As a business that works with organisations to digitise training materials and deploy them online, for years we were rather complacent about our carbon footprint. With no large fleet of company vehicles, very little business travel and certainly no heavy machinery or manufacturing involved in what we do, in the early days, we didn’t give our emissions very much thought at all.
It was in 2020 when we first heard about the Carbon Literacy Project, an organisation that has created a Climate Change Knowledge Framework and a day’s worth of Carbon Literacy training based around this. At first, we worked with customers like the Environment Agency, Defra and the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, who wanted their own versions of the Carbon Literacy course, to develop their e-learning components.
Later, we created a version of Carbon Literacy training for ourselves and asked all Traineasy employees who wished to take part to complete it. The changes they have made include our software developers working together to make our LMS code as efficient as possible so that it uses less computer processing power, and therefore less energy overall. (We are so proud of them!).
We have gone on to have our Carbon Literacy training course accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project so now it is available for customers. Delegates first complete our inspiring e-learning and then attend a half-day workshop. So far, the feedback has been great; delegates are saying it is “extremely relevant” and giving it 5 out of 5 stars. About the workshop, one delegate said, “I found the workshop truly enjoyable, relevant, and fun.”
We are doing our best to measure our emissions and will see how much they come down over time. The Carbon Trust estimates systematic action could save between £400 and £1,000/year for every employee, which would be a win-win for us and the planet!
Today, we have two courses accredited: Carbon Literacy for SMEs and Carbon Literacy for the Civil Service. We also offer bespoke courses for teams or groups from the same company. If you would like to attend one of our Carbon Literacy courses or to enquire for more information, please just contact us on: enquiries@traineasy.com. We’re so excited about our new course (and its sister courses, which include a seven-module e-learning range called ‘Sustainability and the Circular Economy’) we’ve dedicated a whole website to it: https://greenskills-training.co.uk/.
“Carbon Literacy training works because it creates new work cultures and directly engages staff in making a difference to the organisation. In this way, the intervention can be considered a form of professional development similar to traditional workplace training.”
Engaging staff in carbon reduction: an evaluation of Carbon Literacy training. Briefing Paper for Leeds Climate Commission, September 2921.
“The (Traineasy) training team are fantastic and easy to communicate with They are incredibly knowledgeable and made the learning feel exciting, relevant, topical, but most importantly, fun!“
Delegate feedback, September 2024
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