important role to play in reducing CO2 0.001 814 0.871 0.145
Conservation helps address impacts of climate change 0.003 811 0.828 0.477
Tourism harms environment; not help climate change 0.113 0.772 0.575

Table 8.3 Attitudinal differences amongst visitor characteristics (ANOVA)

(Highlighted boxes indicate significance at p<0.005)

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When considering possible reasons for not using alternative transport to the car, males were

less concerned about road conditions or journey length. Females attached greater

importance to the role of the National Trust and individual action in bringing about a

reduction in CO2 emissions. Zelezny et al. (2000) projected that future models of

environmentalism would include gender as a predictor, with females having the potential to

influence policy development and participate in environmental activism. Overall, the survey

found female visitors to demonstrate a stronger pro-environmental approach across a range

of issues, consistent with McKercher et al. (2011).

Reducing my CO2 footprint

Road distance/safety

Global warming threat

Moral duty to reduce CO2

Female
Individual/local action
Male
NT important role

Conservation/impacts

0 1 2 3 4 5
Mean

Figure 8.1 Attitudes to travel/climate change: significant differences male vs. female

Younger visitors aged 30-64 attached more importance than the 65+ group to practical,

instrumental reasons for not considering alternatives to the car, possibly explained by

lifecycle lifestyle requirements. On environmental issues, the under-65s showed more

affinity with a personal moral duty to reduce their carbon footprint (Figure 8.2 ); whereas

the 65+ group were in least agreement that the government needed a radical re-think on

tackling climate change, and that individual/local action is effective for reducing CO2

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emissions (Figures 8.2 - 8.4). 65+ year-olds were also the age group most convinced that

contributions of human activities to climate change had been exaggerated. Figure 8.5 shows

middle-aged and retired visitors, the majority age group, having the strongest agreement on

the proposition that nature should have equal rights to humans.

4.414
4.302 15-29 N=58
Age groups
4.253 30-44 N=139
4.012 45-64 N=384
65+ N=250
3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
Mean

Figure 8.2 Moral duty to reduce personal CO2 emissions (Age)

30-44 N=138
Age
45-64 N=382
15-29 N=58
65+ N=245
3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2
Mean

Figure 8.3 Government needs to re-think on climate change (Age)

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 30-44 N=139
Age
45-64 N=383
15-29 N=58
65+ N=246
3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2
Mean

Figure 8.4 Individual/local action is effective for tackling climate change (Age)

65+ N=245
Age
45-64 N=383
30-44 N=139

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 15-29 N=58

Mean

Figure 8.5 Nature should have equal rights to humans (Age)

Combined with females’ stronger affinity with environmental concerns, the survey’s

findings on gender and age broadly corroborate similar studies such as Kim & Weiler

(2013); although Torgler & García-Valiňas (2007) referred to research that showed younger

people to be more concerned about the environment. The survey’s findings are consistent

with Tjernström & Tietenberg (2008) who found that older people were less likely to be

concerned about climate change. The DfT’s (2011) research into transport choices and

climate change attitudes amongst different segmentation models also reported that younger

car-owners had a tendency to show more concern about climate change than older people.

Furthermore, ‘less affluent older sceptics’ and ‘affluent empty nesters’ were found to be

more sceptical about climate change than ‘educated suburban families’ (DfT, 2011). Studies

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on environmental attitudes determined by socio-demographic factors such as gender and age

continue to reach different conclusions on how different age groups respond to

environmental issues. Fewer differences in the survey’s responses were identified between

members and non-members but two held statistical significance. First, members attached

more importance to reducing their CO2 footprint as a reason for using alternative transport

to the car. Second, non-members were more inclined to agree that the government should

re-think its approach to tackling climate change, indicating that members were less critical.

(Appendix 8.1, Table 8.1.5).

Visitors who were willing to consider alternatives to the car took a more critical

view of the government’s approach to reducing CO2 emissions. They also treated global

warming more seriously; and attached greater importance to individual and local action

having a role to play in reducing CO2 emissions. These visitors thought tourism was more

likely to contribute to climate change (Table 8.4). These findings partly corroborate those of

Grob (1995) and Anable (2005). Having presented an overall visitor profile based on

responses to travel behaviour and attitudes to climate change and the environment, the next

two sections focus on how the results were distributed amongst the five different properties.

YxN Yes/Maybe No
N=223 N=442
Environmental issues/role of NT: P Mean Mean
Global warming is the greatest environmental threat 0.050 3.811 3.617
Personal moral duty to reduce CO2 0.179
Human contributions CO2 have been exaggerated 0.116
Nature has equal rights to humans 0.842
Radical rethink of UK govt. policy needed to reduce CO2 0.010 4.104 3.861
Individual/local action is effective for reducing CO2 0.007 3.901 3.671
NT has an important role to play in reducing CO2 0.427
Conservation helps address impacts of climate change 0.018
Tourism harms environment; not help tackling climate change 0.035 2.793 2.588

Table 8.4 Analysis of variance for environmental attitudes amongst car travellers

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Travel behaviour of visitors at properties

Questions 1-6 targeted visitors on the frequency of their visit to the property; purpose of

visit; distance travelled from starting point to the property; transport mode; and if travelling

by car, would an alternative method of transport be considered? According to Visit England

et al. (2013), 63 per cent of day visitors in Great Britain used their car for travelling (Figure

8.6), whereas this survey identified a higher proportion (77 per cent), probably explained by

the predominance of rural locations visited. A narrow majority of respondents (55 per cent)

made their first visit to the property in question; followed by 18 per cent who visited a few

times a year. The Clent Hills attracted most repeat visits, probably explained by a) free

access to open countryside (except for a £2.50 car park levy); and b) close proximity to

Birmingham and the Black Country. Visitors were asked to describe their visit, for example

return trip/en-route but many misinterpreted the term ‘return trip’, especially at the Back-to-

Backs where nearly half of the respondents missed out this question. Return trip was meant

to be understood as returning to the start point on the same day. Well over half of all visitors

made return trips for the main purpose of

GB Day Visitor mode of transport 2012

8% Own car
9%
Train
8% Walk
9% 63% Bus/coach
Other

Figure 8.6 GB Day visitor mode of transport 2012, adapted from Visit England et.al., 2013)

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re-visiting the property whereas en-route/touring was the least frequent. The Back-to- Backs

was the exception, where the visit was evenly divided between a return trip and as part of

other planned activities, probably explained by other activities undertaken in Birmingham

such as visiting the Christmas Market. Moseley Old Hall and the Clent Hills, being situated

near to the Black Country and Birmingham, received the highest proportion of local visitors.

These two properties recorded the most return trips with the single purpose of visiting the

property; whereas the more rural locations of The Weir and Charlecote Park recorded a

higher number of visitors touring and travelling en-route; as previously mentioned, probably

explained by their close proximity to tourist routes.

Results for the first open question ‘Please state main purpose of visit’ were collated

individually for each property in order to capture any associated distinctive features. In the

case of Moseley Old Hall, the Halloween pumpkin-carving event, coinciding with schools’

October half-term, attracted the most interest for visitors. Visitors to the Back-to-Backs and

Charlecote Park cited tourist activities allied to their visit, for example shopping, concerts

and the theatre. Visiting friends and relatives and other social motives were most evident at

the Clent Hills and the Back-to-Backs, possibly because of being situated near or in large

population centres. Nostalgic motivation was evident with some visitors to the Back-to-

Backs (Nuryanti, 1996; Hannabuss, 1999; Poria et al., 2003; Timothy & Boyd, 2006), where

the respondent had lived in similar surroundings in childhood. The Weir was the only

property not to record any mention of VFR/social reasons. The survey showed that most

visitors to these rural gardens were motivated by the gardens themselves.

Considering all transport modes, the majority of journeys to the properties were

between 5 and 25 miles from their start point. Local journeys of fewer than 5 miles were the

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least frequent distance except in the case of the Clent Hills. At the Back-to-Backs, the

majority of journeys were over 25 miles, and made by rail, also from within the Midlands.

Figures 8.7 and 8.8 (Visit England, 2013) illustrate that these distances for day visits were

broadly in line with national trends for day trips. Analysis of visitors’ postcodes showed the

majority of visitors lived in the Midlands travelling up to 25 miles for their journey.

Members travelled further afield than non-members.

Over three-quarters of visitors used a car to reach their property, broadly in line with

national trends (Figures 8.9 and 8.10). As expected, the highest proportion of

cyclists/walkers visited the Clent Hills as part of their recreation, but often had to use a car

or van to reach the car park because of distance and safety reasons. Despite nearly a third of

visitors to Moseley Old Hall travelling up to five miles only, no one used the local bus

service from Wolverhampton or Cannock. A half-mile walk from the bus stop, without a

pavement probably explained this decision. Public transport links to the more remote

locations of Charlecote Park and The Weir depended on infrequent local bus services from

Stratford and Hereford respectively: approximately a five-mile journey in each case. One

interesting outlier was recorded: two USA tourists travelled to The Weir by canoe on their

journey down the River Wye.

GB Day visitors distance travelled in

2012

17% Up to 5 miles
50% 5 -20 miles
33%
Over 20 miles

Figure 8.7 GB Day visitor distance travelled 2012 (Adapted from Visit England et.al., 2013

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With visitors who travelled by car, 93 per cent shared their journey. The follow-up question,

Q.6, asked car travellers whether they would consider an alternative mode of transport,

before considering reasons for their decision in Q.7 and Q.8. Two-thirds of visitors who

travelled by car said they would not consider an alternative transport mode.

Distance travelled to property: NT

survey N=831
Up to 5 miles
35% 24%
5-25 miles
41%
Over 25 miles

Figure 8.8 NT survey: distance travelled to property

At the Back-to-Backs, close to public transport links, as expected, the proportions were

reversed: two-thirds yes/maybe and one-third no. Visitors were asked to rate each scenario

to indicate their reasons for either considering or not considering alternative transport.

Table 8.5 summarises the results of the mean-scores for all five properties where ‘improving

health and fitness’ and ‘reducing one’s carbon footprint’ emerged as the leading reasons for

considering alternative transport to the car.

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 GB Day visitors' mode of transport 2012

12% Car
8% Train
8% Walk
9% 63% Bus/coach
Other

Figure 8.9 GB Day visitors’ transport to destinations 2012 (Adapted from Visit England et al., 2013)

NT survey mode of transport to property

2%
6% 3%
Car
Rail/combination
12%
Bus/coach

77% Walk
Other

Figure 8.10 Visitors’ mode of transport to property: NT survey

Variable (reason to consider alternative mode to the car) N Mean StDev

C30 Savings on travel costs 213 3.131 1.489
C31 Reducing my personal carbon footprint 210 3.390 1.294
C32 Personal health and fitness e.g. walking/bicycle 209 3.612 1.311
C33 Supporting local economy e.g. local bus service 207 3.126 2.962
C34 Social reasons e.g. meet new friends; contacts 206 2.048 1.232

Table 8.5 Reasons to consider alternative mode of transport to the car (all properties)

(Highest mean scores are highlighted)

A few significant differences were identified across the three properties with larger samples

(Figure 8.11). The results indicate an association between pro-environmental motivation and

the surroundings of the site visited (Schultz et al., 2004), with rural locations scoring higher

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than urban. Since 2009, the Trust has made enjoyment of the outdoors part of its strategy,

leading to the launch of the ‘Getting Outdoors and Closer to Nature’ programme in 2012

(National Trust, 2012b). The Trust wished to promote the idea that a more active lifestyle

could lead to a range of personal benefits, including enhancing the learning process for

children (King’s College London, 2011). Two-thirds of car travellers stated they would not

consider an alternative mode of transport for reasons shown in Table 8.6. The most

important reasons lay with concerns about loss of personal flexibility, challenging journey

distance and road conditions, together with limited availability of public transport networks.

The reasons given largely reflected practical concerns (instrumental reasons) associated

with leisure travel.

4.5

3.5

2.5
Charlecote
Mean
2 Clent Hills

1.5 B2Bs

0.5

0
Reducing CO2 Improving health Social reasons
footprint & fitness

Figure 8.11

Variations in motives for considering alternative transport to the car: 3 largest properties

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 Variable (reason not to consider alternative mode to the car) N Mean StDev
C35 Distance too long/challenging or unsafe road conditions 392 3.801 1.502
C36 Health/mobility considerations 388 1.948 1.438
C37 Carrying family/extra passengers/equipment 385 2.815 1.667
C38 Lack of public transport networks/limited service 386 3.792 1.476
C39 Flexibility e.g. time, other tasks and journeys 396 3.863 1.491

Table 8.6 Reasons not to consider alternative mode of transport to the car (all properties)

Excluding Moseley Hall because of its small sample size, a few differences in motivations

for not considering alternatives to the car were identified (Figure 8.12). The ability to carry

extra passengers and equipment was of most importance for Back-to-Backs visitors but of

least importance for visitors to the Weir despite half of the Weir visitors recording their visit

as part of other planned activities and/or en route to another destination. Public transport

issues, as expected, were of least importance for the Back-to-Backs visitors but more

important for visitors to Charlecote Park. Some of the ad hoc comments on written by

respondents on transport challenges to their journeys are summarised in Table 8.7.

4
B2Bs
3
Mean Clent Hills
2 Charlecote

1 The Weir

0
Pax/equip Public trspt Flexibility

Figure 8.12

Variations in motives for not considering alternative transport to the car

(‘Pax/equip’ = Carrying passengers and equipment)

Property Comments on transportation

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Moseley Old Hall ‘Too far off bus route; too much to carry’.
The Weir ‘Too dangerous to cycle’.
‘No transportation to the Weir’.
‘I am a keen and regular cycle rider; routes to Weir too dangerous’
Clent Hills A member reminisced about the former Midland Red bus service.
Charlecote Park ‘Less frequent bus services from Leamington on a Sunday’.
Back-to-Backs ‘Bus service from home is hourly and does not connect with train where going.
When returning late at night there is a poor bus service, needing a 1.5 mile walk
in the dark. We would have used a taxi if car not available. Used public transport
for convenience, not for "green" reasons. Driving into and parking in Birmingham
and other major cities is not easy and best avoided!’.
‘But only in the unlikely event of there being convenient, cheap, local transport
and not as in this case - a multi-stage, expensive journey that would have meant
we wouldn't have come at all’ [answering ‘Maybe’ on Q.6].

Table 8.7 Samples of visitors’ comments on transport to properties

Attitudes to climate change and associated issues at properties

This section examines the findings from the nine attitude statements, divided into three

clusters of statements. Each cluster is reproduced from the questionnaire.

Attitudes to climate change and nature (C40-C43)

Variable (attitudes to climate change …) (Abbreviated) N Mean St.Dev

C40 Global warming = greatest environmental threat to planet 843 3.716 1.168
C41 We all have a moral duty to reduce our CO2 emissions 843 4.200 1.028
C42 Human contributions to global warming are exaggerated 839 2.793 1.351
C43 Natural environment has equal rights to humankind 837 3.971 1.125

Table 8.8 Attitudes to climate change and nature

The first set of statements in Table 8.8 sought to gauge visitors’ responses to ethical issues

associated with climate change. The notion that the individual has a personal obligation or

moral duty to reduce his/her carbon emissions attracted the strongest agreement out of the

nine statements. DEFRA (2009) also found that 65 per cent of people ranked as 1st or 2nd

most important the proposition that ‘We all have a duty to minimise our impacts on nature

and the planet’. On the proposition that nature should have equal rights to humans

(excluding Moseley Old Hall due to small sample size) it was evident that the more rural the

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property the higher the score received for this statement (Figure 8.13), resonating with

Schultz et al. (2004).

Weir
Property
Clent
Charlecote
3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2
B2B
Mean

Figure 8.13 Nature should have equal rights to humans – by property

Photographs 7 and 8 depict some of the tranquil scenes where the survey was conducted, in

contrast to the restricted access for the Back-to-Backs in Birmingham (Photograph 8). To

what extent ‘human contributions to global warming have been exaggerated’ led to an

overall response on the border of slightly disagree/not sure. Pidgeon & Fischoff (2011) also

noted a shift in public opinion seen in America, Britain and Europe when, since 2006, there

had been a growth in uncertainty on climate change which they attributed to the

politicisation of climate policy.

Photograph 7: Bench on the Clent Hills Photograph 8: Bench at The Weirs Gardens

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 Photograph 9: Birmingham Back-to-Backs Visitor Reception

The roles of institutions and individuals in tackling climate change (C44-C46)

Variable (attitudes to climate change …) (Abbreviated) N Mean St.Dev

C44 A radical rethink of UK govt. policy needed to reduce CO2 834 3.977 1.068
C45 Collectively, individual action will help to reduce CO2 837 3.814 1.148
C46 NT has an important role to play in tackling climate change 843 3.826 1.110

Table 8.9 Roles of institutions and individuals tackling climate change

The second cluster of attitudinal statements in Table 8.9 sought to explore opinions on how

much responsibility institutions such as the government and the National Trust should take

in addressing the challenges presented by climate change. Although just short of ‘slightly

agree’, some of the highest levels of agreement in the questionnaire on climate change

policy were recorded in this cluster. That the present government’s approach to tackling

climate change policy could be improved or changed scored high, although this proposition

was emphatically rejected by a visitor to Charlecote Park who worked for the DECC!

National Trust members were less critical of the government than non-members. Additional

comments are recorded in Table 8.10.

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Property Comments on the government’s approach to tackling climate change
Clent Hills ‘Economic policy yes’.
‘Multi-lateral is the approach needed’.
Charlecote Park ‘Train networks are important; the government is too concerned about “doing
business’.
Back-to-Backs ‘UK has a responsibility, but the rapidly developing countries in SE Asia, India,
Russia and Brazil as well as the USA lag far behind W Europe and have a much
larger impact. Working in isolation is fruitless although well-intentioned’.

Table 8.10 Sample of visitors’ comments on UK government’s climate change policy

Can small-step lifestyle changes make an effective contribution to the global effort in

reducing carbon emissions, an approach supported by the Trust? The survey responses fell

just short of slight agreement, alongside the view that the National Trust had an important

role to play in tackling climate change ‘on all fronts’. Additional comments in Table 8.11

indicated an awareness of the Trust’s current measures in tackling climate change, including

a reference to the current controversy surrounding the costs and benefits associated with

wind turbines (on-shore especially) (BBC, 2013).

Property Comments on the NT’s role in tackling climate change

The Weir ‘NT should set an example’.
‘The NT and Scottish NT should object to the development of wind farms and
turbines as they create more damage to the environment than any other form of
renewable energy’.
Charlecote Park ‘NT’s main role is heritage; NT has an educational role; setting an example’.

Table 8.11 Sample of visitors’ comments on the National Trust’s role in tackling climate change

A few significant differences were identified across properties. Visitors to gardens and the

open countryside seemed to be more critical of the government’s approach to tackling

climate change and attached greater importance to the Trust’s role to play in tackling

climate change (Figures 8.14 and 8.15); as well as showing stronger agreement that tourism

could harm the environment and thus hinder efforts to tackle climate change (Figure 8.16).

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 Clent Hills
Property
The Weir
3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 B2B2
Mean Charlecote

Figure 8.14 Radical change is needed in government’s approach to climate change

The Weir
Property
Clent Hills
3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2 Charlecote
Mean
B2Bs

Figure 8.15 National Trust has an important role in tackling climate change

The Weir
Property
Clent Hills
Charlecote
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Mean B2Bs

Figure 18.16 Tourism harms the environment so therefore contributes to climate change

How conservation and tourism contribute to the impacts of climate change (C47-C48)

Variable (attitudes to climate change …) (Abbreviated) N Mean St.Dev

C47 Conservation helps to address impacts of climate change 840 3.763 1.132
C48 Tourism does not help us tackle climate change 839 2.661 1.159

Table 8.12 Conservation and tourism: impacts on climate change

The third cluster of statements in Table 8.12 were designed to gain a perception of visitors’

associations of a), conservation resembling adaptation to climate change; and b), tourism’s

responsibility to mitigate its carbon emissions. With the benefit of hindsight, the terms

‘conservation’ and ‘natural and built heritage’ were not always well-understood, and had to

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be explained during one-to-one interviews. Referring to the literature in Chapter 2, English

Heritage’s study into climate change and the historic environment was considered, which

concluded there was a need to raise awareness and educate the public on climate change

impacting on the historic environment (Cassar, 2005). The overall mean score of 3.763 for

this response was just short of slight agreement. The final statement, the notion that tourism

harms the environment and thus exacerbates the impacts of climate change, provoked a few

comments from respondents in their interpretation of tourism, perhaps explaining why this

statement produced the least overall agreement.

Awareness of climate change measures undertaken by the National Trust

Figure 8.17 shows that half of all respondents showed some awareness of a balance of

mitigation and adaptation measures taken by the National Trust, principally: renewable

energy projects; a number of activities under the umbrella term ‘land management’, for

example countryside management, general conservation, repairing paths/fences, and tree-

planting; and water conservation. Fewer references were made to coastal protection,

possibly because of the inland location of the survey. References to local food suggested

awareness of the Trust’s campaign to promote locally sourced produce sold at its properties.

A few visitors were familiar with the carbon footprint concept of ‘food miles’. Initiatives to

encourage using public transport or promoting cycling and walking though, accounted for

less than 10 per cent of responses. At the Clent Hills, non-members showed more awareness

of measures associated with land management, conservation and the coast; whereas

members identified more readily with public transport initiatives, sourcing local food, solar

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panels and renewable energy. The division between awareness of adaptation (non-members)

and mitigation measures (members) was probably coincidental.

Further comments emerging from properties

More familiarity was shown with renewable energy and local food initiatives at The Weir

and at the Back-to-Backs, albeit contrasting properties. Recycling and renewable energy

were mentioned most frequently by visitors to Moseley Old Hall, whereas at Charlecote

Park and the Clent Hills, woodland management, tree-planting and land management

measures attracted the most comment. The rural locations of Charlecote Park and Clent

might explain these comments. The majority of comments related to the installation of

Volunteering
3
3 Allotments
3 Bees/insects
3 Organic gdn
5
Peat-free
7
8 Education
Measures
10 Cycle/walk
13 Coast
19
Public trpt
33
37 Water cons
59 Local food
73 Recycling
Land mgt.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Renewable
No. Mentions N=279

Figure 8.17 Awareness of climate change measures (all properties)

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low-energy light bulbs. In 2007/08 the Trust began replacing conventional lighting with

low-energy bulbs at every property at a cost estimated to be £431,000, but leading to

projected annual savings of around 2,223 tonnes of CO2 per year (National Trust, 2008e).

