Carbon Literacy is the understanding of the causes and impacts of our everyday greenhouse gas emissions. This fundamental awareness offers a starting point for making real change in the way we tackle the climate emergency.
The Carbon Literacy Project focuses on the belief that we need a change in culture as well as technology to drastically reduce our emissions. We are proud to be an accredited Carbon Literate Organisation, with a Silver award.
In February 2019, we became one of the first local authorities to declare a climate emergency. We recognise that immediate and urgent action is the best solution to avoid catastrophic climate change.
In 2020, we set out a new Corporate Plan, putting the climate emergency at the heart of everything we do. This plan informs other key strategies and plans, in both council documents and those of our partners.
In 2024 we won the Carbon Literacy Action Day (CLAD) Catalyst Award from the Carbon Literacy Project, for our huge in-person training event in December 2023.
On Thursday 14 November, we are participating in Carbon Literacy Action Day – the world's largest climate education-and-action training event, coinciding with COP29.
The Action Day is a movement which sees a large number of people from all corners of the globe simultaneously complete carbon literacy training in a single day.
Our planned activity for the Action Day is to deliver free Carbon Literacy training for small to medium enterprises and voluntary, community and social enterprises in North Somerset.
This year’s course will take 7-8 hours and will be delivered via Microsoft Teams on 14 November. This is a free full-day training session delivered by our Carbon Literacy trainer. We may add an additional session during the week, depending on demand.
Becoming Carbon Literate means taking actionable steps towards tackling the climate emergency. You'll have an opportunity to understand the causes and effects of climate change and how it may affect your business or organisation, and what you can do to address the impacts.
To register your interest in Carbon Literacy training for Carbon Literacy Action Day 2024, please contact the climate emergency team.
Climate change is such an all-encompassing issue. It impacts so much of our lives – from our health, to our jobs, the price of our food, and the extreme weather it creates. Because of this, we have embedded the actions required to reduce these impacts into everything that we do as a council, and as a community.
We’ve put together this short video to explain in more detail what Carbon Literacy training is all about. We believe it can have a very positive impact on your business or organisation.
North Somerset Council is proud to have been accredited as a Carbon Literate Organisation. This accreditation is a visible ‘badge’ that shows we are both:
We currently hold a Silver award, because we have implemented a training programme across our organisation. More than 15% of our workforce, including every member of our Leadership Team, are Carbon Literate. We have also included training targets for additional members of staff in our annual performance management.
We will continue to demonstrate further commitment to increase Carbon Literacy by supporting partner organisations and members of our community.