By Laura Adams and Sophie Harbert
What is Carbon Literacy?
The nonprofit Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) promotes training for individuals and organisations across the world to become ‘Carbon Literate’. The CLP defines Carbon Literacy as ‘an awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community, and organisational basis.’ The goal of the training is not to be a science lesson but an interactive course that encourages action and positive influence. Every Carbon Literate individual is predicted to result in carbon savings of 5-15% per person.
The movement is rapidly growing and there are currently almost 77,000 Carbon Literate individuals from over 6,000 organisations. The third annual Carbon Literacy Action Day (CLAD) was held on 4th December, with people coming together to deliver and celebrate the world’s largest climate education and action training event. Grain Sustainability took part by delivering our newly approved training within our organisation, as we began our journey to become a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) and to deliver accredited training to individuals and businesses.
Grain’s Carbon Literacy Masterclass
Carbon Literacy Action Day marked the launch of our training: ‘Carbon Literacy Masterclass for Professional Services’. It is designed for the professional services sector, including accountancy & finance, law, consulting, marketing, PR, advertising, and IT. It’s also relevant to individuals working in a professional services role within their organisation (for example, the marketing or finance director of a manufacturing business). Our course has been approved by the CLP with Sophie and Laura from the Grain team now accredited as Carbon Literacy Facilitators. We are also proud to incorporate the 3-hour Climate Fresk workshop as part of the full 8 hours of training, which is an option provided by only around 5% of courses at this time.
How environmental sustainability training creates change
The Carbon Literacy movement is a powerful culture change project. It’s considered globally unique in how it delivers positive impact at scale and was recognised as a ‘TAP100’ — one of 100 Transformative Action Programs — by the UN in 2015. The underpinning belief is that everybody has the potential to be a changemaker, and that the scale of the climate emergency requires action and collaboration from all to drive immediate carbon reduction action.
Grain’s decision to focus on engaging with professional services reflects our own position as a professional service organisation, our experience and knowledge working with professional services clients, and also our belief that professional services have a significant influence on others they work with. This puts them in a strong position to lead by example and encourage carbon reduction behaviour in their wider networks.
Organisations can be recognised as Carbon Literate across the four tiers of bronze, silver, gold and platinum when they evidence a substantial commitment to Carbon Literacy. Becoming a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) is a clear way to evidence your commitment to environmental sustainability as it requires actively supporting a Carbon Literate workforce and positive engagement with communities where you have influence.
Get in touch to find out how Grain can help you and your organisation become Carbon Literate.