Some comparisons of the survey’s results with national findings

There are many surveys carried out on people’s attitude to the environment but two surveys

here show broadly similar findings to the visitor survey. DEFRA (2007) conducted a survey

of public attitudes and behaviours towards the environment covering a wide range of issues,

the first two of which are relevant for this research. When confronted with statements such

as ‘The environment is a low priority for me compared with a lot of other things in my life’

or ‘The effects of climate change are too far in the future to really worry me’, most

respondents to DEFRA’s survey showed a positive attitude towards the environment. Over

half interviewed believed ‘using a more fuel efficient car’ and ‘using the car less’ would

make a major impact on the UK’s reduction of its carbon emissions; similarly, over half

stated ‘I would like to reduce my car use but there are no practical alternatives’. Strong

agreement was shown with the statement ‘I do worry about the changes to the countryside in

the UK and the loss of native plants and animals’. Half of those interviewed disagreed with

the statement ‘I don’t believe my behaviour and everyday lifestyle contribute to climate

change’. These few examples suggest that DEFRA found people to be more inclined than

not, towards pro-environmental views. This is broadly consistent with the survey conducted

for this research where the majority of mean scores for level of agreement on a range of

environmental propositions were close to 4 (slightly agree), with ‘We all have a personal

moral duty to reduce our carbon emissions to help reduce global warming’ attracting the

highest score of 4.200 (Appendix 8.1, Table 8.1.3).

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 MORI (2008) found that 77 per cent of people were concerned about climate

change; but interestingly, 60 per cent thought that ‘Scientific experts still question if humans

are contributing to climate change; whereas in the National Trust visitor survey most

respondents were more inclined to disagree with the statement: ‘Human contributions to

causing global warming (e.g. industrialisation) have been exaggerated’. The MORI poll also

showed that over half interviewed were not confident that the government would deal with

climate change in the next few years (68 per cent said they wanted to ‘see the government

do more on climate change). This was consistent with the visitor survey’s second strongest

level of agreement (3.977) with the statement ‘A radical rethink of government policy is

needed if the UK is to reduce its carbon emissions significantly’. The survey’s findings on

environmental attitudes are broadly consistent with two national surveys on similar issues.

Policy insights

Research has shown that people’s attitudes towards their travel options and the environment

can to some extent influence their pro-environmental behaviour, which is seen as an

important contributor to achieving sustainable tourism. This section considers policy

insights arising firstly from issues related to travel (public transport issues; carbon dioxide

emissions from cars; fuel efficiency of cars; the Trust’s transport strategy and travel

behaviour; and carbon off-setting). Secondly, environmental attitudes revealed by visitors to

the charity’s properties have some implications for policy.

Public transport issues

As expected, the visitor survey confirmed a reliance on car travel to reach properties that

was both rural and close to the West Midlands conurbation. Only with a city location

(Birmingham Back-to-Backs) did car dependency diminish. The majority of visitors showed

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some reluctance to consider alternatives to the car, for practical reasons of convenience,

flexibility, unsuitable road conditions for cycling, and lack of public transport alternatives.

Those who did consider alternatives to the car cited pro-social motives for reducing their

carbon footprint and improving their health and fitness as the most important reasons.

Furthermore, the majority of journeys were over 5 miles, placing even greater reliance on

public transport for alternatives. The few cyclists interviewed were enthusiasts, who in some

cases felt it safer and more practical to transport their bicycles in a car to the site (the Clent

Hills for example). The natural conclusion here is that in the absence of realistic

alternatives, visitors to National Trust properties will continue to use their car – either for

specific day trips, or as part of other planned activities. This trend would not seem to align

itself to a sustainable tourism approach.

Chapter 6 related how the Trust’s transport policies had dated back to the early

1990s, when the charity voiced its concern over the then Conservative government’s road

expansion plans. A series of transport initiatives followed, articulated ten years later in the

Trust’s Policy from practice: Visitor Travel (National Trust, 2005e), in which the Trust

stated its aim to bring about a culture change in travel to properties. Despite various

incentives to use public transport, providing information on greener options; and

encouraging cycling using the Sustrans network, car-borne transport to properties remains a

dilemma for the Trust, underlined in Chapter 7. The standard response of the Trust has been

to state that it will continue to lobby the government on improved public transport for rural

areas; and that it provides visitors with information sites on alternatives to car travel.

‘Visitor travel planning’, the Trust maintained in 2005, should receive equal attention to

some of the government’s proposals aimed at business travel and commuting. The Trust was

also keen to see rail leisure travel networks extended for weekends.

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 These findings are consistent with Dickinson & Dickinson (2006) on some of the

practical problems encountered by tourism transport initiatives. In their research on social

representations of local transport, Dickinson & Dickinson (2006) concluded that users of

alternative transport were often regarded as ‘other people’; and that in some way, they had a

different persona or identity to car users. Their research also detected a prevailing

perception that the government should bear most of the responsibility to solve transport

problems. More progress could be made on developing a network of alternatives to the car,

Dickinson & Dickinson continued, if planners and policy-makers gave more attention to the

needs of local residents and visitors at tourist destinations.

Estimating carbon dioxide emissions for car travel to sites

The government’s present reference point for an analysis of the UK ‘carbon pathways’ is

the DfT’s report of 2008 (DfT, 2008). In the UK, domestic transport accounts for 24 per

cent of

total domestic CO2 emissions, with passenger cars being responsible for just over half of the

UK’s domestic transport emissions (approximately 12 per cent of total domestic emissions,

therefore). Visitors who use their cars for days out, holidays and other leisure activities

account for 12 per cent of journeys, which could be equated to approximately 1.5 per cent of

total domestic emissions. Visit England et al. (2013) estimated that in 2012, the following

accounted for about one-fifth of all day-out leisure activities: long walk; short stroll;

sightseeing on foot; visiting a garden; sightseeing by car; or visiting an historic house. These

activities accounted for approximately one-fifth of 1.5 per cent of total domestic CO2

emissions: or approximately 0.3 per cent.

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 According to Visit England et al. (2013), those day-out leisure activities totalled to

315 million visits (Table 8.13), closely resembling the types of visits made to National Trust

sites. For the year 2012/13, the National Trust reported 19.2 million visits to its pay-for-

entry properties out of an estimated 239 million visits to all of its sites (National Trust

2013d). Thus the National Trust could account for in the region of 75 per cent of such visits

made in Britain, in other words day trips to historic buildings, the countryside and coast.

With car journeys for these activities representing in the region of 0.3 per cent of the UK’s

domestic CO2 emissions, a crude estimate for the Trust’s contribution would be 0.3 x 0.75,

which gives a CO2 footprint for car visits to the charity’s sites of approximately 0.22 per

cent of total domestic emissions or just under 1 per cent of domestic transport emissions,

equivalent to about 1million tonnes of carbon dioxide. In contrast, the Trust estimated that

converting oil boilers to biomass fuel would reduce its carbon emissions by 2,586 tonnes of

CO2 per annum (National Trust, 2013c). Notwithstanding this rough estimate (1 million

tonnes of CO2), car journeys to Trust properties clearly account for a large proportion of the

charity’s carbon footprint and present an ongoing policy challenge in achieving a stated

intent in 2005 to bring about a culture change in travel behaviour. Equally, despite its

challenge, reducing car travel to properties presents the Trust with an opportunity to show

leadership in this area.

GB Day Visitor activities - 2012

Type of day visitor activity: Millions of
visits
Short walk 81
Long walk/hike 94
Outdoor heritage 97
Visiting castle/historic 20
property
Visiting historic house 23
Total visits (million) 315

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 Table 8.13 GB Day visitor activities for 2012, resembling NT visits (Adapted from Visit
England et al., 2013)

Fuel efficiency of cars

The DfT (2013) reported an increasing number of motorists using cars capable of greater

fuel efficiency, with a growth in the number of smaller-engine cars also subject to lower

rates of Vehicle Excise Duty. Over the period 1995/97 to 2012, the number of car/van

journeys undertaken fell by 6 per cent with passenger car trips also reducing by 11 per cent.

There was a slight increase of 2 per cent in the use of public transport but mainly in London.

Car occupancy was higher for holiday/day trips with two occupants per vehicle, than for

commuting/business. The government’s The Carbon Plan (HM Government, 2011) set out

the UK’s strategy for making a transition to a low carbon economy while maintaining

energy security, with the aim of minimising costs to consumers. According to the report,

transport emissions in the UK in 2011 were approximately the same as in 1990, with a

growth leading up to 2007 explained by an expanding economy and increased transport

demand; then followed by a decline resulting from improvements in new cars’ efficiency

and an increased uptake of bio-fuels. The global financial crisis in 2007/08 also partly

accounted for this decline in transport emissions. The DfT report continued by saying that

these trends in fuel efficiency of new cars, bio-fuels and low-emission technologies such as

plug-in hybrid technologies, would contribute to a projected fall in average emissions from

new cars by approximately one-third by 2020; with subsequent environmental benefits such

as improved local air quality and reduced traffic noise.

These initiatives, despite falling short of the expectations of environmental

NGOs/charities such as the Green Alliance, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE),

Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), WWF and Friends of the Earth, nevertheless have

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made a contribution towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from car travel and, it is

suggested, are moving in the right direction. The CBT for example (CBT, 2011), have

campaigned vigorously for improving public transport links through Local Sustainable

Transport Funds (CBT, 2014) and earlier, proposed a Carbon Reduction Fund to strengthen

the DfT’s transport policy in cutting emissions (CBT et al., 2009). The Green Alliance was

generally critical of senior UK politicians’ commitment to the country’s environmental

policies (Green Alliance, 2013b); although on this occasion, the National Trust did not

appear as a co-author. Despite the seemingly intractable environmental issue of car travel

for the National Trust, it might be that a ‘technical fix’ (Houghton, 2004) moderates the

situation in the long term.

The Trust’s transport strategy and travel behaviour

As discussed in Chapter 6, the Trust’s energy policy prioritises a reduction in energy

consumption complemented by the phasing-in of renewable energy sources. The reporting

of environmental performance in annual reports has so far centred on the energy and

conservation performance of its properties. Transport issues occupy the Trust’s concerns

over certain planned sections of the planned HS2 railway impacting on its properties and

nearby communities. In contrast for example, the CBT’s response to HS2 was more critical

of the DfT’s projected reduction in carbon emissions: ‘just a 1% drop from motorway

traffic’ (CBT, 2011).

The survey for this research showed that improving health and fitness and reducing

one’s CO2 footprint were likely to be the strongest motivators for visitors to consider

greener transport alternatives to the car. Bamberg et al. (2007) also found that pro-

environmental behaviour could be motivated by self-interest, such as improving fitness, as

well as pro-social motives and concern for species or whole eco-systems. Bamberg & Möser

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(2007) reached a similar conclusion. Furthermore, a ‘supportive public opinion climate’ was

seen to help the effectiveness of measures targeting individual behavioural change

(Bamberg et al., 2007). Grob’s (1995) earlier study on ‘green drivers’ versus ‘traditional

driver’ found that open-mindedness and recognition of environmental problems were the

most important characteristics of green drivers. Anable’s (2005) study of 666 visitors to

National Trust properties in the north-west of England pointed to the charity’s shortcomings

in a deeper understanding of the characteristics of its car-borne visitors. Her conclusions

suggested environmental psychology and environmental ethics have a role to play in

explaining visitors’ attitudes and motives towards transport choice.

Being one of the few studies in the tourism-transport literature carried out on the

Trust, Anable’s research also bore some similarities with the present study. Her research

aimed to identify the characteristics of different groups of National Trust visitors with

varying motivations to use alternatives to the car, thus leading to effective solutions for

different situations. Starting with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), Anable

decided that additional factors were needed to give deeper insight into travel behaviour,

namely: one’s prevailing moral norm; environmental attitudes, worldview and knowledge;

efficacy; identity (behavioural norm); and habit. Without discussing the full article,

Anable’s research usefully identified six visitor segments, each with a breakdown of

characteristics and potential intervention policy options to influence a modal switch.

Lumsdon et al. (2006) also reached a similar conclusion from their study of modal shift with

day visitors using the Greater Manchester Area’s Wayfarer ticket, which designed to

encourage access to the countryside using public transport.

One of Dickinson et al.’s (2010: 488) conclusions from their research into the

concept of ‘slow travel’, as an alternative to air and car travel in Europe, was that there was

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a perceived need for ‘clear scientific messages to raise public awareness. People are

concerned, but uncertain, and there is currently much scope for prevarication’. Guiver’s

(2007) discourse analysis on perceptions of using buses and cars partly corroborated the

survey’s findings that visitors preferred to continue using their cars for reasons of flexibility,

the facility to travel longer distances, and with public transport viewed as offering limited

alternatives. However, in Guiver’s study, car travel was also associated with problems of

congestion and carbon emissions, although, interestingly, congestion was seen as an

impediment to the journey, not the result of the journey. These, and other studies, pointed to

a wide literature base which informed the survey.

Carbon off-setting

Voluntary carbon off-setting (VCO) is a further aspect associated with travel behaviour.

Mair (2011: 216) defined VCO as ‘… the purchase of carbon credits and allowances over

and above mandatory requirements set out by the Kyoto Protocol’. Tourism/VCO research

(Becken, 2004; 2007; Gossling et al., 2007; Mair, 2011), has been directed at off-setting air

travellers’ journeys, probably explained by this sector’s large contribution to greenhouse

gases: UNWTO-UNEP-WMO (2007) estimated that aviation accounted for 40 per cent of

global domestic and international tourism GHG emissions and 2 per cent of global

emissions. Few studies on VCO have investigated leisure road transport. It should also be

noted that a strand of literature focused on the uncertainties and inconsistencies of

methodologies of a wide range of on-line carbon calculators giving inconsistent results, such

as Padgett et al. (2008) and Filimonau (2011). Gössling et al. (2007: 241) went further,

when they claimed: ‘… it is unclear whether voluntary carbon offsets could make a

significant contribution to making tourism more sustainable’. They projected that an

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increase by at least a factor of 400 was needed to achieve a 10 per cent reduction in aviation

emissions.

Despite these uncertainties there has been a proliferation of on-line carbon

calculators (Filimonau, 2011) and ‘carbon footprint’ has become a ubiquitous term (Fry,

2008). Car-borne travel to National Trust properties is almost certain to remain the

dominant transport choice for visitors. As the survey indicated, practical, instrumental

reasons deter car users from considering alternative transport modes; and most research

seems to suggest that it would be challenging to alter these behavioural traits.

Acknowledging some uncertainties with methodologies and published results, carbon

offsetting nevertheless might be an option worth exploring by the National Trust.

Filimonau’s (2011) study of fifty on-line calculators indicated that a few were certainly

worth considering Carbon NZero from New Zealand and Cool Climate from the USA). Two

internet sites were visited for this study: first, Transport Direct Information (2014), which is

also cited in the Trust’s Handbook for exploring alternative transport to the car; and

secondly, Climate Care (2014), which includes a useful calculation of the cost of the offset

(£0.31 for a 100-mile journey is an example). Climate Care’s proceeds are channelled to an

‘energy efficiencies and renewable portfolio’, which funds emissions reduction across the

developing world. With an ageing population (ONS, 2011), day visitors travelling further by

car for journeys between 11 and 100 miles, the distance accounting for the highest

proportion of CO2 emissions, and with an increase in visits to rural locations (Visit England

et al., 2013), it is suggested that the National Trust can expect to receive more car-borne

visitors in the coming years. Carbon-offsetting might have a role in contributing to the

culture change in travel behaviour desired by the charity, even if only to alleviate the

environmental conscience of some visitors. This might reinforce the concept of

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‘environmental philanthropy’ (Greenspan et al., 2012), based on people giving time and

money through environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in support of

environmental issues.

Environmental attitudes
For the survey, the five National Trust properties were selected to represent different types

of estates across the West Midlands region. Some differences in respondents’ answers were

noted, falling into two locations: firstly, The Weir and Clent Hills, exemplifying gardens

and open countryside; and secondly, Moseley Old Hall, the Back-to-Backs and Charlecote

Park representing buildings of varying design and location. In summary, visitors to gardens

and open countryside displayed a stronger biospheric, pro-environmental approach to a

range of environmental propositions; they attached more importance to the responsibility of

the Trust and similar organisations in responding to climate change; they took a more

critical view on the government’s approach to reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions; and they

conveyed a sense that, despite its diverse character, on balance tourism was seen as

potentially damaging to climate change.

Bamberg & Möser (2007) saw pro-environmental behaviour as a combination of

self-interest and a concern for other people, the next generation, or whole eco-systems. As

they explained, researchers who viewed pro-environmental as pro-socially motivated (more

altruistic) usually referred to Schwartz’s (1977) Norm Activation Model; whereas self-

interest attracted rational choice models such as Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned

Behaviour. Stern (2000) developed a theory that linked three aspects of behaviour: value

theory, norm-activation theory, and the so-called New Environmental Paradigm (Dunlap et

al., 2000). Schultz et al. (2004) argued that the type of concern individuals developed over

environmental issues was connected with the extent to which the person believed s/he felt

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part of nature, reflecting a connectedness for which philosophers such as Leopold (2003)

have argued. It was mentioned at the start of the chapter that socio-demographic profiling

was commonly used for research into environmental policy insights. Chapter 3 referred to

Corner & Randall’s (2011) observation that social marketing strategies were popular

amongst both governmental and non-governmental organisations in seeking to influence

pro-environmental behaviour and engage the public on climate change (for example

DEFRA, 2008b); and that targeting specific social groups may be more effective than

targeting individuals. The survey revealed that when compared with other segments, female

under-45 year-olds demonstrated the strongest inclinations towards pro-environmental

behaviour and a sense of personal moral responsibility towards climate change. More than

other age groups, the 30-64 year-olds believed the government could do more to tackle

climate change, and attached the most importance to individual and collective (community)

action. Visitors over the age of 44 showed most affinity with the idea of nature having equal

rights to humankind. These findings show some consistency with other research in

identifying visitor segments through which environmental messages may be promoted.

Chapter summary

The chapter’s purpose was to discuss the empirical findings of data collected from a

questionnaire survey across five National Trust properties in the West Midlands. The survey

aimed to capture visitors’ characteristics (age, gender, and membership/or not); their travel

behaviour; attitude towards alternative transport to the car if applicable; and their views on a

range of issues associated with climate change, the environment, and the responsibilities of

the National Trust and the government in tackling climate change. The results of the survey

have been discussed in detail making reference where appropriate to the literature on the

motivation for pro-environmental behaviour.

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 The final part of the chapter offered some policy insights for the National Trust

derived from the survey’s findings. First, the survey pointed to a number of aspects related

to travel behaviour. A long-standing issue with public transport links to rural areas was

evident, a policy area where the Trust, realistically, can only hope to continue to lobby

government for improved funding and infrastructure. Although in the future, improvements

and innovation in car design and fuels will help to reduce vehicular carbon emissions, it is

certain that the Trust will continue to experience car dependency with its visitors: possibly

more so, given an ageing population and health issues associated with mobility and fitness.

The survey showed that most visitors who use their car, despite passenger sharing, are

reluctant to consider alternative transport for what are, realistically, practical reasons and

beyond their control. Initiatives such as voluntary carbon off-setting, already familiar to

some air passengers and the tourism industry, might contribute to the Trust’s quest for

bringing about a culture change in travel behaviour. Even a rough estimate of the quantity of

carbon emissions produced by car-borne visitors to National Trust sites over a year has

shown how much potential there is to reduce the charity’s carbon footprint. The second area

for policy insights is environmental attitudes. Consistent with other research, this survey

showed there to be a link between people’s attitude towards the natural environment and

their immediate surroundings: a connectedness with nature. This could have implications for

the way the National Trust chooses to communicate environmental messages to its

members, visitors, supporters, and as yet unreached audiences. The charity’s current

promotion of the outdoors could serve to promote an awareness of nature and humankind’s

responsibilities to the planet. Consistent with other research, this study revealed particular

visitor segments that may hold potential for being targeted and/or reinforcing climate

change messages that may contribute to a cultural change in travel behaviour.

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 CHAPTER 9

CONCLUSION

Introduction

The conclusion is structured into four sections. First, the research questions, findings and

emerging issues related to climate change policy are summarised in order to review the

project’s purpose and outcomes. Although each chapter has been summarised throughout

the thesis, and notwithstanding some overlap in places, this first section provides a

continuous account of the study’s outcomes. Second, the project’s relationship with the

existing literature is reviewed, leading to a consideration of its place in sustainable heritage

tourism research. Following this, the methodology is evaluated for its achievements and

limitations. The fourth and final part of the chapter considers policy implications for the

National Trust and opportunities for further research in the topic area. Finally, a concluding

statement will review the outcome of the overall aim of the thesis and its research questions.

Summary of research questions, findings and emerging issues

The study set out to explore the contribution of climate change policy and practice to

sustainable heritage tourism, focusing on the National Trust for England, Wales and

Northern Ireland. From the mid-20th century, climate change science became increasingly

accepted although, until the 1970s, overshadowed at times by meteorology. By the late

1980s, the politicisation of climate change was evident, leading to the creation of

international organisations such as the IPCC. Parallel developments took place with the

emergence of the sustainable development concept since the early 1970s at the onset of the

‘modern environmental era’ and the creation of UNEP. These events led to a growing multi-

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disciplinary canon of literature that addressed the many facets of climate change. To name a

few: continued publications in the natural sciences; the uncertainties surrounding the

science; policy-making at international and national levels; behavioural aspects; risk

management; ethical questions; and the economics of climate change.

By the mid-1980s, tourism literature started to address climate change,

predominantly associated with impact studies: the impact of climate change on tourism, but

soon, research developed into tourism’s impact on the environment. This two-way approach

framed many studies during the 1990s. Latterly, tourism research has explored areas such as

the industry’s energy consumption as well as tourists’ attitudes to transport, principally

aviation, as the main contributor of GHGs in the transport sector. In the mainstream tourism

literature, heritage tourism was identified as a sector that had so far paid little attention to

sustainable tourism and climate change research. In contrast, and in parallel, climate change

was a well-discussed concept in the sustainable tourism literature although its relevance has

been questioned by some, notably Weaver (2011). Against this background, the literature on

climate change, heritage tourism, and sustainable tourism was reviewed. The selection of

the National Trust as a case was discussed in Chapter 1; but briefly, little attention had been

paid to tourism and conservation studies related to the voluntary or third sector, thus

reinforcing the choice of the National Trust as a worthy case study. The literature review

developed further multi-disciplinary avenues and these eventually crystallised into the

study’s interpretive framework. There were six research questions organised into two

principal lines of inquiry: the development of a climate change policy at the Trust; and how

it is perceived by a cross-section of staff and visitors.

