Our News
2021 Year in Review
2021 has been a truly extraordinary year for The Carbon Literacy Project. Like others across the world, we have dealt with the ongoing challenges caused by the global pandemic; however, with the dedication and hard work of our incredible team, including our volunteers, Trustees and CL trainers, Carbon Literacy has continued to thrive, reaching further and wider than ever before.
Almost 9,000 learners have been certified this year, beating our 2020 record – our previous record-breaking year for certification of learners – by almost double. This means we’ll be starting the year tantalisingly close to our next huge milestone, as almost 25,000 learners are certified as Carbon Literate, so keep your eyes peeled over the next week or so!
We’ve also welcomed 9 CL Facilitators & Trainers and 27 Carbon Literate Organisations, as well as successfully engaging a further 665 organisations across 3 additional nations, and accrediting 94 new courses.
Read on for a recap of some of our highlights from 2021, as well as key dates for 2022!
Carbon Literacy for Social Housing
Funded by the Carbon Literacy for Registered Providers (CL4RPs) Consortium and developed in partnership with Great Places Housing Group, this toolkit was launched in September to streamline the delivery of Carbon Literacy training within recognised UK Social Housing Providers and approved partner organisations.
Read more here
Carbon Literacy for Healthcare
In October, we launched toolkits for NHS and Ambulance Services staff, as part of the ongoing public sector toolkits project funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) via The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). Further leadership toolkits for healthcare are in the pipeline for 2022!
Read more here
“…and Action!” The first-ever Carbon Literacy Action Day
We hosted our largest-ever training event on the 1st of November to mark the first day of COP26. Organisations across a vast array of sectors joined us online to share their experiences with Carbon Literacy, with many also delivering training. In total, 502 individuals were trained as part of the Action Day.
Read more here
Two-weeks of Sector Focus Days & visit to Glasgow for COP26
We ran an extensive program of sector-specific, online events between 1st-12th November during the two weeks of COP26. The Carbon Literacy Action Day was followed by a series of ‘Focus Days’, each showcasing the commitment to Carbon Literacy across a particular sector. Additionally, with some of our team attending COP, in person in Glasgow, as Observers in the Blue Zone and others in the Green Zone, we were lucky to have a good spread of experiences across the two weeks of COP26. It was a fantastic opportunity to be able to meet so many people and organisations, in such a short space of time, with such similar missions to ours.
Read more here
Carbon Literacy for Museums Took Root
Manchester Museum (part of the University of Manchester), Museum Development North West (MDNW), and The Carbon Literacy Trust received Arts Council England (ACE) National Lottery Project Grant funding for the ‘Roots and Branches’ Project, which aims to train and certify 1,500 museum professionals and volunteers as Carbon Literate. The training began as part of the Carbon Literacy Action Day and will be bolstered by the development of the brand new sector-specific toolkit due to be launched early in 2022.
Read more here
Carbon Literacy for Automotive
Auto Trader, the first FTSE 100 company to become Carbon Literate, funded, designed and developed (in collaboration with The Carbon Literacy Project and a number of leading automotive retailers and manufacturers) a Carbon Literacy toolkit for the automotive industry. The toolkit, launched as part of our Transport Focus Day during COP26, became the first CL toolkit to be funded by and rolled out in the private sector.
Read more here
Important dates for your diary:
7th Jan – 23rd March
Latest open Carbon Literacy courses
4th March
CLO Application Deadline
Spring 2022 (tbc)
CLO Awards
So, this year has been one for the books. We have seen historic climate action, and progress through COP26, though we know there is much more work to be done. We are closer than we were before to reaching the global goal to limit warming to 1.5C, but time is against us, so further acceleration towards that goal by significantly ramping up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions is what we all need to prioritise during the year ahead.
If you know of anyone looking to reduce the carbon footprint of their place of work, study, or community, or educate their people in climate change and what they can do about it, put them in touch with us to see how Carbon Literacy can accelerate their plans for a zero-carbon future.