SOSE becomes Carbon Literate Organisation
South of Scotland Enterprise is now a Carbon Literate Organisation. Find out what that means, and what actions SOSE took to achieve this important accreditation.
Background
South of Scotland Enterprise is directed in our legislation to support the transitions required to meet Net Zero emissions target, as defined in section A1 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009).
With COP26 being held in Glasgow in November 2021, SOSE started to plan its own own COP26 activity in early 2021. This included the ambition to have our Board, Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and staff all trained in Climate and Carbon Literacy.
What actions have SOSE undertaken
In summer 2021, our Board and SLT completed the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Climate Solutions training, after which the decision was made to ensure all staff received Climate and Carbon Literacy training.
This enabled SOSE to engage with The Carbon Literacy Project through a consultancy tender to deliver training to nine staff groups between February and April 2022.
Carbon Literacy training
Following the approval of our accredited SOSE Carbon Literacy training (CC000287) we contracted consultants to deliver nine online training sessions, structured across four two-hour online meetings over two days.
Each group numbered on average 12 SOSE employees.
As a result, in March 2022 we became a bronze accredited Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO).
Pledges
As part of the Carbon Literacy Training employees were asked to pledge both individual and group actions.
For most these were identified within their work context, and we proposed grouping employees by the areas they work in, however they were free to choose on the day who they worked with for their group pledges.
A number of which have subsequently been taken forward, for example providing SOSE staff with Net Zero volunteering opportunities and progress in SOSE becoming a cycle friendly employer.
Following the successful delivery of climate literacy training to our Board and SLT we had their full support in our endeavour to see all employees trained.
Given there were also nine training groups there were opportunities for employees to find a session that worked for them.
It was important that each staff member attended across both days of training, and SOSE supported employees with developing their individual and group pledges in the immediate days after the training. This was due to there not being enough time on the day to fully complete pledge commitments.
Post-evaluation survey comment:
“It gives you a lot more confidence about how we as individuals, businesses and in the business support system can make a difference overall and how to approach the topic of conversation.”
Further training to expand knowledge
Alongside the initial delivery of CLT three members of SOSE’s Net Zero team successfully completed Manchester Metropolitan University’s Train the Trainer programme, helping SOSE to deliver the accredited SOSE Carbon Literacy Training course in-house.
We have subsequently delivered the training in-house to two further groups of employees.
Results
One of our summer 2021 Net Zero interns produced an excellent organisational carbon emission calculator and SOSE have seen an 8.5% decrease - approximately 25 tonnes of CO2e - of operational carbon footprint from 2020/2021 to 2021/2022.
SOSE plans to continue to drive down its carbon emissions for 2022/2023, and work towards Gold accreditation as a CLO in 2023 as we look to partner with both local authorities and local colleges in our region on Carbon Literacy.
Ambitions
Our ambition is to ensure all employees are certified carbon literate and any new employees are certified as part of their SOSE induction.
SOSE continues to empower our employees to take forward their pledges and find ways to enable them to do so. SOSE wants to embody our organisation’s values, being responsible and doing what is right for the planet.
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