1) Using predominantly secondary sources, the project examined how a climate

change policy evolved within the National Trust, looking at how the charity responded to

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developments in macro environmental and climate change policy and its subsequent

involvement in both macro and meso policy zones. The study also sought to examine how

and why the charity developed its climate change policy in response to these external

influences, and identify its form and function. The first line of inquiry continued by briefly

reviewing the charity’s first hundred years, but, of more relevance, developments over the

past twenty years that have witnessed a gradual culture change towards a more open,

populist, professional and technocratic organisation; although some commentators continue

to associate the charity with its patrician roots. A review of the internal re-organisations,

professional development of its management, and reform of governance, showed that the

Trust’s actions closely followed contemporary leadership and management practice. The

Trust viewed these changes as an upheaval for its several thousand staff. Further moves

towards decentralisation and empowerment through the Going local strategy were seen to

be largely supportive in conjunction with centralised targets, although the reporting of

environmental performance has not yet reached the level of depth and detail that is

customary in reporting and assessing financial performance. In the last three years the

charity’s climate change policy has gradually become part of its energy policy. The Trust,

however, is sometimes seen as a controversial organisation when it comes to climate

change, such as when it appears to take a protectionist stance in the siting of off-shore but

particularly on-shore wind farms (BBC, 2014b). This may have implications for some

aspects of climate change policy, as discussed in the next section. Although the first line of

inquiry set out to examine climate change policy, associated tourism issues emerged from

the research such as the authenticity of heritage being compromised by commodification.

2) The second line of inquiry explored staff and visitor perceptions of climate

change and associated environmental issues and charity’s responsibilities in tackling climate

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change. This was planned as a natural succession to secondary source findings. The main

aim of the staff interviews and the volunteer survey was to explore views on these issues

and the management of climate change throughout different levels within the charity.

Findings indicated some differences in opinion. At the operational level for example, a few

managers did not readily identify with a separate, visible climate change policy, but readily

associated any such policy as being part of the charity’s performance-driven energy policy.

At property level, consistent with the ethos of decentralisation and empowerment introduced

as central policy, these arrangements were seen largely by staff as conducive to managing

climate change at the local level. In most cases, the imposition of centralised targets was

seen as supportive for localised management. Criticisms that some aspects of sustainable

development were nebulous were echoed at all levels of staff interviewed; most agreed

though with the concept’s principles and its relevance to the Trust’s core purpose.

Interviews conducted with senior staff reinforced the notion of climate change policy

as a strategic necessity if the charity is to protect its assets and to bring the issue further into

the public policy arena by working in partnership with other ENGOs and charities, and

communicating to the public through example, rather than campaigning on the science and

impacts of climate change. This approach was consistent with the charity’s original

statement of intent drafted in 1998. At the operational level, managing the business and

conservation work of individual properties during extreme weather conditions became a

reality in terms of financial costs and the impacts on the physical fabric of the site, and the

subsequent need for intensified conservation work. Two dilemmas became apparent: first,

the conflict of trying to meet energy reduction targets against the operational needs of

catering for increased numbers of visitors; and second, the long-standing problem of

reliance on car-borne transport to properties, which could cause traffic management

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problems in addition to environmental impacts. Despite the challenges of a) in some

instances, attracting visitors to more remote, rural locations; and b) managing increased

visitor numbers, at the operational level, managers agreed that increased tourism was

necessary for funding important conservation work, which in turn led to opportunities to

communicate the importance of adaptation and mitigation work. Some interviewees

supported the idea of the Trust becoming more of a campaigning organisation on

environmental issues, perhaps reminiscent of the charity’s founding era. At a more senior

level however, the importance of managing the charity’s assets and its reputation received

priority. A few volunteers were quite outspoken in their views of climate change and the

Trust, suggesting that the issue was exaggerated or that it was not a priority for the charity;

or that there was no climate change policy. However, the research found most volunteers to

be moderately concerned about climate change and supportive of the Trust’s role, while also

believing the government should increase its efforts in tackling the issue: broadly in line

with the results from the visitor survey. Volunteers supported the idea of a team approach

for communicating environmental issues, but were not very enthusiastic about the idea of

discussing them with visitors on an individual basis.

Insight to visitors’ views on climate change and associated issues was considered an

important part of this research. In 2014, the Trust’s membership stood at just under 4

million (much larger than all the UK political parties’ membership combined, as the media

frequently reports) and aims to reach 5 million by 2020. In 2012/13, the Trust estimated that

239 million visits were made to its sites. The charity’s original statement of intent on

climate change made clear its commitment to communicating to the public what it saw as a

serious environmental threat to its assets as well as wider society. This was recently

reiterated by the most recently appointed Director-General, Helen Ghosh. The results of the

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visitor survey were reported at length in the previous chapter; however, a few points are

worth re-stating. Car-borne travel, mostly sharing journeys, remains the preferred mode for

the majority of visitors, principally for practical reasons; and most visitors stated they would

not consider using an alternative, greener form of transport. Most visitors to properties

showed moderate concern for the environment and supported the Trust’s role in tackling

climate change. Women aged 30-44 appeared to be the most pro-environmental visitor

category. The majority of visitors to properties were people aged 45 years and above.

Overall, visitors’ awareness of climate change measures that were undertaken by the Trust

covered the spectrum of adaptation and mitigation initiatives. On a range of climate change

and associated environmental issues, there were few differences shown between members

and non-members, except that members attached more importance to reducing their carbon

footprint as a reason for not using the car; and non-members were more critical of the

government’s approach to dealing with climate change. Overall, the survey found visitors to

be conservatively pro-environmental in their approach to climate change, broadly consistent

with selected national surveys on environmental attitudes. Visitors generally appreciated the

role of conservation in adapting to climate change. Most visitors felt that they had a

personal moral duty to reduce their carbon emissions, and that the government should be

taking further action in addressing climate change.

The project’s sixth research question sought to consider to what extent climate

change policy contributes to sustainable heritage tourism through the case of the National

Trust. This is considered at the end of the chapter, in conjunction with a review of the

study’s overall aim and outcomes; in the meantime, the research has highlighted two main

issues related to climate change and sustainable heritage tourism.

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Issue 1

The National Trust’s 2005 Statement of Intent declared: ‘The Trust will be proactive in

raising awareness of climate change and in seeking to influence people’s behaviour,

internally and externally, individually and corporately’. The research has shown that when it

comes to going public on certain issues, the Trust’s usual default position is to promote its

cause where it sees a direct threat to its assets and core purpose, as has been the case over

the past two years in its response to the government’s proposed National Planning Policy

Framework, and HS2. This is to be expected, given its statutory purpose and custody of

assets worth over £1 billion, a large proportion of those assets being funded by private

donations and membership subscriptions. It is mooted that the following factors may renew

pressure for the charity to become more of a campaigning organisation on issues such as

climate change: a target membership of 5 million by the year 2020; and a workforce that is

likely to continue to grow as the charity’s activities expand, and which may begin to

question the charity’s willingness to campaign on environmental issues and the country’s

response to climate change.

The research has examined the Trust’s intention to be proactive in raising awareness

of climate change and in seeking to influence people’s behaviour. Adaptation to climate

change at various sites is reported widely in the charity’s public domain. Much publicity is

given to the charity’s energy policy and low-carbon projects. Communicating messages

through the charity’s practical measures in fulfilling its core purpose is an effective strategy.

The first issue therefore, concerns the Trust’s potential role as a more active campaigner on

climate change: whether it views this as an extension of its commitment to raise awareness.

This revives a question the Council asked itself as far back as 1919: how much should the

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Trust be a campaigning body? At the 2006 AGM climate change was referred to as being

probably the charity’s single greatest challenge (National Trust, 2006a). It could be that in

future years demand surfaces from the membership as well as the charity’s workforce for a

more public stance on the issue. It is very likely that the Trust will continue its advocacy

with other ENGOs and charities, and at the government’s invitation, to respond to national,

EU and international policy/initiatives. The question is: will the Trust become more

outspoken on wider environmental issues such as climate change?

Issue 2

In the absence of major investment to improve public transport networks and infrastructure

for rural areas, it is virtually certain that visitors to National Trust properties will continue to

rely on car transport. Even if public transport improvements, particularly in rural parts of the

country do materialise, research suggests that car dependency will remain. The study found

little evidence of progress being made on the Trust’s proposed Visitor Travel Plans

introduced in 2005, with such a scheme relying on public transport networks. Carbon

pathways analysis indicated that passenger car travel accounts for about a half of the UK’s

transport emissions. Despite leisure car travel for day-trips associated with National Trust-

type activities being a relatively small proportion of all car travel in this country, and

notwithstanding improvements to engine design and fuel efficiency leading to projected

decreases in car emissions, there is a case for continuing the effort to reduce car travel to the

charity’s properties. Since at least the 1990s, the Trust has been concerned about the

congestion and pollution caused by vehicular traffic, but schemes to ban cars from sites

have been limited and only where practical alternatives are available. The National Trust

Handbook gives details of alternative transport links available through certain websites; and

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local connections, including the Sustrans national cycle routes that run close to properties.

The second issue, therefore, is that the research confirms visitor car-borne travel to

properties remains a dilemma for the Trust, and can be seen as the weak link in the charity’s

sustainable heritage tourism profile. Research shows that there is a range of personal

motives to explain why people prefer to use their cars for commuting, business trips and

leisure. Furthermore, with an ageing and less mobile population (over-weight trends, type 2

diabetes, for example) car dependency is likely to remain, if not increase. In this respect at

least, it might be said that the odds are stacked against the National Trust in trying to bring

about a culture change in travel behaviour. How much of its resources are the Trust

prepared to commit in an effort to bring about a culture change in travel behaviour,

something the charity has been striving to achieve over the past ten years, and to what extent

does it believe this to be a realistic goal?

The study’s place in the literature

The literature surrounding heritage tourism, sustainable tourism, and tourism-climate

change studies developed multi-disciplinary themes that became the research’s interpretive

framework discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. This part of the Conclusion highlights the

research’s place in the wider literature.

The first point to make, one that may seem obvious, is that by the very nature of its

activities, the National Trust represents heritage tourism in many respects, yet has received

scant attention in the tourism literature. The charity works on a timescale of ‘in perpetuity’.

The inter-generational nature of heritage tourism was emphasised by authors such as

Tunbridge & Ashworth (1996: 1); Nuryanti (1996: 249); Herbert (1997: xi); Graham et al.

(2000:11); Timothy & Boyd (2003: 2); as well as English Heritage (2008: 71). Nuryanti also

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considered it important to convey the significance of a heritage site in addition to its

physical conservation. Both the National Trust and English Heritage promote their sites as

‘special places’, and a continuous theme in the presentation of National Trust sites has been

to highlight the distinctiveness of individual properties. Poria et al. (2006) drew attention to

how a site’s attributes and heritage presented are implicitly linked to the visitor’s perception

of personal heritage. ‘Legacy tourism’, a sub-set of heritage tourism that identifies with a

visitor’s interest in their personal heritage (McCain & Ray, 2003) was encountered during

the fieldwork, notably through the visitor survey at the Birmingham Back-to-Backs. The

study identified with several other themes consistent with the heritage tourism literature, but

not directly related to climate change, as with issues of authenticity and commodification of

heritage (Boorstin, 1964/1973; MacCannell, 1973; Lowenthal, 1985; Wright, 1985;

Hewison, 1987; Cohen, 1988; Tunbridge & Ashworth, 1996; Buzinde & Santos, 2009), and

the notion that tourism is able to frame history ideologically and reshape culture to its own

requirements (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2008). This resonates with the Trust’s current practice

of ‘bringing properties to life’ resulting in some accusations of ‘disneyfication’ reflecting

the post-modern tourism narrative (Uriely, 1997).

Sustainable tourism was central to this study. The literature highlighted its

provenance in sustainable development, a notion that was viewed with uncertainty and even

scepticism by some interviewees as well as commentators such as Cope (1995). Baker’s

(2007) belief that the strength of the concept of sustainable development lay in its flexibility

seemed to have the most utility for the National Trust’s activities. Achieving a balance of

tourism and conservation was found to be an ongoing issue for the Trust, but, as the findings

indicated, the charity viewed the two activities as inter-dependent. This reflected a persistent

theme in the sustainable tourism literature, that the real challenge is in controlling the

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volume of tourism, in other words, maintaining an acceptable level of mass tourism

(Wheeller, 1991; 1993; 1994; and Butler, 1999). Although Wheeller and Butler referred to

mass tourism, nevertheless, the principles accord with the Trust’s experience of a growth in

visits to its properties. The literature indicated that sustainable tourism was prone at times to

green rhetoric, where tourism products such as ‘eco-tourism’ had in effect become a

disguise for perpetuating the economic benefits of mass tourism (Wheeller, 1993). This

underlined the role of sustainable tourism indicators so that progress in sustainable tourism

could be measured, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The approaches put forward by

Gössling et al. (2002) and Roberts & Tribe (2008) were considered relevant in looking at

the ways the Trust could develop its monitoring. The first was the idea of a destination

being assessed for its ecological footprint; and the second, a set of indicators that could be

adapted for the individual organisation.

This led to a strand of literature that promoted the benefits of local stakeholder

involvement and empowerment in sustainable tourism policy-making advocating a ‘bottom-

up approach’ (Cole, 2006; Waligo et al., 2013; Albrecht, 2013; Graci, 2013). This recent

research suggests a growth area that reflects the Trust’s current Going local strategy. Nine

members’ resolutions were submitted for the Trust’s AGM in November 2014, one of them

being on ‘coastal properties, climate change and community consultation’ (National Trust,

2014f). The resolution sought to reinforce the involvement of ‘local property owners,

occupiers and businesses …. at every stage’ (ibid), particularly where the local management

lived outside the immediate area and/or whose responsibilities related more to animal and

plant life rather than farms or buildings. The Board recommended the membership to vote

against this resolution because, whilst it strongly supported the principle of working closely

at the local level, it considered the proposal for a national framework of consultation as

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unnecessary and potentially bureaucratic, ultimately being counter-productive to the Trust’s

ability to fulfil its core purpose. This resonates with the contemporary literature on

stakeholder involvement.

The literature showed that, to date, climate change had represented only a small part

of the tourism literature, much of it examining the impacts of climate change on destinations

(ski resorts and small-island-states in particular); aviation (the largest emitter of GHGs for

tourism activities); and tourist behaviour associated with carbon emissions, and

measurements of energy consumption by tourism businesses. Two leading authors in this

field were Stefan Gössling and Susanne Becken. Their research was particularly relevant for

the promotion of mitigation measures to counteract GHG emissions in terms of

understanding tourist behaviour and measuring energy consumption and GHG emissions.

Janet Dickinson’s research on the other hand, was directed more at domestic tourism, the

National Trust’s modus operandi. Her work on patterns of car travel and behaviour, local

public transport issues, and the psychology of transport mode choice, was linked closely to

the study’s findings. Dickinson et al. (2004), one of the few studies conducted on the

National Trust, showed similarities with the present study, where it was shown that the

relatively remote locations of the Trust made it difficult to reduce car dependency;

furthermore, that an ageing population, though good for business, was likely to fuel extra

demand for car travel; although shorter journeys might offer more scope for alternative

travel, but only if local provisions and conditions were suitable. Their research also

acknowledged the economic objectives of tourism, and how a balanced approach should be

sought in seeking to suppress car travel. Reference has also been made to Anable’s (2005)

psychographic analysis of National Trust visitors, where potential was shown for cultivating

behavioural/attitude change through targeting particular visitor segments.

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 In tracing the evolution of the Trust’s climate change policy in relation to wider

developments in environmental public policy, contextualisation was achieved through

policy studies, both generically (Rhodes, 1997; Marsh, 1998; John, 2003; Parsons, 2005;

Stewart, 2009) and in tourism-related work (Hall & Jenkins, 1995; Tyler & Dinan, 2001a;

2001b; Kerr et al. 2001; Pforr 2005; 2006; Stevenson et al 2008). Although most of the

aforementioned tourism research was directed at public agencies such as tourist boards and

local authorities, the literature examined the policy-making process by focusing on networks

and partnerships, a process the National Trust undertakes in its policy advocacy with public

agencies such as English Heritage (Stonehenge for example), charities such as the RSPB,

and the Green Alliance. These aspects of policy-making were discussed in the context of

macro and meta levels, which reflected the Trust’s advocacy activities. Part of the

interpretive framework utilised environmental ethics and environmental psychology to

explain the various facets of pro-environmental behaviour. Examples of leading authors

from these disciplines and other literature themes used in the study are included in

Appendix 4.10.

Evaluation of the methodology

The study’s methods extended over a period of some seven years involving many avenues

of research, out of which three main conclusions emerged. Firstly, using mixed methods of

qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire surveys proved largely successful in

gaining two different perspectives of climate change issues and policy. The interviews with

senior managers and other staff provided sufficient material to assess the climate of opinion

about climate change at the Trust. Although twelve one-to-one interviews yielded plenty of

data, it was disappointing that certain key people at the Trust were not available for

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interview, or, in some cases, did not respond to repeated requests. The survey of visitors to

National Trust properties adequately covered the research areas of travel behaviour and

environmental attitudes. The response rate for both the visitor survey and the volunteer

survey exceeded expectations. However, some minor shortcomings were evident in the

design of the visitor survey questionnaire, despite several versions being trialled for a pilot

survey. One example was the misunderstanding of the phrase ‘return trip’. In retrospect, and

despite repeated attempts at clarifying and re-phrasing during the pilot phase, the nine

attitude statements on climate change and environmental issues, were, perhaps, too open to

interpretation by the respondent; and could have been condensed and/or simplified.

The second point to make concerns the use of statistics with the visitor survey. As

the responses gained momentum from the five sites, it became clear that the large sample

size provided opportunities for using the inferential statistical techniques such as Chi-square

analysis and ANOVA. With a smaller sample size, the data might have been limited to using

descriptive statistics, because there would not have been large enough sample sizes to

conduct tests with the independent variables (age, gender, membership). It was stressed in

the Introduction and Chapter 8 that this part of the research did not set out to produce

statistical generalisations, but nevertheless took the opportunity to maximise opportunities

to analyse data from a large sample (N=847). The unexpected large response rate underlined

the benefits of combining different methods of collecting responses from questionnaire

surveys. Anable’s (2005) mail-back technique proved to be a tried and tested method.

The third point relates to the use of secondary sources. The nature of the topic

required wide exploratory reading, and in hindsight, some of the early stages of the research

process extended the boundaries too wide. For example, although it was considered relevant

to gain an understanding of climate change science, it was not necessary to write a full

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chapter on the subject (subsequently not included in the final thesis). Reading the literature

on climate change policy led to other areas such as the risk and uncertainty surrounding

climate change and how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) gradually became more

sophisticated in arriving at climate change impact projections. A sizeable tranche of

literature on risk analysis was consulted and although providing much insight and interest

had to be excluded. In retrospect then, the development of the interpretive framework could

have been more focused. The project’s secondary sources for the empirical work in

Chapters 5 and 6 relied heavily on material sourced from annual reports and AGM minutes,

for reasons already explained. To begin with, this was considered to be a limitation, but as

the research developed it became evident that these documents proved to be valid for

portraying events at the Trust over a period of some fifty years; although potential bias and

subjectivity in the construction of these public documents was duly recognised. The value of

on-site visits to the charity’s archives department was fully appreciated when a selection of

internal reports and memoranda on the subject of climate change became available. Without

access to these, acquiring the details of the Trust’s involvement in external affairs might not

have been possible.

Policy implications for the National Trust and opportunities for further research

Communicating climate change messages

The Trust’s stance on its campaigning role with regard to climate change issues was the first

main issue that arose from the research. It has been suggested that demand for the charity to

take a more active role may surface from a growing membership as well as a large,

professional workforce, including up to 70,000 volunteers. Communicating the risks of

climate change to wider society was established as one of the priorities in its climate change

policy. The research suggests this aspect of the policy could be reinforced. Consistent with

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other research, the project found differences among visitors according to their age and

gender with regard to the strength of their pro-environmental attitudes. The National Trust,

therefore, might consider exploring effective methods of communicating environmental

messages to different segments of its supporters and wider audience. The visitor survey

found for example, that older male supporters tended to show less inclination towards pro-

environmental attitudes. In this respect, some of the environmental psychology literature

used in the interpretive framework for this thesis could have potential for designing any

communication strategies aimed at climate change awareness. Recent research (Corner &

Randall, 2011) has pointed to some limitations in targeting individuals through social

marketing campaigns, but suggests that there is potential in looking to promote dialogue

with social groups and amongst UK charities through the use of on-line social networking.

During the course of writing this thesis it was observed how the Trust became more

accessible through its website and contemporary social media channels. There may be a

further opportunity to capitalise on its social media proficiency in reaching target audiences,

as the Trust strives to reach minority or new audiences: ‘disabled people, city dwellers,

young people and members of minority ethnic communities’ (National Trust, 2013d: 31).

A further point relates to volunteer workers. The volunteer survey found that despite

fairly neutral feelings about engaging visitors on a one-to-one basis with issues such as

climate change, volunteers indicated their support for working in teams on projects. This

may be worth considering as a trial exercise, but would obviously depend on the support of

volunteers which, the study has suggested, would not be unanimous. Furthermore, the

interviews conducted for the survey made clear that the Trust did not favour lecturing to its

supporters. Recent research (Greenspan et al., 2012) into the notion of ‘environmental

philanthropy’, which suggested that volunteering could be viewed as a way of reinforcing

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pro-environmental behaviour, merits exploration. The National Trust’s working holidays are

a prime example of this practice.

Car travel to properties

The second issue mentioned emerging from the project concerns car travel to properties.

This has been a long-standing concern for the Trust in terms of congestion and pollution,

but little reference has been made to direct links with climate change. Consistent with other

research,

the study found the continued reliance on car journeys to properties to be the weak link in

the charity’s sustainable tourism profile. The research has shown that this appears to be an

intractable problem, despite isolated examples of car-free access where local conditions

permit. In line with other environmental charities and NGOs, the However, it might be said

that rural areas will remain difficult to access without a car and research has shown that

people will continue to prefer this mode of transport for a variety of motives. This study has

speculated that with an ageing and less mobile population, and increased membership, the

Trust will experience increased car travel in years to come. Improved fuel efficiency,

alternative fuels, and ‘cleaner engines’ in car manufacture, to some extent may provide a

‘technical fix’ to the problem.

However, in pursuit of the Trust’s stated aim to bring about a culture change in

visitor travel, the charity might consider other methods to reinforce this task, in addition to

the existing transport information websites supplied to visitors. In Chapter 8 it was mooted

that giving visitors the opportunity to off-set their carbon emissions from car travel although

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not automatically leading to a reduction on car use, might nevertheless raise awareness of

sustainable tourism objectives and appeal to a visitor’s ‘feel good factor’ or social altruism;

and possibly reinforce connectivity with nature (Schultz et al., 2004). Such an initiative

might bring the Trust some positive publicity but equally could be open to criticism as a

form of green rhetoric (Wheeller, 1991; 1993). The Trust would also need to consider

whether the costs and operational requirements of such proposal would be counter to it

primary purpose of conservation. Carbon-offsetting though, this research suggests, is a

practice that is conducive to sustainable tourism and has application for the voluntary

heritage sector, presenting opportunities for innovation and research.

Reporting on environmental performance

More of a subsidiary issue that emerged from this research was an observation that the

reporting of the Trust’s environmental performance in its annual report is limited to the

headline targets achieved in energy reduction and the Conservation Performance Indicator.

This is not to devalue the relevance and interest this information gives to the charity’s

readership. This research suggests the Trust’s ‘credentials’ as a sustainable heritage tourism

organisation could be better publicised by providing more comprehensive data about its

environmental performance (a comparison with English Heritage’s format was referred to in

Chapter 2). Detailed indicators such as those used by Roberts & Tribe (2008), shown in

Appendix 2.1, could be adapted for some properties on a trial basis. Realistically, such an

undertaking would incur extra costs, not least in bureaucracy, training and time; and

arguably could be seen to distract property managers from their operational responsibilities

in managing conservation and tourism. Nevertheless, from this research’s perspective, it

could be a process worth consideration as well as leading to research opportunities. The

content of social data reported by the charity is a related issue referred to in Chapter 5.

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Presently, the social element of the Trust’s TBL performance is reported as annual updates

on staff satisfaction and visitor ratings. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012

required public sector agencies to consider how the service they procured could bring added

economic, environmental and social benefits. Although the National Trust is not a public

agency, it is suggested that that a more inclusive approach to reporting social value is a

process that would engage stakeholders and supporters of the Trust. One avenue could be

the response of members, visitors and supporters to a series of statements designed to

capture and measure the impact of the Trust on people’s general well-being and approach to

life; rather than being limited to satisfaction ratings. Previous comments made about

bureaucracy, costs, and deviations from the charity’s core purpose would need to be taken

into account.

Participation in National Trust policy-making

In Chapter 7, the results of the exploratory survey with Council members and the Board of

Trustees, although based on only a small number of interviews, suggested that policy-

making in the charity was seen by some senior members as a ‘top-down’ process and that

‘grass-root’ opinions have no influence in the charity’s policy-making. A review of the

Trust’s history has shown how on occasions, grass-root pressures have brought about

change through the convening of EGMs. But these are rare. Property managers came across

as reasonably satisfied working within the structure and expectations of centralised policies,

even though a few managers did not immediately identify with a single, discernible climate

change policy. However, the volunteer survey indicated that only 40 per cent of respondents

felt connected with issues communicated by Heelis, and less than two-thirds saw the

National Trust as a leading example of how an organisation should respond to climate

change. Although only a small sample of volunteers (139 out of approximately 60,000), the

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survey’s results point to a) some degree of remoteness in how the charity’s centralised

policies are perceived by volunteers; and b), opportunities for volunteers’ experiences,

ideas and skills to contribute to policy-making through forums at individual properties as

well as the local community, seen as empowerment: considered an important element in

policy-making for sustainable tourism.

Concluding statement

Scott (2011) believed that climate change was the ‘new strategic reality’ for businesses,

governments and NGOs; and Dickinson (2010) said there was a present need for public

engagement with climate change in an effort to bring about behaviour decisions that could

lead to a lower carbon future for tourism. An examination of the National Trust’s climate

change policy: its inception, implementation and impact on staff, volunteers and visitors in

the context of wider environmental issues, has shown that heritage tourism has many

strengths to contribute to sustainable tourism through consideration of climate change

issues, but also a few vulnerable areas. Its strengths are well-placed within the field of

environmental ethics where the idea of stewardship of the natural and built environments

and inter-generational equity both serve to underline the importance of adapting to the

perceived physical threats of climate change. Furthermore, particularly in the case of the

natural environment, many heritage sites provide natural defences to climate change such as

in the case of forests as carbon sinks. There are also opportunities to capitalise on natural

resources in the production of renewable energy sources (wind; wood; tidal power; latent

heat from sea water; solar energy). In turn, these can focus on mitigation measures such as

developing energy policies. Heritage tourism has the potential to capitalise on these assets in

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communicating what it considers to be important environmental messages (climate change

is a case) to its audience. However, achieving sustainable heritage tourism requires a

comprehensive, holistic approach, and whilst the aforementioned supply-side factors offer

plenty of strengths, there is a danger that demand-side considerations of visitor travel and

environmental behaviour may undermine good practice. This study has highlighted some of

the imbalances between conservation and access inherent in sustainable heritage tourism.

Climate change policy, driven by the twin strategies of adaptation and mitigation, can help

to redress this imbalance.

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 POSTSCRIPT

During the final stage of completing this study, the National Trust introduced its new 10-

year strategy Playing our part (National Trust, 2015c). On the day of its official launch,

23rd March, the Director-General Dame Helen Ghosh was interviewed on the BBC’s

Today programme (BBC, 2015) during which she talked about how the Trust was

responding to the challenges of climate change:

‘… now, the main challenge to our conservation purpose is the

destruction of habitats of wildlife … precious species in 60 per cent
decline … two causes: intensive land management … for the future,
and we see this on our coastline, in our countryside, even in our
houses, climate change, we think, is the big threat to us’. (National
Trust, 2015c).

The interviewer, John Humphrys, suggested that perhaps visitors should stop travelling

to the Trust’s properties in their cars in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Helen

Ghosh conceded that car-borne travel was inevitable but, where possible, the charity

worked with local public transport providers to encourage alternative transport options.

She continued by reiterating the Trust’s targets on renewable energy sources (50 per cent

of sources by 2050) and achieving energy efficiencies (20 per cent reduction). Asked

whether this would make a difference, the Director-General affirmed the charity’s

practice, consistent with this study, of communicating through example as the preferred

strategy for promoting messages about climate change and the environment. She

maintained that the large and diverse scale of the Trust’s activities meant that it could

make a difference by ‘showing people what good looks like’ (emphasis added).

Furthermore, she added, working with partners such as the RSPB, other landowners, and

‘big business’ was seen as a natural collaborative practice for the charity.

293
 The press highlighted the National Trust’s aim to protect the countryside and

reverse, what the charity believed to be damaging effects of years of intensive farming

and destruction of wildlife, where the countryside will be ‘nursed back to health’

(Harvey, 2015). The current emphasis on the outdoors reflects the efforts made during

Angus Stirling’s tenure in the 1980s (Chapter 5), when the charity sought to engage itself

more fully in environmental public policy on matters related to agriculture and the

countryside, shortly before climate change made its appearance in the Trust’s policy-

making arena. It is perhaps symbolic for this study that on a recent visit to Midlands

properties, the Director-General viewed the solar eclipse on 20th March from the top of

the Clent Hills. Staff reported that the location was well-attended by visitors; many of

whom would have travelled by car.

294
 Appendix 1.1

The National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Heritage assets as at 2012/13 (National Trust, 2013d)

The National Trust protects and preserves:

Over 200 historic houses

47 industrial monuments and mills
12 lighthouses
35 public houses
The sites of many factories and mines
19 castles and chapels
57 villages
25 medieval barns

The total reinstatement value of the NT’s historic buildings is £5.9 billion.

709 miles of coastline

610,000 acres of land

NT land is designated at many levels including Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

The classification of land and water is as follows:

Acres
Let estate 339,142
Commons 101,503
Woodland 40,636
Moors 26,942
Bodies of water 16,316
Parks and gardens 10,233
Other* 16,766

*Other includes visitor attractions, National Trust-managed agricultural land, and non-agricultural
land such as grazing, scrub and saltmarsh.

Update for 2015 (National Trust, 2015c)

257,082 hectares (635,265 acres) of land

775 miles of coastline
Over 500 historic houses, gardens and parks, ancient monuments
76 nature reserves
149 museums and 83,000 collections
400 factories and mines (including two gold mines)
61 pubs and inns
4.2 million members
60,000 volunteers
10,000 staff
1,800 agricultural tenancies

295
 Appendix 2.1
Environmental sustainability indicators (Roberts & Tribe, 2008)

Sustainable tourism indicator Performance indicators Possible targets

Environmental awareness & Presence of policy statement Environmental policy statement
management Actual EA (environmental which shows adherence to
assessment) conducted sustainable tourism policy
Membership in environmental Undertake environmental
scheme assessment
Steps taken to rectify any Management supportive of Policy
environmental problems
identified
Energy efficiency Energy conservation plan Develop energy conservation plan
Energy consumption monitored Use of energy saving devices
Energy conservation measures Monitoring energy use at all
facilities
Develop appropriate strategies
and/or alternatives for the
management of energy resources
Staff and customers informed of
the benefits of energy efficiency
Water efficiency and monitoring Water conservation plan Develop water management plan
Scheduled water consumption Develop maintenance plan for
monitoring checking and repairing all
Water conservation measures plumbing fixtures and storage
tanks frequently
Monitor water quality
Promote water conservation
among staff and guest
Recycling and reuse Type of waste most generated Formal or informal recycling policy
Per-cent of materials recycled or System to deal with recyclable or
reused reusable waste
Solid waste management Solid waste management plan Develop SWM Plan
Systematic disposal of degradable Collection, storage and disposal of
and non-degradable waste in a waste in conformity with
way that is environmentally- legislative requirements
friendly and non-polluting Participate in community clean-up
activities

Sustainable tourism indicator Performance indicators Possible targets

Waste water management Waste water management plan Develop waste water

296
 Attitude to waste water management plan
management Proper collection, storage and
System of waste water disposal disposal of waste water
Management system for Waste water treatment plants
accidental discharge of sewage operating properly

Pollution effects management Hazardous waste management Develop hazardous waste

plan management plan
Deliberate action taken to reduce Knowledge of known and
pollution levels potential pollutants
Use of cleaners and disinfectants
with < 0.5% phosphates
Visual pollution (conformity to Planning permission obtained Planning approval obtained prior
local vernacular Conformity to local vernacular to building construction
Maintenance of traditional
development patterns
Design and planning of physical
structures conforming to
established guidelines and cultural
themes

297
 Appendix 3.1

Proxy indicators of climate-related variables (Pittock, 2007: 28)

Indicator Property measured Time resolution Time span Climate-related

information obtained
Tree rings Width, density, isotopic Annual Centuries to Temperature, rainfall,
ratios, trace elements millennia fire
Lake and bog Deposition rates, Annual Millennia Rainfall, atmospheric
sediments species assemblages water balance, vegetation
from shells and pollen, type, fire
macrofossils, charcoal
Coral growth Density, isotope ratios, Annual Centuries Temperature, salinity,
rings fluorescence river outflows
Ice cores Isotopes, fractional Annual Millennia Temperature, snow
melting, annual layer accumulation rate,
thickness, dust grain windiness, gas
size, gas bubbles concentrations
Ocean sediment Species assemblages Usually multi- Millennia Sea temperatures,
cores from shells and pollens, decadal or salinity, acidity, ice
deposition rates, centuries volumes and sea level,
isotopic ratios, air- river outflows, aridity,
borne dust, pollen land vegetation
Boreholes Temperature profile Decades Centuries Surface air temperature
Old groundwater Isotopes, noble gases Centuries Millennia Temperature
Glacial moraines Maximum glacier Decades Centuries to Temperature and
length millennia precipitation
Sand dunes Orientation, grain size Centuries Millennia Wind direction and
speed, aridity
Coastal Ledges, former beach Decades to Decades to Former sea-level, tropical
landforms lines, debris lines centuries centuries cyclones
Documentary Reports of extremes, Annual Centuries to Temperature,
evidence harvests, dates of millennia precipitation
break-up of river or
lake ice

298
 Appendix 3.2

Emissions scenarios of the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (Houghton, 2004: 117)

A total of 35 scenarios were developed, based on four different ‘storylines’ driven by

population change, socio-economic development and technological change:

A1 Storyline B1 Storyline
A future world of very rapid economic growth, a A convergent world, with the same global population
global population that peaks in mid-century and peaking in mid-century but declining thereafter as in
declines thereafter, and the rapid introduction of new the A1 story line, but with rapid change in economic
technologies. Major underlying themes are structures towards a service and information
convergence among regions, capacity building and economy, with reductions in material intensity and
increased cultural and social interactions, with a the introduction of clean and resource-efficient
substantial reduction in regional differences in per technologies. The emphasis is on global solutions to
capita income. economic, social and environmental sustainability,
including improved equity, but without additional
climate-related initiatives.

A2 Storyline B2 Storyline
A very heterogeneous world in which the underlying A world in which the emphasis is on local solutions
theme is self-reliance and preservation of local to economic, social and environmental sustainability.
identities. Fertility patterns across regions converge There is a continuously increasing global population
very slowly, resulting in a continuously increasing but at a rate lower than in A2, intermediate levels of
population. Economic development is mainly economic development and less rapid and more
regionally oriented and per capita economic growth diverse technological change than in the B1 and A1
and technological change more fragmented and storylines. B2 is also oriented towards environmental
slower than other story lines. protection and social equity, but with more focus on
local and regional levels.

299
 Appendix 4.1

Secondary data categories

Some 600 sources were used for this study broken down as follows:

Textbooks 84 15%
Peer-reviewed articles in journals 313 52%
Government and NGO documents 73 11%
National Trust documents 96 16%
Media (newspaper; radio) 24 4%
University research/conference reports 8 1%
Web-site sources 5 1%
Total 603 100%

Currency:
Pre-1994 56 10%
1994-2003 175 29%
2004 onwards 370 61%
Total 601 100%

The breakdown of disciplines for peer-reviewed articles was as follows:

Climate change/environmental science/ policy/

environmental economics/energy studies 73 23%
Environmental psychology/sociology/social studies 25 8%
Tourism/leisure/transport/heritage 181 59%
Management studies 21 6%
Voluntary sector/NPO 13 4%
Total 313 100%

300
 Appendix 4.2
Climate Change Policy Questionnaire – Board of Trustees/Council – Summer 2010

Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in my research on climate change policy at
the National Trust. A pre-paid reply envelope is attached for ease of return.
1. Please indicate your membership of the Board/Council: Please place X in box

Trustee
Council Member
Both

2. Please state your area of expertise/organisation:

3. Do you see climate change as an environmental issue for the National Trust?
A Yes, the most challenging environmental issue that the Trust has faced to date
B Yes, but the threats of climate change have been exaggerated
C I have no particular view on this
D No, climate change does not present any environmental threat to the National Trust

4. Please state your own opinion on the following statements about policy-making at NT:
(Please circle O your answer)
Disagree Agree

A The NT’s strategic plan is based on policy 1 2 3 4 5

development
B At the National Trust, policy development is 1 2 3 4 5
more a case of ‘top-down’ as opposed to
‘bottom-up’
C National Trust policy is shaped by the Council 1 2 3 4 5
D Policy should be in place before strategy 1 2 3 4 5
E Council’s role is more of a guardian/advisor to 1 2 3 4 5
the Trust rather than a decision-maker
F At NT, the Senior Management Team is the main 1 2 3 4 5
shaper of policy development
G The Board of Trustees is the most senior 1 2 3 4 5
decision-making body at the National Trust
H ‘Grassroots’ opinions and values of members 1 2 3 4 5
and visitors do not influence policy
development at the Trust
I Running the Trust requires more ‘government’ 1 2 3 4 5
than ‘governance’

301
5. In which year, and why, would you say the National Trust started to address climate change
as an environmental issue?

Year: Why?

6. Below are several reasons why the National Trust may be addressing climate change. In
considering the Board/Council’s response towards climate change, please rate the importance of
each reason.

1 = Least importance 2 3 4 5 = Most importance

(Please circle O your answer)
Least Most

A NT has a moral duty to protect the environment 1 2 3 4 5

B Energy cost savings for the Trust; and other 1 2 3 4 5
economic considerations
C Educating members, visitors and staff about 1 2 3 4 5
climate change issues
D Mitigation: to reduce the NT’s carbon footprint 1 2 3 4 5
from its properties and visitors
E In response to government action e.g. Climate 1 2 3 4 5
Change Act 2008; Stern Review 2007
F Encouraging local (property level/community) 1 2 3 4 5
participation on environmental issues
G In response to the findings of Advisory Panels 1 2 3 4 5
H As an exemplar of good practice for the 1 2 3 4 5
government, tourist boards and environmental
organisations
I Promoting Sustainable Tourism 1 2 3 4 5
J As part of Sustainable Development 1 2 3 4 5
K Public relations 1 2 3 4 5
L In response to scientific evidence that human 1 2 3 4 5
activity is very likely linked to accelerated global
warming
M Protecting places for people to enjoy 1 2 3 4 5
N Adaptation to climate change: conservation 1 2 3 4 5
management of the Trust’s natural and built
assets
O To influence people’s pro-environmental 1 2 3 4 5
behaviour
P In response to environmental initiatives 1 2 3 4 5
undertaken by the Trust’s regions and properties
Q Part of the global effort to tackle climate change 1 2 3 4 5
R In keeping with the Trust’s ethos and vision 1 2 3 4 5

7. For each Advisory Panel listed below, please rate the relevance of the climate change issue
to the Panel’s work.
1 = Not relevant 2 3 4 5 = Very relevant

302
 (Please circle O your answer)

Not relevant Very relevant

A Archaeology 1 2 3 4 5
B Architecture 1 2 3 4 5
C Arts 1 2 3 4 5
D Commercial 1 2 3 4 5
E Gardens and Parks 1 2 3 4 5
F Land Use & Access 1 2 3 4 5
G Learning 1 2 3 4 5
H Nature Conservation 1 2 3 4 5

8. Below is a list of external organisations who all claim to be concerned about climate
change. Please indicate the extent the Board/Council has, to date, networked/consulted with each
organisation on climate change matters.

1 = Lowest 2 3 4 5 = Highest level of contact

Don’t know (Please circle O your answer)
X Lowest Highest
A UK Govt Depts – DEFRA; DCMS; 1 2 3 4 5
DECC - Energy & Climate Change
B Visit Britain 1 2 3 4 5
C UK Regional Development Agencies 1 2 3 4 5
D UK Regional Tourist Boards 1 2 3 4 5
E UK Local Authorities 1 2 3 4 5
F Environment Agency 1 2 3 4 5
G Environmental organisations such as WWF, RSPB 1 2 3 4 5
H Environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace, 1 2 3 4 5
Friends of The Earth
I Natural England 1 2 3 4 5
J English Heritage/Cadw 1 2 3 4 5
L UK Sustainable Development Commission 1 2 3 4 5
M National Farmers Union 1 2 3 4 5
N International organisations such as the World 1 2 3 4 5
Conservation Union and UNESCO (World Heritage)
O UN World Tourism Organisation 1 2 3 4 5
P The Carbon Trust 1 2 3 4 5
Q UKCIP (UK Climate Impacts Programme) 1 2 3 4 5
R Your own organisation – please state: 1 2 3 4 5

9. To what extent do you agree with the following statements associated with climate change?

303
 1 = Disagree 2 3 4 5 = Agree
(Please circle O your answer)
Disagree Agree

A The Trust must be prepared to sacrifice some of its 1 2 3 4 5

properties and land in response to climate change
B Environmental policy-making is enhanced by the NT 1 2 3 4 5
actively networking with external organisations
C The scientific evidence for human activities 1 2 3 4 5
accelerating global warming is compelling
D Responding to climate change is really about 1 2 3 4 5
sustainable development
E Fundamentally, the Trust’s response to climate 1 2 3 4 5
change is one of risk assessment
F The natural environment has equal rights to those of 1 2 3 4 5
human beings
G Accelerated global warming does not justify reducing 1 2 3 4 5
car and air travel
H Altruism is the strongest force that drives the National 1 2 3 4 5
Trust’s response to climate change
I The most effective way to educate people about
climate change is to tell them what they should be 1 2 3 4 5
doing, rather than show them what they could do
J Networking with external organisations is not
necessary for the Trust to develop effective climate 1 2 3 4 5
change policy
K Sustainable Development is really more of a mantra 1 2 3 4 5
than a practical strategy
L Environmental policy is best implemented throughout 1 2 3 4 5
the NT using a devolved approach
M The NT website climate change campaign is more 1 2 3 4 5
about PR than getting people to change their
behaviour
N The most effective way to promote pro-
environmental behaviour is to ‘go local’: through 1 2 3 4 5
involvement of local communities and properties
O Global warming is not linked to human activity 1 2 3 4 5
P The National Trust could be more proactive in raising 1 2 3 4 5
awareness of climate change
Q Environmental policy is best implemented through a 1 2 3 4 5
centralised approach
R Restricting/discouraging private vehicular (car) access
to properties is unrealistic 1 2 3 4 5
S The National Trust has a climate change policy 1 2 3 4 5

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete my questionnaire – John Floy – UCB

304
 Appendix 4.3 (Example)
Climate Change Survey – Charlecote Park, 2012
Hello, I’m researching into climate change and attitudes to travel and the environment. I wonder if
you would you be willing to take part in a survey? Thank you very much. All data will remain
anonymous.
John Floy, Part-time PhD candidate, Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, University of Birmingham

1) How often do you visit Charlecote Park? ( ONE)

Daily/few days a week C1 A few times year C4

A few times a month C2 Once a year C5

Once a month C3 Once every few years C5A

First visit C6

2) Is your visit to Charlecote Park: (ONE)

A return trip, being the main purpose of today’s visit? C7

A return trip, being part of other planned activities e.g. touring, shopping? C8

En-route and part of a tour; staying in different accommodation tonight? C9

Please state main purpose of your visit:

3) How far have you travelled to get to Charlecote Park? ( ONE)

Within approximately 5 miles of home/start point C10

Between approximately 5 and 25 miles from home/start point C11

Over 25 miles from home/start point C12

Visitor from outside UK?() Yes C13 Country?

4) How did you travel to Charlecote Park today? ( ONE)

Car C14 Coach tour C18 Rail + taxi C22

Bicycle C15 Motorbike C19 Rail + bus C23

On foot C16 Rail + on foot C20 Taxi C24

Bus C17 Rail + bicycle C21 Other:

IF you DID travel by CAR today, please continue and answer Qs 5-8

IF you DID NOT travel by CAR, please go straight to Q9

5) Is today’s car journey:

Just by yourself? C25 Shared with someone else/group? C26

6) Today you travelled by CAR but would you consider using an alternative mode of transport
e.g. rail, bus, bicycle or on foot for your next/similar visit? ( ONE)

Yes C27 Maybe C28 No C29

305
7) If you answered “Yes” or “Maybe” to Q6, please rate the importance for EACH of the following
reasons for yourself (5 = most/very important; 1 = not important).
(You don’t need to rank e.g. 51324) Please circle your answer

Savings on travel costs 5 4 3 2 1 C30

Reducing my personal carbon footprint 5 4 3 2 1 C31
Personal health and fitness e.g. walking/bicycle 5 4 3 2 1 C32
Supporting local economy e.g. local bus service 5 4 3 2 1 C33
Social reasons e.g. make new friends; contacts 5 4 3 2 1 C34
OR
8) If you answered “No” to Q6, please rate the importance for EACH of the following
reasons for yourself (5 = most important; 1 = not important). Please circle your answer
(You don’t need to rank e.g. 51324)
Distance too long/challenging or unsafe road conditions 5 4 3 2 1 C35
Health/mobility considerations 5 4 3 2 1 C36
Carrying family/extra passengers/equipment 5 4 3 2 1 C37
Lack of public transport networks / limited service 5 4 3 2 1 C38
Flexibility e.g. time, other tasks and journeys 5 4 3 2 1 C39
9) Please tell me how much you agree/disagree with these statements about climate change and
the role of the National Trust: Please circle your answer
(5 = Agree; 4 = Slightly agree; 3 = Not sure; 2 = Slightly disagree; 1 = Disagree)

Global warming has become the greatest environmental threat

facing the planet 5 4 3 2 1 C40
We all have a personal moral duty to reduce our carbon emissions to
help reduce global warming 5 4 3 2 1 C41
Human contributions to causing global warming (e.g.
industrialisation) have been exaggerated 5 4 3 2 1 C42
We should view the natural environment as having equal rights to
humankind 5 4 3 2 1 C43
A radical rethink of government policy is needed if the UK is to reduce
its carbon emissions significantly 5 4 3 2 1 C44
Collectively, individual lifestyle changes/local action will make a
significant difference in reducing carbon emissions 5 4 3 2 1 C45
Organisations such as the National Trust have an important role to
play in tackling climate change on all fronts 5 4 3 2 1 C46
Conservation of natural and built heritage helps to address the
impacts of climate change 5 4 3 2 1 C47
Tourism harms the environment and therefore does not help us in
trying to tackle climate change 5 4 3 2 1 C48
10) Are you aware of any measures that the National Trust is taking in response to climate
change? It could be something you noticed on your visit today. IF YES: Please tell me briefly
(bullet points) below:

11) If you don’t mind, please give me a few details about yourself:
st
Male C49 Female C50 1 3 letters/digits of your postcode:
Age: 15-29 C51 30-44 C52 45-64 C53 65&over C54

Are you a National Trust member or volunteer? If Yes, please tick () C55

306
 Appendix 4.4
National Trust Volunteer Survey Spring 2013 – Climate Change

Hello, I am writing a thesis on the Trust’s policy and practice towards climate change and I am particularly interested to gain the views of volunteers
who work at XXXXX. If you have the time, I should be most grateful to receive your comments – a pre-paid envelope is supplied. All data will remain
anonymous. Thank you very much for your participation. John Floy, University College Birmingham.

1 Please tell me in which area you work: 2 How long have you been a volunteer at XXXXX?

3 Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
(5 = Agree; 4 = Slightly agree; 3 = Not sure; 2 = Slightly disagree; 1 = Disagree) Please circle/tick your response

1 Tourism is harmful to conservation work 5 4 3 2 1

2 Global warming is a very real threat to civilization 5 4 3 2 1
3 I have a moral duty to reduce my carbon footprint 5 4 3 2 1
4 Nature has equal rights to humans 5 4 3 2 1
5 The UK government should be doing more to tackle climate change 5 4 3 2 1
6 The National Trust has an important role to play in getting people to think about pro- environmental behaviour 5 4 3 2 1
7 Conservation work helps to reduce the impacts of climate change 5 4 3 2 1

4 Not wishing to be too intrusive, it would help my research if you could please give a few details about yourself: (tick/write in box):

Male Female In which era you were born: 1920-45 1946-64 1965-80 1981+

5 Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
Agree Disagree
1 I look for opportunities to talk about environmental issues with visitors 5 4 3 2 1
2 I respond well to a teamwork approach when working on projects/ new initiatives here 5 4 3 2 1
3 I consider myself to be knowledgeable on environmental issues 5 4 3 2 1
4 I feel connected to issues coming from the Trust’s central office (Heelis) 5 4 3 2 1

6 Please use the space below (continue on back page if you wish) to record any additional comments about how National Trust is responding to climate change.
Thank you very much again for your time.

307
 Appendix 4.5
th
14 May 2010

Trustee/Member of Council
The National Trust
Heelis
Kemble Drive
Swindon
SN2 2NA

Dear Sir/Madam

Thesis on Climate Change and the National Trust

As a National Trust member and a lecturer at University College Birmingham, I am currently writing
a doctoral thesis on climate change policy and practice associated with heritage tourism. I am
basing my research on the National Trust as I believe it to be one of the best, if not the best
exemplar of heritage tourism. Before focusing my research on the West Midlands region I plan to
gain an insight into environmental policy-making at the Trust’s highest level.

I would like to ask whether you would consider taking part in my research by completing the
attached questionnaire. I wish to gain the maximum response rate possible from Trustees and
Council members in order to ensure a diversity of experience, skills and expertise will yield
meaningful data. Anonymity will of course be assured when I write up the results. I attach a
business reply envelope for your convenience. I understand that the Council will be meeting at the
end of June and I see this as an opportune moment for your participation, or whenever is
convenient.

The potential adverse effects of accelerated global warming are widely publicised. In tourism
education, much attention has been paid to air travel, travel behaviour and energy consumption.
Relatively little research has been undertaken on environmental policy-making in heritage tourism.
By researching into climate change policy and practice at the National Trust, I aim to raise the
profile of the Trust in tourism-climate change literature and further educational links between the
Trust and University College Birmingham (my employer), in addition to the Centre for Urban and
Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham (with whom I am registered for my research
degree).

I should be most grateful for your participation in this research project; and on completion, I would
be more than happy to share my findings with you.

Yours sincerely

John Floy
j.floy@ucb.ac.uk

Attached: Questionnaire and business reply envelope

308
 Appendix 4.6

12th May 2010

Head of XXXXXXXX
The National Trust
Heelis
Kemble Drive
Swindon
SN2 2NA

Dear

Thesis on Climate Change and the National Trust

As both a National Trust member and a lecturer at University College Birmingham, I am currently
writing a doctoral thesis on climate change policy and practice associated with heritage tourism. I
am basing my research on the National Trust as I believe it to be an excellent case study for heritage
tourism and the Trust will yield rich data for my thesis. My purpose in writing to you is to request an
opportunity to interview you on environmental policy-making matters at the national level – before
I then turn my attention to the West Midlands region. I am interested in exploring the rationale,
policy drivers, consultation and networking that explain the Trust’s response to climate change. If
at all possible, I would also be interested in gaining access to any key documents (policy, reports,
and minutes) – obviously within acceptable privacy limits.

I began my thesis in 2006 and to date have received valuable assistance from the West Midlands
regional offices. I now plan to extend my research to Heelis. To this end, I should be grateful if you
would consider this request. If favourable, I would be looking towards the end of June/early July (or
whenever convenient) to make a visit to Heelis to interview a few senior personnel in addition to
yourself.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing from you, and remain:

Yours sincerely

John Floy

j.floy@ucb.ac.uk

309
 Appendix 4.7

NT West Midlands Visitor Numbers 2011/12

Attingham Park 327,733 Kinver Edge and Rock House 12,759

Attingham: Cronkhill NR Kinwarton Dovecote NR
Baddesley Clinton 175,445 Letocetum Roman Baths NR
Benthall Hall 7,262 Middle Littleton Tithe Barn NR
Berrington Hall 73,705 Morville Hall 689
Biddulph Grange Garden 84,118 Moseley Old Hall 27,731
Birmingham Back-to-Backs 32,583 Packwood House 84,828
Brockhampton Estate 56,571 Rosedene 416
Carding Mill Valley 28,461 Shugborough Estate Staffs CC
Charlecote Park 144,860 Sunnycroft 18,137
Clent Hills* 1,000,000 Town Walls Tower NR
Coughton Court 98,013 Upton House and Gardens 103,580
Croft Castle and Parkland 88,004 The Weir 23,991
Croome 134,065 Wichenford Dovecote NR
Cwmmau Farmhouse 600 Wightwick Manor &Gdns
64,763
Dudmaston Estate 55,725 Wilderhope Manor 867
Farnborough Hall 5,132
The Fleece Inn NR
The Greyfriars 13,528
Hanbury Hall 122,050
Hawford Dovecote NR
Sub-total 2,447,855 Sub-total 337,761
Total 2,785,616

Note: 2011/12 visitor numbers were extracted from the 2011/12 Annual Report for properties
receiving 50,000 or more visitors in a year. Visitor numbers for properties with less than 50,000
visitors were supplied by the Regional Office.
NR = Not Recorded

Five properties surveyed September 2012 – February 2013: Visitor population 11/12:

Moseley Old Hall 27,731

The Weir 23,991
Clent Hills* 1,000,000 (Estimated*)
Charlecote Park 144,860
Back-to-Backs 32,583
Estimated total population 1,229,165

*Clent Hills visitors estimated to be “almost a million” – Royale, J. (2008) Local Walks, Worcester
News, 20/10/08
Country Manager estimated 250,000-750,000 visits based on car parks, car occupancy, repeat visits –
but not taking into account unrecorded walkers/cyclists/horse-riders.

310
 Appendix 4.8

FIELDWORK LOG

Date Contact/Role/Location Method Subject

14/11/07 Director/Heelis Unstructured Background to climate
interview change policy at NT.
20/03/08 Regional Manager Informal Background to NT current
discussion strategy, governance,
organisational structure,
communication themes.
22/08/08 Regional Manager Informal Research tools: thoughts on
discussion postal survey and site
surveys.
30/10/09 Regional Manager/Director Informal Research tools: postal survey
discussion (not recommended); site
survey (recommended –
interest expressed);
suggested contact:
Environment Group for WMs
NT.
05/02/10 Regional Manager Informal Discussion about pending
discussion group interview with
Environmental Group.
17/02/10 Environment Group for WMs Group Climate change policy-
NT interview making; sustainable
(6 participants) development; conservation
and access.
25/05/10 Council Member E-mail Views on role of Council,
post-2005 re-organisation.
15/07/10 Director/Heelis Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; governance;
interview sustainability.
15/07/10 Director/Heelis Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; role of external
interview affairs directorate.
15/07/10 Trustee Semi- Background and role of
structured Trustees in policy-making;
interview environmental issues
including climate change.

311
20/07/10 Director/Heelis Structured e- Climate change policy-
mail interview making; governance;
sustainability. (As per Peter
Nixon).
July 2010 Board of Trustees/Council Structured Roles of Trustees and
questionnaire Council; climate change
survey policy-making; external
relations; environmental
values.
July/Aug Archives Documentary Copies of AGM minutes,
2010 search annual reports 1998
onwards (mostly on-line)
09/09/10 Archives Documentary AGM minutes, annual
search reports 1986-1997; policy
documents relating to CC
17/09/10 Archives Documentary AGM minutes, annual
search reports 1986-1997; policy
documents
Archives
23/09/10 Documentary AGM minutes, annual
search reports 1986-1997; policy
documents relating to CC
18/01/11 Archives E-mail inquiry NT publications: peer-
reviewed literature
04/02/11 Regional Manager Informal Update on research;
discussion discussion on approaching
new regional director and
chairmangoing local
strategy; merger of NT and
West and East Midlands.
11/04/11 Regional Director Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of region; going local
strategy.
15/04/11 Regional Manager Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.

312
06/09/11 Trustee Structured e- Background and role of
mail interview Trustees in policy-making;
environmental issues
including climate change.
07/10/11 Archives Documentary AGM minutes, annual
search reports 1970-85; policy
documents relating to CC
August Pilot visitor survey – Clent Hills Structured Face-to-face / self-
2012 41, Hanbury Hall 9; n = 50 questionnaire completion in situ
Sept 12 Visitor survey Moseley Old Structured Face-to-face / self-
to Jan 13 Hall, The Weir, Clent Hills, questionnaire completion in situ/mail-back
Charlecote Park, Back-to-
Backs; n=847

08/03/13 Property Manager Semi- Climate change policy-

structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.
18/03/13 General Manager Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.
28/03/13 General Manager Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.
25/04/13 Manager/Heelis Semi- Climate change policy;
structured environmental affairs.
interview
25/04/13 Archives Documentary Annual reports 1960-90;
search environmental affairs.
May 2013 Electronic survey: volunteers Structured Environmental attitudes; role
N = 139 questionnaire of NT in tackling climate
change; role of volunteers.

313
24/06/13 General Manager Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.
13/08/13 Property Manager Semi- Climate change policy-
structured making; sustainable
interview development; governance;
role of regional external
affairs; going local strategy.
13/08/13 2 Gardening staff + 9 Group Environmental attitudes;
volunteers (all areas) interview tackling climate change;
volunteers and policy-
making.

Summary:
12 interviews
2 group interviews
2 e-mail interviews
6 archive records visits
8 Council/Trustees questionnaires
847 visitor questionnaires
139 e-questionnaires

314
 Appendix 4.9

ATTENDENCE AT CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES

Date Organiser/venue/event Key speakers*/Subject

05/12/07 Culture West Midlands, Birmingham. Professor John Thornes, University of
Climate Change Symposium Birmingham. How the WMs ‘culture business’
should mitigate and adapt towards climate
change; how climate change works.
28/01/08 Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Claire Walsh & Jim Hall, School of Civil
Council (EPSRC) & Sustaining Knowledge for a Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle
Changing Climate (SKCC), University. Climate change: linking adaptation
West Bromwich. and mitigation strategies; government
planning for CC strategies; natural and built
environments.
30/01/08 University of Birmingham. Dr. Reiner Grundmann, School of Languages
Seminar: Politics experts, and publics: the case and Social Sciences, Aston University.
of climate change ‘Knowledge politics’ – understanding the
development of climate change politics at
international and national levels.
19/02/08 University of Birmingham, School of Professor Sir Brian Hoskins
Biosciences, Centre for Environmental Climate change science; climate projection
Research and Training. models; uncertainties; economics.
CERT 2008 Lecture: Climate change in an
uncertain world.
12/03/08 University College Birmingham. Peter Braithwaite, Director, ARUP.
Lecture: Sustainable hospitality and tourism
16/07/08 Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Matthew Lockwood, IPPR; Polly Toynbee, The
London. How politically acceptable is personal Guardian; Richard Starkey, Tyndall Centre.
carbon trading? Research findings from members of the public
and other stakeholders on the concept of
personal carbon trading (PCT).
22/09/09 The Tourism Society and the Royal Dr. David Viner, British Council; Professor
Geographical Society, RGS, London. Geoffrey Lipman, Advisor UNWTO; Ufi
Tourism and climate change Ibrahim, WTTC.
Overview of issues; domestic and
international case studies; mitigation and
adaptation of CC impacts on tourism.
25/11/09 Bournemouth University, International Centre Professor Adam Blake, BU; EmmaWhittlesea,
for Tourism & Hospitality Research, South West Tourism; Dr. Ishwaran Natarajan,
International Forum on Sustainability, Poole. UNESCO ; Dr. Luigi Cabrini, UNWTO ; Dr.
Climate Change and Tourism: Challenges posed Murray Simpson, University of Oxford; Dr.
by the global economic crisis. Susanne Becken, Lincoln University, New
Zealand.
Tourism, economic crisis and best practices;
United Nations’ responses and initiatives;
emerging techniques and research
implications.
*Speakers are a sample – to reflect leading institutions.

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 Appendix 4.10
Framework of main themes/concepts used for discussion

Theme/Concept Authors (sample) Key contribution

Inter-generational nature of Nuryanti (1996); Graham et al. (2000); English National Trust’s core values
heritage Heritage (2008)

Commodification of heritage; Lowenthal (1985); Hewison (1987); Buzinde & Santos Current NT strategy of bringing properties
nostalgia; authenticity; post- (2009); Timothy & Boyd (2006); Cole (2007) to life; authentic visitor experience
modern tourism

Balance of conservation and McKercher et al. (2005) Expanding visitor numbers encroaching on
tourism NT’s core conservation work

Supply and demand of heritage Poria et al. (2001); Weaver (2011a) Interpretation and management of the
tourism NT’s visitor experience

Sustainable tourism principles Lane (2009a; 2009b); Gössling& Scott (2012); Assessment of the NT’s activities within
Wheeller (1991; 1993; 2004); McKercher (1993); the boundaries of sustainable development
Hunter (1997); Roberts & Tribe (2008); Cole (2007); and sustainable tourism; triple-bottom-line
Graci (2013) performance; empowerment of local
communities

Sustainable tourism and climate Gössling et al. (2008); Hall (2009b); Weaver (2011b); Sustainable tourism’s contribution in
change Scott (2011) mitigating the effects of climate change:
NT’s role

Sustainable tourism and pro- Antimova et al. (2012); Kim (2012); Peeters (2013); Promoting ‘environmentally-friendly’
environmental behaviour Bramwell & Lane (2013) behaviour as part of sustainable tourism
practice at the NT

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 Theme/Concept Authors (sample) Main contribution
Climate change science and IPCC (2013); Houghton (2004); Rayner & Malone General perceptions of climate change;
uncertainties (1998); van Asselt (2001) scientific background

Climate change as a global and Sovacool & Brown (2009); Mazmanian (2013) NT’s policy of communicating the risks of
local issue climate change

Climate change and the non- Neumayer (2007); Hawken et al. (2010); Porritt (2007) NT’s statutory purpose: preserving the
substitutability of natural natural environment
capital

UK climate change policy Bowen & Rydge (2011); UK government reports NT’s role in environmental public policy
at the macro level

Environmental non- Lockwood (2013); Green Alliance publications; NT’s role in environmental public policy
governmental organisations, Hudson (2002); Balassiano & Chandler (2010); at the meso level
charities, and public agencies’ Albrecht (2013)
climate change debate

Climate change and energy Becken et al. (2001; 2002; 2003a; 2003b); Gössling et NT’s energy policy
consumption by tourism al. (2002; 2005)

Travel and leisure behaviour Chenworth (2009); Dickinson & Peeters (2014); Steg Psychological motivation for transport
et al. (2001); Klockman & Matthies (2004); Anable modes; social representation theories;
(2005); Kattiyapornpong & Miller (2009); Dickinson concept of time planning for leisure;
et al. (2004; 2010; 2013); Gronau & Kagermein (2007) gender and age; public transport

Governance and empowerment Jepson (2005); Spear (2004); NT’s recent constitutional reform and
further decentralisation towards a culture
of empowerment

Measuring performance Moore (2000); Norman & MacDonald (2003), NT’s use of TBL measurement based on
Stoddard et al. (2012) sustainable development

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 Theme/Concept Authors (sample) Main contribution
Leadership and management Measures & Bagshaw (2009); Jaakson (2010); NT’s adoption of contemporary
Desmond, 2010; Chocqueel-Mangan, (2010); management practice; elements of
Antonakis & House (2014); Dionne et al. (2004) transformational leadership at the NT

Policy studies Hall & Jenkins (1995); Marsh (1998); John (2003); Contextualising NT’s contribution to
Parsons (2005); Pforr (2005); Stewart (2009) macro and meso policy-making

Environmental values; public Shrader-Frechette (1985); Naess (2003); Macbeth Providing insights into environmental
values; environmental ethics (2005); Holden (2009) values held by the NT and its visitors

Environmental psychology Schwartz (1994); Stern et al. (1995); Stern (2000); Providing possible explanations for travel
Dunlap et al. (2000); Bamberg & Möser (2007) behaviour and environmental attitudes
revealed in the study’s findings

Heritage Sustainable Transport Climate

Tourism Tourism Studies Change

National
Trust&Sustainable
Policy Heritage Tourism
Environmental
Studies
Ethics
Management Environmental
Studies Psychology

Interpretive framework summarised

318
 Appendix 5.1
Key developments in the National Trust 1895-present day
(Source: Annual Reports, Newsletters, AGM Minutes; Heritage Literature)

Era and Leadership

(Chairman/Director- Key developments
General -
1970 onwards –years of
office rounded-up)
1894-1919 1894: Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter, Canon Rawnsley
conceive NT at Grosvenor House, London.
1895: ‘The National Trust’ is incorporated. 100
members; 5 acres of land; 1 full-time staff.
1907: National Trust Act – founding statute.
Founding era: small membership, limited funds but
influence in high places.
1919: 2nd NT Act (powers of leasing granted).
1920-39 Aftermath of WW1: break-up of land ownership, high
rate of death duty, agricultural depression.
Drain on NT funds to maintain/acquire properties.
Conservative PM Stanley Baldwin promotes spiritual
values of rural life.
Preservation has priority over access.
1937 Country Houses Scheme
1937 + 1939: 3rd and 4th NT Acts: quid pro quo with
endowment and relief from death duties; preservation
extended to contents – boost for conservation.
Growth of membership: 1925: 850 to 1935: 4,850.
1940-66 During WW2 advisory committees and area offices
established.
Early 1950s: increasing importance of area offices
supported by volunteers; small central office in
London.
1953: 5th NT Act – powers of investment extended.
Rapid post-WW2 growth in membership: 1945: 7,850
1955: 55,658; 100 full-time staff; 41,000 acres.
1956 Nichols Committee and 1958 Kinnear Committee
lead to establishment of regional committees, replacing
local committees; first push towards decentralisation.
Growing popularity of the Trust. Visitors more mobile
with car ownership.
The ‘tourism issue’ arrives: conservation vs. access.
1965: Enterprise Neptune launched.

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 1967-85 1967 EGM: Rawnsley affair sparked off by Enterprise
1970: Antrim/Winnifrith Neptune. Trust criticised for lack of democracy and
1971-73: Antrim/Bishop being out of touch. Leading to:
1974-77: Antrim/Boles 1968 Benson Report – Council determines policy; half
1978-83: Gibson/Boles of Council to be elected; further decentralisation
1984-85: Gibson/Stirling through regions. Formalised in:
1971: 6th NT Act.
1970s: expanding membership and staff numbers,
volunteers. Educational arm develops; young people.
1975 membership: 539,285. 1,146 full-time staff;
68,000 acres.
1980 membership: +1 million.
By 1981: +1 million members.
1982 EGM: Bradenham affair – leasing of land in
Chilterns to MOD. Led to:
1983 Arkell Committee – relationship between
members and Council; and:
1984 Hornby Committee – looks at distinction of work
and responsibilities between committees and staff.

Balance of power begins to shift from voluntary

committees to salaried staff.
NT involvement in countryside and heritage legislation
1986-96 1990: +2 million members; 78,000 acres.
1986-90: Jenkins*/Stirling Hunting debate dominates a number of AGMs, a
Dame Jenifer* divisive issue, leading to:
1991-94: Chorley/Stirling 1993 Oliver Report inquiring into the fairness and
1995-96: Chorley/Drury fitness for purpose of the NT – “… if it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it”. Next year:
1994 EGM: Deer hunting issue and questioning the
rural values of the NT. Led to a push for more
communication and openness with membership.
NT broadens its involvement in external affairs – the
countryside, environmental protection, EU agricultural
policy, enjoyment and access to the countryside, co-
operation with other environmental agencies and
NGOs.
First appearance of strategic planning coincides with
aftermath of early 1990s economic recession.
Trust becomes much more public in its involvement
with national debate on countryside and heritage.
1995: Centenary year.
Continued tensions between tourism and conservation.

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 1997-2002 NT responds warmly to some of New Labour’s
1997-2000: initiatives e.g. Regional Development Agencies,
Nunneley/Drury QUANGOs such as Natural England (now English
2001-02: Nature), devolution – Welsh Assembly.
Nunneley/Reynolds NT pressures for reform of EU Common Agricultural
Policy – to recognise importance of environmental
management.
Pressure from farm tenants for more influence in
shaping national policy.
NT lobbies government for more support for rural
economies; agriculture is a dominant issue during these
last few years of the 20th century; plus: added problems
with outbreak of BSE and swine fever.
Idea of ‘statement of significance’ for properties
introduced to promote distinctiveness and visitor
enjoyment.
Continued professionalization and modernisation of the
Trust’s management.
1998: first National Strategic Plan launched.
2000: Organisational Review initiated (under Drury).
2000-01: Foot and mouth crisis.
2000-02: re-organisation – sweeping rationalisation –
reduction in regions, establishment of centralised
directorates, amalgamation of 4 country-wide offices to
become merged into one centralised HQ (what became
Heelis, in Swindon, in 2005).
2001: Risk Management introduced via Charity
Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice
(SORP).
2002: 3 million members.
2003-12 2003: Launch of new core purpose: “to look after
2003-08: Proby/Reynolds special places for ever, for everyone”.
2009-12: 2003: Blakenham Report – governance structure
Jenkins*/Reynolds reformed, creating a new 12-member Board of
*Simon Jenkins Trustees; Council now takes on an advisory
role;formalised under the Charities (National Trust)
Order 2005.
2005: New HQ opened: Heelis in Swindon.
Following a challenging financial position in the early
2000s, a range of targets are introduced – financial,
staff performance and training, conservation
performance; tighter budgetary control; membership
recruitment targets; visitor satisfaction surveys; staff
satisfaction surveys – the era of accountability leads to

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 a stronger financial position by 2008.
NT lobbies government on the importance of heritage.
2007: Our future: join in launched; emphasis on
connectivity with membership and the wider public.
2008: approximately 3.5 million members.
2009: Going local launched, leading to further re-
organisation empowering property managers, and with
the regional function becoming more supportive and
consultative; creation of 40 general managers.
2009-12: NT strategy delivered through 4 themes.
2008-09 financial crisis/economic recession – NT
experiences boom year in membership growth and
visits to properties – the idea of ‘staycationing’ takes
hold.
2010 onwards: big push on ‘bringing properties to life’
through visitor involvement; local food/sustainability
campaigns; high profile lobbying on amending
coalition government’s proposals for planning reform.
NT properties receive increasing coverage through
media and film industry.
2010: No. of English regions reduced from 9 to 6;
making a total of 8 (including Wales &N.Ireland). 11
Country and Regional Committees are replaced with 8
Country and Regional Advisory Boards. Senior
Management Team renamed as Executive Team.
2011: 4 million members; +5,000 staff; 630,000 acres.
2012: Fiona Reynolds to step down at the end of 2012
to take up post as Master of Emanuel College,
Cambridge.

2013 onwards 2013/14: NT voices its concerns, via petition, over the
government’s proposed National Planning Framework;
2013-14: submits recommendations for altering the proposed
Jenkins/Ghosh route of High Speed Railway 2 in order to protect
Hartwell House; makes clear, its concerns over the
2014 - potential impacts of fracking.
Parker/Ghosh
2013: Helen Ghosh succeeds Fiona Reynolds as
Director-General.
2014: Tim Parker succeeds Simon Jenkins as
Chairman.

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 Appendix 6.1
Climate change-related environmental issues and other related environmental issues emerging from National Trust public
domain
1970-2014
Climate change mentioned directly/strong connection.

Year AGM Minutes Annual report/review Newsletter Prominent NT Prominent

Chair/DG documents international / UK Govt
associated with initiatives associated
climate change / with climate change
Website
1970/71 Enterprise Neptune; (75th anniversary of the Earth Day – 1970 –
Earl of Farne Island seals: Trust); “The NT believes beginning of ‘modern
Antrim/ Sir culling most strongly that there environmental era’;
John is an urgent need for the European
Winnifrith state to step up the Conservation Year;
search for possible ways European
of reducing the damage Conservation
being done to our Conference Strasbourg
environment … In other Feb 1970
words, the Trust believes
that a fundamental
reappraisal of priorities
is needed … above all …
conservation costs
money” (p.1); “but
everyone’s future well-
being [is at stake]. Even
economists are opening
their eyes. The alarm
clock has sounded”
(Jacquetta Hawks).
1971/72 Farne Island seals: On the newly formed Climatic Research Unit

323
Antrim/ FA culling Department of the at University of East
Bishop* Siting of ‘The Third Environment: “we now Anglia established in
London Airport’ at have a single point of 1971 (claims to be the
Foulness communication for any oldest such institution)
representation we might
wish to make” (p.1)
1972/73
Antrim/ (1972 Finance Act: relief 1972 UN Conference
FA Bishop from Estate Duty and CG on the Human
Tax, but VAT Environment –
introduced); in 1969, the Stockholm ;
Countryside Commission United Nations
had asked the Trust for Environmental
advice on designating Programme (UNEP)
Country Parks. created by UN General
Assembly in 1972.
1973/74 Enterprise Neptune Tree-planting: Trust Year of the tree
Antrim/ favours 18th century
FA Bishop tradition of planting
broad-leaved hardwood
species
1974/75 Enterprise Neptune; Enterprise Neptune Sandford Principle
Antrim/ (Economic 1974 – where
JD Boles* recession: conservation and
inflationary effects) access conflict,
conservation takes
priority
1975/76 Enterprise Neptune; World Tourism
Antrim/ Farne Island seals: Organization launched
JD Boles culling – 1975

1976/77 Enterprise Neptune

Antrim/

324
JD Boles
1977/78 (‘Upstairs/downstairs’
Antrim/ theme meets with
JD Boles interest at Uppark)
1978/79 Coastal oil pollution:
Lord Gibson*/ spillage from
JD Boles tankers;
Enterprise Neptune;
(Press the
government to
regulate inflation)

1979/80 Increasing visitor First World Climate

Lord Gibson/ numbers: more Conference, organised
JD Boles acute problems in by the World
conservation – Meteorological
timed ticketing; Organisation (WMO) –
(Continued concern 1979.
about inflation and
VAT rise: 20% WMO World Climate
increase in Programme launched
admission prices!);
Enterprise Neptune
1980/81 Enterprise Neptune;
Lord Gibson/ Opposition to
JD Boles Stansted Airport
because of threat to
Hatfield Forest

1981/82 Overcrowding at (Trust’s one millionth

Lord Gibson/ properties: timed member)
JD Boles ticketing to try and
strike the right

325
 balance between
conservation and
access;
Enterprise Neptune;
(Inflationary effects:
NT has £0.5 million
deficit in 1980)
1982/83 Enterprise Neptune; (1982 EGM on
Lord Gibson/ (EGM 1982: lease of Bradenham and principle
JD Boles Bradenham Estate of inalienability)
to MOD –
inalienability)
1983/84 Acid rain – need for (Arkell Report: the 1971
Lord Gibson/ continuing research NT Act ensured a
JD Boles and vigilance, but: democratically chosen
“The Trust is not a Council)
research
organisation and
will rely on others
doing this work and
reaching
conclusions” (p.19);
(Arkell Report 1983
commissioned by
the Council))
1984/85 3 threats to Trust:
Lord Gibson/ road schemes, oil
Angus drilling, erection of
Stirling* aerials and radio
masts; concern at
erosion and
degradation of top
soil and landscape in

326
 Lake Distict
1985/86 (Benson Committee Re-launch of Enterprise 1985 Vienna
Lord Gibson/ 1968 leading to NT Neptune Convention on on the
Angus Stirling Act 1971) Protection of the
Ozone Layer
1986/87
Dame
Jennifer
Jenkins*/
Stirling
1987/88 Aftermath of ‘Brundtland Report’
Jenkins/ October 1987 Great Our Common Future –
Stirling Storm; integrative the report of the
land management World Commission on
Environment and
Development -1987
(Sustainable
development);
1987 Montreal
Protocol on
Substances that
Deplete the Ozone
Layer

1988/89 Enterprise Neptune: WMO/UNEP

Jenkins/ 500th mile Intergovernmental
Stirling Panel on Climate
Change established –
1988
Toronto Conference
1988
PM Margaret
Thatcher’s

327
 environment
‘conversion’ speech
1988
1989/90 Environment going Chair’s preface: NT’s position on lobbying
Jenkins/ to the top of the “How the on environmental issues
Stirling political agenda environment is
protected and cared
for has recently
become an issue at
the front of many
people’s minds”;
“climatic warming
and pollution of the
atmosphere” (D-G,
1989 AR).
1990/91 Enterprise Neptune: Trust part of review Enterprise Neptune; IPCC First Assessment
Jenkins/ 25th year – the NT’s body – DoE – impact global warming; Report – 1990;
Stirling most sustainable of tourism on the pollution of the sea; acid
acquisition environment; rain; impact of tourism This Common
programme unprecedented Inheritance HM Govt
change in Europe … (1990)
pressures of tourism,
climatic change … Second World Climate
Trust seeks to be Conference
fully involved with its
European colleagues;
Trust’s
Environmental Audit
set up March 1990 –
to include transport,
energy conservation,
renewable energy
1991/92 Issues for 1990s –

328
Lord includes the growth
Chorley*/Stlg of tourism
1992/93 Rising sea levels – work United Nations
Chorley/ with the Countryside Framework
Stirling Commission Convention on Climate
Change (FCCC) signed -
1992;UN Conference
on Environment and
Development (known
as the Earth Summit)
in Rio de Janeiro –
1992
1993/94
Chorley/
Stirling 1st mention of Coastal protection; NT Medium Term Plan
“sustainable cannot operate alone on 1993/4 to 1997/8
development”; these issues Ch.4: The Trust’s
Council formally wider concerns –
adopts a statement Environmental
on energy policy; Practices Adviser
references to energy appointed; 1st
mainly = savings on mention of an energy
costs policy
1994/95 Roads: threat to NT Energy under the Sustainable
Chorley/ properties (but not spotlight Development: The UK
Stirling in context of climate Strategy (1st); HM
change) Govt (1994)
UNFCCC enters into
force
1995/96 (Centenary year) Energy conservation IPCC Second
Chorley/ Members’ measures; Assessment Report -
Martin Drury resolution: car- alternative transport 1995; 1st UNFCCC
borne access to NT schemes Conference of the

329
 properties – reduce Parties (COP1) in
current 90% of car Berlin;
journeys to 60% by
2020; carried UK Biodiversity Action
Plan
1996/97 Members’ Green space for COP2 Geneva; UK
Charles resolution: NT to Londoners – Osterley Climate Impacts
Nunneley*/ support all-party Park 153 acres; transport Programme (UKCIP)
Drury Road Traffic debate but not linked to established in 1996
Reduction Bill – climate change – threat
“that growth in of road building to
transport pollution countryside and its
should be arrested properties
and reversed as
quickly as possibly”;
D-G: “the issue of
transport was one
of the greatest
dilemmas of our
time. The Trust
could play its part
but real change
would require a
massive national
effort and
fundamental change
in culture”.
1997/98 Chairman’s report – Trust has been Wind power and AONBs; ‘The National Trust COP3 – Kyoto Protocol
Nunneley/ “the Trust had been working to develop opposition to Management Board - 1997;
Drury working hard to green transport Manchester airport’s – Climate Change’ + a
raise the Trust’s initiatives second runway; Earth further paper DoE Planning Policy
profile as an Summit in Rio de Janeiro addressed to Guidance Note (PPG7)
organisation that – NT’s role in Properties – ‘The Countryside,

330
 was active in the conservation of bio- Committee, Environmental Quality
protection of the diversity Executive Committee and Economic
environment … the and Council - by Development’;
new government Head of Nature
(Labour) had Conservation and UKCIP established -
provided the Trust Environmental 1997
with many Practices Adviser;
opportunities to also ‘The National
become involved Trust – Climate
and to bring its Change’ – media
influence to bear on briefing;
the government’s
policy development
process …”

1998/99 Role of renewable 1st climate change article National Strategic COP4 Buenos Aires
Nunneley/ energy discussed by NT’s Environmental Plan, March 1998-
Drury with government Practices Adviser February 2001:
ministers statement of
environmental
principles

1999/00 News: green energy NT Annual COP5 Bonn

Nunneley/ article Archaeological A better quality of life
Drury Review 1999-2000 – – strategy for
Shifting Sands sustainable
development for the
United Kingdom (2nd)
HM Govt (1999)
2000/01 Members’ resolution: 1st separate section as COP6 The Hague;
Nunneley/ the NT to become a ‘Climate Change’ under
Drury peat-free ‘Our work as an Climate Change: The
organisation (i.e. to Environmental UK Programme DETR

331
 protect land and Organisation’ – regional (2000)
carbon sinks); carried studies on likely effects,
focus on reduction in
fossil fuels, publication
of ‘A Call for the Wild’
2001/02 Member’s question: IPCC Third Assessment
Nunneley/ bus services to Report - 2001;COP7
Fiona properties and Marrakesh Accords;
Reynolds* green transport
alternatives; the UN International Year
Trust would be of Volunteering
introducing a cycling
strategy

2002/03 Climate change article – The Impact of COP8 New Delhi; 2002
Sir William impact on gardens Climate Change on World Summit on
Proby*/ Gardens: NT – RHS - Sustainable
Reynolds UKCIP Development –
Johannesburg

2003/04 D-G refers to the COP9 Milan; First WTO

Proby/ Trust being active International
Reynolds on issues such as Conference on Climate
aviation and energy Change and Tourism –
Djerba, Tunisia – 2003

2004/05 Under 1st strategic Opposition to Stanstead COP10 Buenos Aires

Proby/ aim ‘show leadership Airport expansion –
Reynolds in the regeneration Hatfield Forest; MORI

332
 of the countryside’: poll – climate change is a
“… and develop threat to the
Neptune’s role in countryside.
response to new
evidence of the
changing pressures
on the coast from
climate change and
development”; 04/05
Annual Review –
‘Responding to
climate change’ –
Neptune and
Westbury Court
Garden in
Gloucestershire

2005/06 D-G mentions D-G: celebrating Impact of climate change ‘Nature and the Kyoto Protocol enters
Proby/ Neptune’s 40th Neptune’s 40th: “And on wildlife; climate National Trust’ (new into force; COP11
Reynolds anniversary and the this work will never change article on coastal statement of the Montréal and the First
challenge of climate end, as climate erosion and rising sea Trust’s wildlife Meeting of the Parties
change; members’ change makes levels – NT Head of policy) (CMP1) to the Kyoto
resolution – travel Neptune’s mission Sustainability and Protocol;
to properties - ever more Environmental Practices
follow-up from 1995 challenging”; under Securing the future:
– climate change Trustees’ Report – delivering UK
issue is shared by plans for 2004-07 – sustainable
everyone, what “celebrate our coast development strategy
would the Trust and and develop the role (3rd)
its members do to of the Neptune HM Govt (2005)
lead the way and set Coastline Campaign

333
 an example for in response to new UK Sustainable
others to follow? evidence of the Development
(defeated) changing pressures Commission
on the coast from established.
climate change and
development”; under
‘Leadership in the
regeneration of the
countryside’ – NT’s
‘Nature and the
National Trust’ – “…
if the future of
wildlife in this
country is to be
secured against the
threats, including
climate change …”;
05/06 Annual Review
– 2-page feature on
climate change and
the Cornish coast
2006/07 Chairman’s remarks: Under ‘Leadership in Climate change article – ‘Shifting Shores’ COP12 and CMP2 to
Proby/ the effects of the regeneration of how the NT is (Welsh coast) Kyoto Protocol -
Reynolds climate change are the countryside’: “In monitoring and Nairobi;
one of many 2006, we published responding to climate Stern Review on the
challenges facing the next stage of our change issues – Chair of Economics of Climate
the NT; a member analysis of the NT Climate Change Change HM Treasury
expressed his possible impact of Impacts Group; ‘Green (2007)
concern at the lack climate change on News’ – water shortages Renewed Sustainable
of government the coastline in … Development Strategy
leadership and ‘Shifting Shores’” Council of the
inconsistent policies European Union (2006)
over CO2 emissions

334
 and urged the Trust Climate Change The UK
to take the lead – Programme(HM Govt,
Trust agreed it 2006)
should demonstrate
and champion the I will if you will
climate change issue Sustainable
Development
Commission &
National Consumer
Council (2006)
Climate Change 1995:
Economic and Social
Dimensions of Climate
Change IPCC (2006)

2007/08 Member: should the Trustees’ Climate change on ‘You, Me and the IPCC Fourth
Proby/ NT prioritise funding introduction: “We camera – first Climate’ (with the Assessment Report -
Reynolds of environmental have established a photographic exhibition support of Defra) 2007; COP13 and
and counter climate new way of in UK: ‘Exposed! Climate CMP3 to Kyoto
change initiatives measuring how Change in Britain’s ‘Green Spaces – Protocol - Bali (Road
instead of conservation is Backyard’; News: NT Measuring the Map); UK Climate
preservation of improving at our opposes Stanstead benefits’ (University Change Bill 2007;
antiquities? NT: a properties and begun Airport’s second runway, of Essex, Second WTO
key element of its an ambitious one reason being climate commissioned by the International
new strategy was environmental audit change Trust) Conference on Climate
the reduction in the which is enabling us Change and Tourism –
Trust’s to reduce our Davos, Switzerland –
environmental environmental 2007;
footprint. footprint”; 1st aim –
Engaging our PSA Delivery
supporters – ‘green Agreement 27: Lead
living’; 2nd aim: To the global effort to
increase investment avoid dangerous

335
 in conservation, and climate change HM
to set and deliver Govt (2007):
ever-improving
conservation and Meeting the Energy
environmental Challenge HM Govt
standards – (2007a)
‘Addressing our
environmental Planning for a
footprint’; key Sustainable Future HM
performance Govt (2007b)
indicators: “we are
developing a carbon
indicator for the
whole Trust which
we will report on in
future years” (p.34)
2008/09 Chairman’s ‘Greening our great Climate change articles – ‘From Source to Sea’ COP14 and CMP4 to
Proby/ introduction: estates’ – Wallington peat deterioration – loss – NT’s role in Kyoto Protocol -
Reynolds increasing influence Carbon Footprint of carbon sinks; water managing the Poznan; 2008 UN
of climate change Project; under 2nd shortages; NT’s green nation’s water International Year of
was affecting strategic aim – year includes climate Planet Earth;
properties … ‘Encouraging greener change and its Great
flooding at Calke living’; June 2008 – Green Leap Day; Big HM Govt (2008) UK
Abbey and Blickling Big Switch project – Green Days Out Climate Change Act
Hall; members’ energy-saving light
resolution: that the bulbs A framework for pro-
Trust’s governing environmental
body ensures behaviours DEFRA
sustainability is (2008)
central to all the
Trust’s decisions – Adapting to climate
the need for urgent change in England: A
action needed in framework for action

336
 response to effects DEFRA (2008)
of climate change;
Director of Carbon Pathways
Conservation Analysis
summarized Trust’s DfT (2008)
measures; carried Adapting to climate
change in England
DEFRA (2008);
Climate Change
Adaptation and
Mitigation in the
Tourism Sector UNEP;
University of Oxford
(2008)
2009/10 Member: could the Under 2nd aim: Energy article Energy report: ‘Grow COP15 and CMP5 to
Sir Simon Trust produce a reference to (Copenhagen climate your own’ Kyoto Protocol -
Jenkins/ separate report on ‘Conservation change summit Copenhagen; World
Reynolds target for reducing Performance approaching) – NT’s Climate Change
fossil fuel use rather Indicator’, 50% cut in dependence on fossil Conference 3
than including it in use of fossil fuels by fuels, car journeys,
the overall 2020, land farming practices – but The Road to
conservation management provides carbon sinks in Copenhagen DECC
performance return; article on 2009 (2009)
indicator? floods in the Lake District
– sustainable approach Low Carbon Transport:
to flood-risk A Greener Future
management; 3-year DfT (2009)
partnership with
Npower. Consultation on the
Draft Order to
Implement the Carbon
Reduction
Commitment DECC

337
 (2009)

2010/11 Green touch – Chirk ‘Land: fit for the COP16 and CMP6 to
Jenkins/ Castle, Wrexham – solar future’ Kyoto Protocol -
Reynolds power; NT wins Tourism Cancun Agreements;
Society’s 2009 annual 2010 UN International
award; article on trees – Year of Biodiversity;
climate stability; Climate Change Plan
DEFRA (2010) 2010 ;
The Natural Choice:
Securing the value of
nature
DEFRA (2011).
The Future is Local
SDC (2010).
The Last Parliament
Green Alliance (2010)
2011/12 Introductory offer – NT COP17 and CMP7 to
Jenkins/ Green Energy in Kyoto Protocol –
Reynolds partnership with Durban
N Power.
Is localism delivering
for climate change?
Green Alliance (2011a)
Climate science
explained Green
Alliance (2011b)
Sustainable
Development
Commission

338
 dismantled by coalition
government.

Mainstreaming
sustainable
development – the
Government’s vision
and what this means in
practice Defra (2011)

2012/13 Members’ Spring 2012: 100th COP18 and CMP8 to

Jenkins/ questions: anniversary of Octavia Kyoto Protocol - Doha
Ghosh 1)Climate change Hill’s death: outdoors,
and long term nature etc. Fresh thinking Green
planning for NT’s position on govt’s Alliance’s strategy
conservation work; planning reforms – green 2012-15.
car-borne belt.
transport?
2)Public transport at
the most popular
times of the year?
Spring 2012: low carbon
village (Coleshill); local
food production
2013/14 Reducing the UK’s
Jenkins/ Fracking debate carbon footprint
Ghosh Committee on Climate
Change (2013)
Parker/Ghosh COP 19; COP 20

339
 Appendix 7.1

Volunteer Survey Results; N=139

Question 1

Room guide/mansion 47
Estates/garden 33
Education/bookshop 12
Visitor welcome 5
Catering/retail 5
Events 3
Buggy driver 3
Roof photographer 3
Admin 2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Number of respondents

Question 2

Years worked as a volunteer

12% 9%

Less than 1 year

20% 1-5 years
6-10 years
10 years +
59%

340
 Question 3

Statement N Agree/ Not Disagree/ Mean

Slightly Sure Slightly Score
Tourism is harmful to conservation work 136 27% 11% 62% 2.24

Global warming is a very real threat to 136 67% 16% 17% 3.86
civilisation
I have a moral duty to reduce my carbon footprint 136 81% 7% 12% 4.15

Nature has equal rights to humans 136 81% 6% 13% 4.15

The government should be doing more to tackle 136 75% 12% 13% 4.02
climate change
NT has an important role in getting people to 136 84% 8% 8% 4.29
think about pro-environmental behaviour
Conservation work helps to reduce the impacts 136 68% 24% 8% 3.92
of climate change

341
 Question 4

Volunteers' Gender

44% Male
56% Female

Question 5

Volunteers: Era Born

1981 onwards
4
1965-80
5
1946-64
74
1920-45
53
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Number of Respondents

Question 6

Statement N
Agree/ Not Disagree/ Mean
Slightly Sure Slightly Score
I look for opportunities to talk about environmental 136 45% 13% 42% 2.91
issues with visitors
I respond well to a teamwork approach when 136 91% 7% 2% 4.50
working on new initiatives/projects
I see the Trust as a leading example of how an 136 64% 20% 16% 3.74
organisation should respond to climate change
I feel connected to issues coming from the Trust’s 136 40% 30% 30% 3.11
Central office (Heelis)

342
 Question 3: Differences amongst gender and era born amongst volunteers

(Agree = 5; Slightly agree = 4; Not sure = 3; Slightly disagree = 2; Disagree = 1)

Statement Male Female ANOVA 1920- 1946- ANOVA

N=60 N=76 <0.05 45 64 <0.05
N=53 N=74
Mean Mean ANOVA Mean Mean ANOVA
Tourism is harmful to conservation 2.18 2.36 0.43 2.35 2.20 0.53
work

Global warming is a very real threat to 3.73 3.96 0.30 3.98 3.83 0.52
Civilisation
I have a moral duty to reduce my 3.88 4.38 0.01 4.17 4.09 0.72
carbon footprint

Nature has equal rights to humans 4.00 4.27 0.17 4.24 4.14 0.64

The government should be doing more 3.81 4.18 0.08 4.11 3.98 0.56
to tackle
climate change
NT has an important role in getting 4.18 4.38 0.24 4.44 4.25 0.28
people to
think about pro-environmental
behaviour
Conservation work helps to reduce the 3.75 4.06 0.09 3.98 3.93 0.80
impacts
of climate change

Significant at P = < 0.05

343
 Question 6: Differences amongst gender and era born amongst volunteers

(Agree = 5; Slightly agree = 4; Not sure = 3; Slightly disagree = 2; Disagree = 1)

Statement Male Female ANOVA 1920- 1946- ANOVA

N=60 N=76 <0.05 45 64 <0.05
N=53 N=74
Mean Mean ANOVA Mean Mean ANOVA
I look for opportunities to talk about 3.18 2.70 0.05 3.17 2.81 0.15
environmental
issues with visitors
I respond well to a teamwork approach 4.51 4.50 0.93 4.48 4.52 0.72
when
working on new initiatives/projects
I see the Trust as a leading example of 3.53 3.90 0.07 3.92 3.70 0.30
how an
organisation should respond to climate
change
I feel connected to issues coming from 2.91 3.27 0.07 3.36 2.97 0.07
the Trust’s
Central office (Heelis)

Significant at P = < 0.05

344
 Question 7

Some additional comments on the National Trust and climate change

1) No Wind Farms

2) It would be good to hear what the policy is now and what they are doing in each venue

3) As far as I am aware, the Trust has no specific policies with regards to climate change.
Trust properties could distribute leaflets to visitors advising how they could contribute to
using less energy. Insulating houses, driving hybrid/electric cars, turning down the
thermostat and putting on a pullover, etc. etc.

4) There is a conflict between conservation and "authenticity" which is not satisfactorily

resolved at ….; the desire for authenticity led to destructive work in (e.g.) the stables yard;
this has to be better balanced

5) Planting trees and using solar energy where possible

6) Climate change is a complicated subject and requires a fundamental re-think of our

society values and consumerism; tinkering around the edges may make us feel better but will
make little difference; i.e. if we take into account how much we have laid off our
manufacturing emissions to overseas suppliers our carbon footprint is still rising quite
sharply!

7) Instead of pulling down the weir … which runs through the property, install a hydro-
electric generator. You might have to raise the weir slightly but the power generated could
be a good example for others to copy and in the long run save money

8) Not sure. They are probably responding more to general environmental rather than
specifically climate change issues

9) Encouraging cycling to properties. Using locally sourced produce in the cafe.Using more
native species of plants. I don’t receive the policies etc. from head office so can't say if I feel
"connected" to them or not

10) The trouble with climate change initiatives is they cost so much and the Trust finds it
very difficult to secure funding to implement them. I have mentioned, in the past, on several
occasions that electricity could easily be generated at ….by installing a water wheel in the
river at the weir. I have been told that (we) can't afford it. I understand that money is tight
and that a very large sum is being spent on the new roof but if the Trust is really keen to do
it's part in helping climate change this is one small way of helping, not only that it would cut
down on the electricity bills

345
11) I remember visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology about 20 years ago and
thinking how fantastic their approach to sustainable technology was; they are only one
centre. If the Trust were to replicate even minor change what a huge impact we would have
on emissions

12) The study and use of the good practices of land management that were used by previous
generations are still being used by the Trust today. Including: the use of natural products to
control pests both inside buildings and in the parkland, the maintenance of land use and
animal husbandry using traditional methods which support the wild life in the area. Also
used are hedge laying, coppicing, and clearing of non indigenous species of trees (if not of
significant historic relevance to the property) and replanting with indigenous species,
farming on small scale using the best practices of organic farming, culling of deer to
maintain healthy populations, and the culling of squirrels to protect trees from ring barking

13) Public transport initiatives should be encouraged for access to trust properties from
conurbations - public subsidy would be justified

14) Certainly they have invested in fuel economy devices and use wood in fuel burners,
where appropriate

15) I enjoy the volunteering as it puts me in contact with people from all age groups and life
experience. The opportunity to work outdoors as part of a team is extremely gratifying. It is
always nice to see that you can make a difference

16) I believe so-called climate change is a naturally occurring cyclical process and we make
far too much fuss about it, Government and the NT use the term for their own agendas e.g.
political power and a nice way of advertising

17) Climate change can create too many mythical targets at a cost to the global economy that
is far more damaging e.g. wind farms and the lack of nuclear power

18) As I'm not a person who agrees with this whole thing of man-made climate change, I'm
probably not the best person for your survey. As someone who has studied archaeology and
whose wife has studied geology, I look at a much bigger picture and see our climate
changing over millennia. I consider us to be still emerging from the "little ice age"

19) I see very little to make me believe the National Trust is responding to climate change

20) I am unaware of the NT's response to climate change. I am aware that they were very
late and unsuccessful in responding to the threat to … and that they did not support residents
of … in trying to prevent further building on the valley floor within the AONB. This is an
on-going concern. If the NT wishes members and local people to support them, then it needs
to be reciprocated when the organisation is approached to support legitimate concerns about

346
building on green spaces very close to NT land, especially when such building would be
detrimental to tourism in the area

21) I find the climate change debate to be a red herring. The world has never had a climate
that has stayed static. Change is the only constant we have. The NT cannot do anything to
alter the climate. Activities/ actions that the NT put in to place regarding Man Made Climate
Change are more about good PR for the Trust, not actions that will alleviate climate change
in the future. The NT should be learning to live with the effects of a none static climatic
environment and putting into place actions that will allow the Trust to function in whatever
climate we get. Humans, nor the NT have a huge effect on our climate when compared with
nature

22) The climate is definitely changing but since I am unclear as to exactly what is causing it
to change then it is difficult for me to have a view on how effective NT steps are. My only
comment would be that if the step also saves money e.g. re-using rainwater, then it is good

23) I hope the Trust will seriously investigate alternative sources of energy in the near future
and perhaps look to working with other bodies on possible education programmes in this
area

24) It could do a lot more, but how changes to older buildings, i.e. fitting with solar panels
electricity/heat, as a visual aspect seems to prevent this important benefit. How many NT
prop: have wind turbines? More encouragement for people to visit the various sites by
bike/walk/bus rather than building bigger car parks

25) I feel that … could do far more to reduce their carbon footprint. Any advances in doing
so always appear to be constrained by the fact that the money "needs" to be spent elsewhere.
I believe that the Welsh properties have done some excellent work recently and it would be
good to see this mirrored just across the border

26) I agree with the Chairman's views on Wind Farms. The ‘managers' of the National Trust
as an elitist, 'precious' organisation has little understanding of the needs and views of the
majority of the population. The NT underestimates the potential of human understanding and
ability to adapt to new situations. The major threat to the conservation of the environment is
by those who underestimate the potential for innovation and resourcefulness

27) I think that the National Trust has an open book when it comes to responding to climate
change. The visitors coming to National Properties appreciate the countryside and the
historical aspect of the properties which they make an effort to come an see and source
information relating to the National Trust; they have a thirst for conservation and protecting
it and I believe they are clued-up with regards to the dangers of climate change and its future

347
effect. This means that the National trust can feed their existing knowledge and awareness of
the results of climate change with any information possible - spreading the word! This
obviously relates to the properties and grounds too and the approach which the National trust
adopts to this change

28) The Trust desperately needs more cash to tackle Conservation and hence changes in the
climate. They must do research into new methods of disposing of waste product and fully
utilising the resources that are abundant on NT properties (Wood Chip burners etc.). New
methods to tackle old problems will be the key to the future

348
 Appendix 8.1

Visitor survey
Quantitative data

349
 Property Face-to-face Face-to-face Face-to-face Mail-back Mail-back Mail-back Mail-back Total sample Overall
approached responses response rate % issue target issue actual responses response rate % n response
n n rate %
Back-to-Backs n/a n/a n/a 500 500 227 45 227 45%
Charlecote Park 125 119 95 200 200 101 50 220 67%
Clent Hills 140 138 98 200 200 100 50 238 70%
Moseley Old Hall n/a n/a n/a 500 136 44 31 44 32%
The Weir 66 66 100 200 52 52 100 118 100%
Total 327 323 98% 1600 1088 524 48% 847 59.85%

Table 8.1.1

National Trust (West Midlands) visitor survey response rates

1st September – 1st March 2013

350
 Question 1 MOH TWR CLH CHP B2B Aggregated
How often do you visit this property? N % N % N % N % N % N %
Daily/few days a week 0 0 1 1 17 7 2 1 4 2 24 3
A few times a month 4 10 6 5 42 18 8 4 4 2 64 7
Once a month 2 5 3 2 13 5 3 1 0 0 21 2
A few times a year 3 6 24 21 88 37 32 15 2 1 149 18
Once a year 2 5 4 3 23 10 7 3 4 2 40 5
Once every few years 9 21 8 7 17 7 28 13 21 9 83 10
First visit 23 53 72 61 37 16 140 63 192 84 464 55
N/% 43 100 118 100 237 100 220 100 227 100 845 100
Question 2
Is your visit to this property:
Return trip: main purpose of the visit? 26 74 55 51 192 86 116 55 67 40 456 61
Return trip being part of other plans? 7 20 32 30 29 13 56 27 69 41 193 26
En-route, part of a tour? 2 6 20 19 2 1 38 18 32 19 94 13
N/% 35 100 107 100 223 100 210 100 168 100 743 100
Question 3
How far travelled to get to the property?
Within 5 miles from start point 12 29 24 21 113 48 21 10 29 13 199 24
Approximately 5-25 miles from start 21 50 56 48 97 42 85 39 80 36 339 41
Over 25 miles from start 9 21 36 31 24 10 110 51 114 51 293 35
N/% 42 100 116 100 234 100 216 100 223 100 831 100
Question 4
How did you travel to this property today?
Car 40 93 114 97 216 92 194 88 90 38 654 77
Bicycle 7 3 1 1 8 1
On foot 3 7 1 2 12 5 1 1 9 4 26 3
Bus 20 8 20 2
Coach tour 23 10 8 3 31 4
Motorbike 1 1 -
Rail/foot 80 34 80 9
Rail/bicycle 1 1 1 -
Rail/taxi 11 5 11 1
Rail/bus 14 6 14 2
Taxi 2 1 2 1
Other 2 2
N/% 43 100 117 100 236 100 219 100 235 100 848 100

Table 8.1.2

5-Property visitor survey – categorical data

Legend: MOH (Moseley Old Hall) CHP (Charlecote Park) CLH (Clent Hills) TWR (The Weir) B2B (Back-to-Backs)

(Continued on page 356)

351
 Question 5
Is today’s car journey:
Just by yourself? 4 10 11 10 14 6 16 9 3 3 48 7
Shared with someone else/group? 36 90 103 90 202 94 171 91 90 97 602 93
N/% 40 100 114 100 216 100 187 100 93 100 650 100
Question 6
Travelled car: consider alternative mode?
Yes 5 12 5 5 30 14 11 6 36 37 87 14
Maybe 4 10 12 10 53 24 37 18 30 31 136 20
No 31 78 98 85 134 62 148 76 31 32 442 66
N/% 40 100 115 100 217 100 196 100 97 100 665 100
Question 11
Male 11 25 57 50 113 48 102 47 82 39 365 45
Female 32 75 57 50 120 52 114 53 129 61 452 55
N/% 43 100 114 100 233 100 216 100 211 100 817 100
Age 15-29 0 - 0 44 19 8 3 8 3 60 7
Age 30-44 15 35 8 7 64 27 28 13 24 11 139 17
Age 45-64 20 47 53 46 100 42 106 49 107 48 386 46
Age 65 and over 8 18 54 47 29 12 75 35 85 38 251 30
N/% 43 100 115 100 237 100 217 100 224 100 836 100
National Trust member or volunteer - Yes 36 84 109 92 78 33 185 84 153 67 561 66
National Trust member or volunteer - No 7 16 9 8 160 67 35 16 74 33 285 34
N/% 43 100 118 100 238 100 220 100 227 100 846 100

Table 8.1.2 (continued)

5-Property visitor survey – categorical data

Legend: MOH (Moseley Old Hall) CHP (Charlecote Park) CLH (Clent Hills) TWR (The Weir) B2B (Back-to-Backs)

352
Variable N Mean StDev SE Mean 95% CI
C30 213 3.131 1.489 0.102 2.930 3.333
C31 210 3.390 1.294 0.089 3.214 2.566
C32 209 3.612 1.311 0.090 3.433 3.791
C33 207 3.126 2.962 0.206 2.720 3.531
C34 206 2.048 1.232 0.085 1.879 2.217
C35 392 3.801 1.502 0.075 3.651 3.950
C36 388 1.948 1.438 0.073 1.804 2.092
C37 385 2.815 1.667 0.085 2.648 2.982
C38 386 3.792 1.476 0.075 3.645 3.940
C39 396 3.863 1.491 0.074 3.716 4.011
C40 843 3.716 1.168 0.040 3.637 3.795
C41 843 4.200 1.028 0.035 4.130 4.270
C42 839 2.798 1.351 0.046 2.702 2.885
C43 837 3.971 1.125 0.038 3.895 4.047
C44 834 3.977 1.068 0.037 3.904 4.049
C45 837 3.814 1.148 0.039 3.736 3.892
C46 843 3.826 1.110 0.038 3.751 3.901
C47 840 3.763 1.132 0.039 3.686 3.839
C48 839 2.661 1.159 0.040 2.583 2.740

C30 Savings on travel costs 5 4 3 2 1

C31 Reducing my personal carbon footprint 5 4 3 2 1
C32 Personal health and fitness e.g. walking/bicycle 5 4 3 2 1
C33 Supporting local economy e.g. local bus service 5 4 3 2 1
C34 Social reasons e.g. make new friends; contacts 5 4 3 2 1

C35 Distance too long/challenging or unsafe road conditions 5 4 3 2 1

C36 Health/mobility considerations 5 4 3 2 1
C37 Carrying family/extra passengers/equipment 5 4 3 2 1
C38 Lack of public transport networks / limited service 5 4 3 2 1
C39 Flexibility e.g. time, other tasks and journeys 5 4 3 2 1

C40 Global warming has become the greatest environmental threat facing
the planet 5 4 3 2 1
C41 We all have a personal moral duty to reduce our carbon emissions to help
reduce global warming 5 4 3 2 1
C42 Human contributions to causing global warming (e.g. industrialisation)
have been exaggerated 5 4 3 2 1
C43 We should view the natural environment as having equal rights to
humankind 5 4 3 2 1
C44 A radical rethink of government policy is needed if the UK is to reduce its
carbon emissions significantly 5 4 3 2 1
C45 Collectively, individual lifestyle changes/local action will make a
significant difference in reducing carbon emissions 5 4 3 2 1
C46 Organisations such as the National Trust have an important role to play in
tackling climate change on all fronts 5 4 3 2 1
C47 Conservation of natural and built heritage helps to address the impacts
of climate change 5 4 3 2 1
C48 Tourism harms environment = not help us tackle climate change 5 4 3 2 1

Table 8.1.3 Mean and standard deviations for travel and environmental attitudes
Total sample: one sample T-test C30-C48 = Highest scorer

353
 Question 2 MOH TWR CLH CHP B2B Total Chi-square p value
Is your visit to this property:
Return trip: main purpose of the visit? 26 55 192 116 67 456
Return trip being part of other plans? 7 32 29 56 69 193
En-route, part of a tour? 2 20 2 38 32 94
Total 35 107 223 210 168 743 0.001

Question 3
How far travelled to get to the property?
Within 5 miles from start point 12 24 113 21 29 199
Approximately 5-25 miles from start 21 56 97 85 80 339
Over 25 miles from start 9 36 24 110 114 293
Total 42 116 234 216 223 831 0.001

Question 5
Is today’s car journey:
Just by yourself? 4 11 14 16 3 48
Shared with someone else/group? 36 103 202 171 90 602
Total 40 114 216 187 93 650 0.258

Question 6
Travelled car: consider alternative mode?
Yes 5 5 30 11 36 87
Maybe 4 12 53 37 30 136
No 31 98 134 148 31 442
Total 40 115 217 196 97 665 0.001

Question 11
Male 11 57 113 102 82 365
Female 32 57 120 114 129 452
Total 43 114 233 216 211 817 0.014

Age 15-29 0 0 44 8 8 60
Age 30-44 15 8 64 28 24 139
Age 45-64 20 53 100 106 107 386
Age 65 and over 8 54 29 75 85 251
Total 43 115 237 217 224 836 0.001

National Trust member or volunteer - Yes 36 109 78 185 152 561

National Trust member or volunteer - No 7 9 160 35 74 285
Total 43 118 238 220 227 846 0.001

Table 8.1.4
Travel behaviour – All properties (Chi-square @ 95% confidence)

The Chi-square tests show that, with the exception of sharing car journeys, all aspects of
travel behaviour, gender, age, and membership of the National Trust were unique to each
property; in other words, there was an association with statistical significance (95%).

Significant at P = < 0.05

354
Travel attitudes/Environmental Moseley Old Hall The Weir Clent Hills Charlecote Park Back-to-Backs Aggregated
attitudes
N=43 N=118 N=238 N=220 N=227 N=846
Gn Ag NT Gnd Age NT Gnd Age NT? Gnd Age NT? Gnd Age NT? Gnd Age NT?
d e ? ?
Reasons for not (or possibly
not) using car:
Savings on travel costs # # # 0.39 0.436 # 0.121 0.477 0.855 0.18 0.001 0.724 0.311 0.295 0.95 0.091 0.351 0.487
8 0 2
Reducing my personal carbon # # # 0.04 0.464 # 0.01 0.009 0.858 0.76 0.574 0.000 0.02 0.210 0.48 0.00 0.03 0.00
footprint 2 3 4 4 1 2 5 9
Personal health and fitness # # # 0.77 0.908 # 0.219 0.020 0.428 0.75 0.402 0.550 0.637 0.070 0.95 0.910 0.718 0.088
0 3 7
Supporting local economy # # # 0.33 0.524 # 0.01 0.090 0.523 0.41 0.000 0.708 0.570 0.500 0.17 0.162 0.00 0.589
1 8 6 4 1
Social reasons # # # 0.45 0.180 # 0.283 0.655 0.765 0.52 0.131 0.373 0.969 0.841 0.80 0.182 0.569 0.02
6 7 4 4
Reasons for continuing to use
car:
Long distance/challenging road # # # 0.10 0.156 # 0.096 0.609 0.107 0.54 0.018 0.450 0.286 0.421 0.73 0.04 0.345 0.106
conditions 9 0 2 0
Health/mobility # # # 0.99 0.238 # 0.569 0.142 0.01 0.35 0.493 0.047 0.891 0.906 0.23 0.784 0.101 0.144
5 4 1 7
Carrying # # # 0.22 0.00 # 0.451 0.786 0.359 0.78 0.169 0.125 0.116 0.044 0.42 0.776 0.00 0.066
family/passengers/equipment 8 1 4 6 1
Lack of/limited public transport # # # 0.51 0.02 # 0.308 0.263 0.242 0.32 0.645 0.847 0.264 0.572 0.32 0.635 0.953 0.158
2 3 3 2
Loss of flexibility # # # 0.90 0.080 # 0.239 0.277 0.924 0.68 0.048 0.554 0.077 0.001 0.34 0.644 0.00 0.675
7 7 1 2
Environmental issues/role of
NT:
Global warming greatest # # # 0.068 0.264 # 0.00 0.034 0.417 0.97 0.986 0.432 0.234 0.141 0.40 0.00 0.111 0.523
environmental threat 1 0 6 3
Personal moral duty to reduce # # # 0.029 0.275 # 0.02 0.200 0.163 0.96 0.204 0.265 0.00 0.113 0.64 0.00 0.00 0.502
CO2 5 6 7 5 1 4
Human contributions CO2 # # # 0.060 0.729 # 0.822 0.074 0.668 0.37 0.313 0.134 0.516 0.00 0.14 0.400 0.00 0.211
exaggerated 2 1 0 1
Nature has equal rights to # # # 0.331 0.283 # 0.937 0.070 0.475 0.58 0.094 0.500 0.265 0.674 0.09 0.631 0.01 0.650
humans 9 3 3
Radical rethink of UK govt. # # # 0.208 0.468 # 0.080 0.00 0.05 0.97 0.00 0.05 0.114 0.142 0.29 0.061 0.00 0.03

355
 policy needed to ↓ CO2 7 2 8 6 4 3 1 1
Individual/local action is # # # 0.007 0.426 # 0.00 0.00 0.213 0.66 0.988 0.099 0.00 0.00 0.39 0.00 0.00 0.229
effective for reducing CO2 1 9 5 9 8 2 1 1
NT has an important role to # # # 0.383 0.331 # 0.00 0.349 0.651 0.15 0.282 0.00 0.01 0.673 0.73 0.00 0.871 0.145
play in reducing CO2 8 5 1 4 0 1
Conservation helps address # # # 1.000 0.464 # 0.116 0.214 0.259 0.13 0.127 0.087 0.01 0.597 0.16 0.00 0.828 0.477
impacts of climate change 2 0 1 3
Tourism harms environment; # # # 0.358 0.104 # 0.757 0.742 0.906 0.34 0.326 0.00 0.416 0.872 0.25 0.113 0.772 0.575
not help climate change 1 2 8

Legend:
# Sample size too small for tests Values in italics = p <0.05 although some samples too small for generalising
Gnd Gender
Age Categories included: 15-29; 30-44; 45-64; 65+ Values in italics = p <0.05
NT? National Trust member/non-member
Agg Aggregated value for all 5 properties; n=846

Table 8.1.5
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of travel and environmental attitudes amongst 5 West Midlands National Trust properties at 95% confidence leve

356
 Travel attitudes/Environmental attitudes P < 0.05

Reasons for not (or possibly not) using car: (Excludes)

Savings on travel costs (The Weir) 0.068
Reducing my personal carbon footprint (The Weir) 0.029
Personal health and fitness (The Weir) 0.001
Supporting local economy (The Weir) 0.289
Social reasons (The Weir) 0.001
Reasons for continuing to use car:
Long distance/challenging road conditions (Back2Backs) 0.326
Health/mobility (Back2Backs) 0.117
Carrying family/passengers/equipment (Back2Backs) 0.001
Lack of/limited public transport (Back2Backs) 0.200
Loss of flexibility (Back2Backs) 0.003
Environmental issues/role of NT:
Global warming is greatest environmental threat 0.209
Personal moral duty to reduce CO2 0.099
Human contributions to CO2 emissions have been exaggerated 0.963
Nature has equal rights to humans 0.050
Radical rethink of UK government policy needed to reduce Co2 0.001
Individual/local action is effective for reducing CO2 0.122
NT has an important role to play in reducing CO2 0.003
Conservation helps address impacts of climate change 0.127
Tourism harms environment; does not help tackling CC 0.001

Values in italics = P < 0.05

(Excludes) = properties with disproportionately small sample size e.g. n<30 are excluded

Table 8.1.6
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of travel and environmental attitudes
Five West Midlands National Trust properties at 95% confidence level
Cross-property (excluding Moseley Old Hall)

357
 YxN Yes/Maybe No
Environmental issues/role of NT: N = 222 N = 439
Global warming is the greatest environmental threat 0.050 3.811 3.617
Personal moral duty to reduce CO2 0.179
Human contributions CO2 have been exaggerated 0.116
Nature has equal rights to humans 0.842
Radical rethink of UK govt. policy needed to reduce CO2 0.010 4.104 3.861
Individual/local action is effective for reducing CO2 0.007 3.901 3.671
NT has an important role to play in reducing CO2 0.427
Conservation helps address impacts of climate change 0.018
Tourism harms environment; not help tackling climate change 0.035 2.793 2.588

Values in italics P = <0.05

Table 8.1.7
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of environmental attitudes amongst car travellers: yes/maybe change mode vs.
will not change mode
Properties amalgamated

358
 Gender/age MOH MOH MOH TWR TWR TWR CLH CLH CLH CHP CHP CHP B2B B2B B2B Aggregated Aggregated
Total NT (NT) Total NT (NT) Total NT (NT) Total NT (NT) Total NT (NT) NT (NT)

Male 15-29 0 0 20 2 (18) 4 3 (1) 4 3 (1) 8 20

Male 30-44 5 3 (2) 3 2 (1) 32 7 (25) 13 10 (3) 9 3 (6) 25 37
Male 45-64 5 3 (2) 26 25 (1) 44 15 (29) 50 42 (8) 33 25 (8) 110 48
Male 65+ 1 1 28 27 (1) 17 9 (8) 35 33 (2) 37 27 (10) 97 21
Female 15-29 0 0 22 6 (16) 3 2 (1) 4 4 12 17
Female 30-44 10 10 5 3 (2) 31 9 (22) 15 10 (5) 15 7 (8) 39 37
Female 45-64 15 13 (2) 25 23 (2) 55 21 (34) 57 50 (7) 67 46 (21) 153 66
Female 65+ 7 6 (1) 26 26 10 3 (7) 37 32 (5) 40 29 (11) 96 24
N 43 36 (7) 113 106 (7) 231 72 (159) 214 182 (32) 209 144 (65) 540 270

Notes:
*Amalgamating categories produces variant sample sizes due to non-responses in each category.
Values in bold = most frequently occurring gender at property.
(NT) = Non-member.

Table 8.1.8
5-Property visitor survey: visitor profile – age, gender, member
N=81

359
 Question 1 F45-64 NT All 15-29 Aggregated
N=153 N=57 N=846
How often do you visit this property? N % N % N %
Daily/few days a week 2 1 3 5 24 3
A few times a month 8 5 8 14 64 7
Once a month 1 1 5 9 21 2
A few times a year 18 12 14 24 149 18
Once a year 6 4 5 9 40 5
Once every few years 14 9 5 9 83 10
First visit 104 68 17 30 464 55
N/% 153 100 57 100 845 100
Question 2
Is your visit to this property:
Return trip: main purpose of the visit? 58 45 43 84 456 61
Return trip being part of other plans? 46 35 7 14 193 26
En-route, part of a tour? 26 20 1 2 94 13
N/% 130 100 51 100 743 100
Question 3
How far travelled to get to the property?
Within 5 miles from start point 23 15 15 27 199 24
Approximately 5-25 miles from start 62 41 34 62 339 41
Over 25 miles from start 65 44 6 11 293 35
N/% 150 100 55 100 831 100
Question 4
How did you travel to this property today?
Car 119 76 49 87 654 77
Bicycle 1 1 8 1
On foot 4 3 2 4 26 3
Bus 3 2 1 2 20 2
Coach tour 9 6 31 4
Motorbike 1 -
Rail/foot 16 10 3 5 80 9
Rail/bicycle 2 1 1 -
Rail/taxi 1 1 1 2 11 1
Rail/bus 14 2
Taxi 2 1
Other
N/% 155* 100 56 100 848 100
Question 5
Is today’s car journey:
Just by yourself? 6 5 3 6 48 7
Shared with someone else/group? 114 95 47 94 602 93
N/% 120 100 50 100 650 100
Question 6
Travelled car: consider alternative mode?
Yes 13 11 6 12 87 14
Maybe 25 20 14 28 136 20
No 84 69 30 60 442 66
N/% 122 100 50 100 665 100
*Note: one or two samples were recorded as using 2 modes of travel

Table 8.1.9
Travel behaviour Female members 45-64 year-olds x All 15-29 year-ol

360
 Membership overall %

33%
Members
67%
Non-mem

Age groups overall %

7
17
47 45-64
65+

29 30-44
15-29

Gender overall %

45%

55% Female
Male

Figure 8.1.1
Membership; Age; Gender
Overall

361
 Appendix 8.2

Visitor survey
Qualitative data

362
 Moseley Old Hall qualitative data (n=43)
Members n=36; non-members n=7

Joint visit with Jodrell Bank

Discovered on NT app
Social
NT shop/2nd hand books
Weekend break
Stroll in grounds
Tea shop
VFR/family Non-members
En-route
Members
First visit
Day out
Volunteering activities
Visit Hall/NT properties/historical…
Halloween/pumpkin carving event

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
No. respondents

Figure 8.2.1: MOH Main purpose of visit (members vs. non-members)

Joint visit with Jodrell Bank

Discovered on NT app
Weekend break
Stroll in grounds
Tea shop
VFR/family
En-route
First visit
Day out Visitors
Social
NT shop/2nd hand books
Volunteering activities
Visit Hall/NT properties/historical interest
Halloween/pumpkin carving event

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
No. respondents

363
 Figure 8.2.2: MOH Main purpose of visit – all visitors

Environmental farming
Woodland protection
Awareness of issues
Public transport details in handbook
Encourage walking
Cycling trails/facilities
Members
Water conservation
Sourcing local food
Low CO2/renewable energy measures
Recycling

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

No. mentions

Figure 8.2.3: MOH Awareness of measures to combat climate change (members only)

South East

Yorkshire & North East

North West
Non-members
Members
East of England

Midlands

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
No. respondents

364
 Figure 8.2.4: MOH Members vs. non-members postcodes

South East

Yorkshire & North East

North West
Visitors

East of England

Midlands

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
No. respondents

Figure 8.2.5: MOH All visitors’ postcodes

Midlands members'
postcodes
Birmingham
Wolverhampton
1 1
2 Stoke-on-Trent
8
2 Walsall

2 Telford
Derby
3 5 Coventry
Dudley

365
 Midlands non-
members' postcodes

1
Wolverhampt
on
Walsall
3

Midlands visitors'
postcodes

Birmingham
1
Wolverhampton
1
2 8 Stoke-on-Trent
2
Walsall
3 Telford

3 Derby
8
Coventry
Dudley

Figure 8.2.6: MOH Midlands visitors’ postcodes

Additional comments from MOH questionnaire

Q6 - Too far off bus route, too much to carry. (Member)

366
 The Weir qualitative data (n=118)

Members n=109; non-members n=9

The river
First visit
Fishing
Halloween trail/event
NT member
Photography/autumn colours/wildlife Non member

En-route Member

Pleasure/recreation
On holiday/short break
Walk/picnic
Visit gardens

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Figure 8.2.7: TWR Main purpose of visit (members vs. non-members)

367
 The river
First visit
Fishing
NT member
Halloween trail/event
Photography/autumn colours/wildlife
Visitors
En-route
Pleasure/recreation
On holiday/short break
Walk/picnic
Visit gardens

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Figure 8.2.8: TWR Main purpose of visit – all visitors

Planting bee/insect-friendly plants

Interacting with local nature trusts
Coastal conservation
Volunteering
Land management e.g. path maintenance
General conservation/preservation
Tree planting/managing woodland
Organic gardening/drought-free Members
Water conservation measures
Peat-free compost
Promote car-free transport
Recycling/take rubbish home
Low CO2/renewable energy measures
Local food sourcing/grow your own

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 8.2.9: TWR Awareness of measures to combat climate change (members only)

368
 East of England

USA

Lonson

North West

Yorkshire & North East Non members

Members
South West

Wales

South East

Midlands

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Figure 8.2.10: TWR Members vs. non-members postcodes

USA
London
East of England
North West
Yorkshire & North East
Visitors
South West
Wales
South East
Midlands

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Figure 8.2.11: TWR All visitors’ postcodes

369
 Midlands members' Midlands non-
postcodes members'
Hereford
postcodes

Birmingham

11 Coventry
2
2 2
Leicester
4 1
22
Worcester Hereford
5
Worcester
Shrewsbury
5 3
5
Dudley

Stoke-on-
Trent
Derby

Figure 8.2.12: TWR Midlands visitors’ postcodes

370
 Midlands visitors'
postcodes

Hereford

11 Birmingham
2 Coventry
2 2
Leicester
5 25 Worcester

5 Shrewsbury

5 Dudley
5 Stoke-on-Trent
Derby
Nottingham

Figure 8.2.13: TWR Midlands visitors’ postcodes(contd)

Additional comments from TWR questionnaire

C29: Too dangerous to cycle.

C29: No transport to the weir.

C35: I am a keen and regular cycle rider; routes to weir too dangerous [45-64 yrs].

While industries pour CO2 out, our puny efforts are useless and are only delaying the
inevitable extinction of humans who are only a small part of life.

C40: Not as threatening as warfare! Or unimpeded development in the 3rd world,

habitat/forest destruction. C45: tourism where? Harmful to the Antarctic for e.g. but often
beneficial in UK to attract visitors to nature reserves that may otherwise have been built
on.

C45: Individual/local action can be effective, but it has to be global

C46 - NT should set an example.

The NT and Scottish NT should object to the development of wind farms and turbines as
they create more damage to the environment than any other form of renewable energy.

371
Head gardener: effects of climate change: maintenance; trees dying; broad beans: no black
flies, no aphids; the NT not sure itself on climate change, e.g. planting Mediterranean
plants; there should be more of opening up a debate amongst the gardeners; seasonal
changes: hot spring

led to plants appearingearly and then finishing early e.g. snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells,
shorter season; floods in summer; later leaf fall leads to work being condensed into
November and December, late autumn, e.g. clearing leaf fall for health and safety (tripping
over roots, slipping etc.); some changes "unheard of" to date.

Clent Hills qualitative data (n=238)

Members n=78; non members n=160

Stop-off
Volunteering
Close to home
Cycling
Special interest
Guided walks
Exercise
VFR/family Members
Social
Non members
Leisure
Café/pub/picnic
Scenery etc
Dog walking
Walking

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.14: CLH Main purpose of visit (members vs. non-members)

372
 Stop-off
Volunteering
Close to home
Cycling
Special interest
Guided walks
Exercise
VFR/family
Social All visitors
Leisure
Café/pub/picnic
Scenery etc
Dog walking
Walking

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.15: CLH Main purpose of visit – all visitors

Using land-fill tax

Hydro-electric power (Snowdonia)
Volunteering
Allotments
This survey
Education
Car park charges
Conservation
Protecting coastline/flood defences Members
Water conservation outdoor/indoor
Non members
Ground source heating/solar panels
Sourcing local food
Public transport initiatives/cycle incentives
Waste recycling
Renewable/alternative energy
Land management (fencing, paths etc)
Woodland management/tree planting
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.16: CLH Awareness of measures to combat climate change (members vs. non-members)

373
 Using land-fill tax

Volunteering

This survey

Car park charges

Protecting coastline/flood defences

All visitors
Ground source heating/solar panels

Public transport initiatives/cycle incentives

Renewable/alternative energy

Woodland management/tree planting

0 2 4 6 8 10
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.17: CLH Awareness of measures to combat climate change (all visitors)

East of England

North West

London

Non members
South West
Members

South East

Midlands

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Number of responses

Postcodes allotted to NT regions

Figure 8.2.18: CLH Members vs. non-members postcodes

374
East of England

North West

London

South West All visitors

South East

Midlands

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Number of responses

Postcodes allotted to NT regions

Figure 8.2.19: CLH All visitors’ postcodes

Midlands non Midlands visitors'

members' postcodes
postcodes 1
11 Birmingham
1 1 8 Dudley
8
Birmingham
5 Worcester
18 Dudley 31 Coventry
Worcester
97 Walsall
71 Coventry
Telford
Walsall
Derby

Figure 8.2.20: CLH Midlands visitors’ postcodes

375
Additional comments from CLH questionnaire

C38: One member lamented the passing of the Midland Red bus service (member)

C40: “The planet is OK. It's the human race that's the threat!” (member)

C48: Some tourism does harm the environment; sustainable tourism is increasingly popular
(member)

C28/29: If there were a railway station in Clent, then yes, would consider alternative to car.
(non member)

376
 Charlecote Park qualitative data (n=240)
Members n=185; non members n=35

Purchase venison
To see the deer
Nostalgia/revisit
Social/VFR
First visit
Tea shop
Weekend break
Non members
Stratford/RST/NEC/shopping
Tourism/leisure/recreation (general) Members
Walk (boundary/gardens)/exercise
Visit connected with volunteers
On tour/coach visit
Visit house and gardens/day out

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.21: CHP Main purpose of visit (members vs. non-members)

Purchase venison
To see the deer
Nostalgia/revisit
Social/VFR
First visit
Tea shop
Weekend break
Stratford/RST/NEC/shopping All visitors
Tourism/leisure/recreation (general)
Walk (boundary/gardens)/exercise
Visit connected with volunteers
On tour/coach visit
Visit house and gardens/day out

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.22: CHP Main purpose of visit – all visitors

377
 Green transport to properties
Public transport: encourage
Land management (e.g. peat)
Purchasing coastline
Protecting green belt
Education
Protect bees
Non members
Protecting coastline/flood defences
Members
Water conservation outdoor/indoor
Preservation of habitat/landscape…
Sourcing local food
Waste recycling
Renewable/alternative energy
Woodland management/tree planting

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Figure 8.2.23: CHP Awareness of measures to combat climate change (members/non members)

Scotland

London

Wales

East of England

Yorkshire & North East

Non members
North West
Members
South West

South East

Midlands

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of responses

Postcodes allotted to NT regions (except Scotland)

Figure 8.2.24: CHP Members vs. non-members postcodes

378
 Scotland

London

Wales

East of England

Yorkshire & North East

North West All visitors

South West

South East

Midlands

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Number of responses

Postcodes allotted to NT regions (except Scotland)

Figure 8.2.25: CHP All visitors’ postcodes

379
 Midlands members'
postcodes
11
2 Coventry
2 2
2 Birmingham
Worcester
3 27
3 Derby
3 Leicester
3
Northampton
7
Dudley

Midlands non
members' postcodes

1 1 Coventry
Birmingham

7 10 Nottingham
Leicester

Midlands visitors'
postcodes
3 22 11
Coventry
2
3 Birmingham
3
37 Worcester
4
Leicester
3
14 Derby
Northampton

Figure 8.2.26: CHP Midlands visitors’ postcodes

380
 Additional comments from CHP questionnaire (all from members)

C33: Less frequent bus services from Leamington on a Sunday

C42: The bigger issue is climate change from developing nations; India; China

C44: Train networks are important; the government is too concerned about “doing business”

C46: NT’s main role is heritage; NT has an educational role; setting an example

Back-to-Backs qualitative data (n=227)

Members n=153; non-members n=74

Coach tour/group activity

Volunteer tour guide
Bham attractions
Staying overnight in B2B
WI/OAP outing
German market
VFR/family
Non members
Local shows/concerts e.g. NEC
Members
Day out in Bham/one-off visit
Social (meet friends)
Short break in Bham; leisure; tourism
Nostalgia; lived in a B2B
Visit B2Bs; historical/social interest

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.27: B2B Main purpose of visit (members vs. non-members)

381
 Staying overnight in B2B
WI/OAP outing
Coach tour/group activity
Volunteer tour guide
Day out in Bham/one-off visit
Bham attractions
Short break in Bham; leisure; tourism
Local shows/concerts e.g. NEC
Nostalgia; lived in a B2B
Social (meet friends)
VFR/family
German market
Visit B2Bs; historical/social interest

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.28: B2B Main purpose of visit (all visitors)

382
 Managing countryside
Water conservation
Underground heating for houses
Allotments
Coastal protection; managed retreat
Preservation/conservation (Non members)
Encourage public transport All visitors

Recycling measures
Encourage cycling/walking
Sourcing local food
Low/renewable energy; low CO2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.29: B2B Awareness of measures to combat climate change (all visitors/non-members)

Scotland

London

South East

Yorkshire & North East

North West Non members

Members
East of England

South West

Midlands

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.30: B2B Members vs. non-members postcodes

383
 Scotland

Yorkshire & North East

London

South East

North West

East of England

South West

Midlands

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Number of responses

Figure 8.2.31: B2B All visitors’ postcodes

384
 Midlands members'
postcodes
Birmingham
11 Dudley
1
Worcester
3
4 Coventry

28 Telford
9
Derby

2 Stoke-on-Trent
2 Leicester
10 Northampton
6
7 Hereford
Nottingham
Walsall

Midlands non members'

postcodes
Birmingham
Stoke-on-Trent
1
1 Derby
11
2 Coventry
2 Walsall
17
2 Dudley
2 Wolverhampton

3 Worcester
4 Leicester
Nottingham
Northampton

Figure 8.2.32: B2B Midlands visitors’ postcodes

385
 Midlands visitors' postcodes

Birmingham
11
Stoke-on-Trent
2
3 2 Coventry
4
Dudley
5
Worcester
5
45
Derby
8 Leicester
Northampton
8 Walsall
Telford
12
13 Nottingham
Hereford
Wolverhampton

Figure 8.2.33: B2B Midlands visitors’ postcodes (All)

Additional comments from B2B questionnaire

Members

Climate change goes in cycles; river thames has frozen before; high temps have also occurred;
floods.

C27: Drove to Ledbury station; train to new street; walk and bus to jewellery quarter; taxi to
back-to-backs.
C27: Bus service from home is hourly and does not connect with train where going. When returning
late at night there is a poor bus service needing a 1.5 mile walk in the dark. We would have used a

386
taxi if car not available. Q7: used public transport for convenience, not for "green" reasons. Driving
into and parking in Bham and other major cities is not easy and best avoided!

C27: Rail (you have to get to the train station first!) Q7: none of these; it's just easier to park the car
at station than try to negotiate Birmingham.

C48: it depends what you mean by "tourism"; if you mean air travel then yes; but choosing to visit
NT places in UK is a better option.

Non-members

Q4: coach National Express.

C28: but only in the unlikely event of there being convenient, cheap, local transport and not as in
this case - a multi-stage, expensive journey that would have meant we wouldn't have come at all.

C44: UK has a responsibility, but the rapidly developing countries in SE Asia, India, Russia and Brazil
as well as the USA lag far behind W.Europe and have a much larger impact. Working in isolation is
fruitless although well intentioned.

C48: Sustainable tourism can help inform and educate on many issues including environmental
ones.

387
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