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Talking With the Mayor about the Climate – Third Salford Carbon Literacy Consortium Meeting

October 2017 by Rachel Harding

Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

Wednesday 4th October saw the third meeting of the Salford Carbon Literacy Consortium convened by City Mayor, Paul Dennett at The Landing, MediaCityUK.

The event was an important step towards rolling out Carbon Literacy across the city – and beyond, as this is the first area-based CL consortium (it’s a thing The Carbon Literacy Project could see working elsewhere).

Our Salford organisations came together with a willingness to share best practice and resources, and a tangible sense of community.

The first part of the event was a chance to ‘chat with the Mayor about the climate’. Proceedings started with participants briefly introducing themselves, showing the wide range of organisations represented in the room. These included construction companies BAM and Seddon and fellow non-profits, Groundwork MSSTT and City of Trees as well as representatives from the uniformed services, media, social housing, education and local small businesses.

Paul then explained how Climate Change action and the health and well-being of the city of Salford go hand in hand. A round-table discussion focused on the main priorities and values of each organisation and how they interlink with climate change action. One delegate – from the health sector – told us: –

“Money savings from reduced use of utilities can be put back into “bandages and beds” and to ensure job security (within private sector also)”

Paul wrapped up the session by explaining that we have to align Carbon Literacy with the competing needs of Salford’s residents. He offered the examples of reducing carbon emissions through energy efficiency measures, which can reduce energy bills, improve the environment and air quality and therefore, the health of the city.

The second part of the event was led by Carbon Literacy co-directors Phil Korbel and Dave Coleman. The focus was on the new tools designed to help organisations create and certify their Carbon Literacy course. These included:

  • Criteria Checker workshop on the 2nd November, to aid in the design and accreditation of the course,
  • **SOLD OUT** Carbon Literacy course for Interested Organisations on the 1st November, which will give an opportunity to observe a training course and gain ideas for course creation. We will hopefully be putting on additional dates soon, see our website for details,
  • Train the Trainer course (Date TBA),
  • The Course Construction Kit: a ‘skeleton course’ that will help you with the framework for your Carbon Literacy training materials.

This was followed by a brief introduction to two experienced Carbon Literacy trainers, Sarah McClelland from Great Places Housing and Andy Wilson from Groundwork MSSTT. Both trainers have not only delivered within their organisations but can also help create bespoke courses and run training externally.

The session closed by asking the participants, what are their next steps to rolling out Carbon Literacy, and to share their commitments with the rest of the room.

“I’ll be working with HR to identify staff that were not trained in the main rollout of Carbon Literacy across the organisation.”

“I will attend the Carbon Literacy training day on the 1st November and meet with Groundwork.”

“We are looking at training budget and hoping to get in contact with our Scotland branch who are already rolling out Carbon Literacy.”

We will be running a series of assemblies to explain to staff and students our Carbon Literacy plans.”

The next meeting of the consortium is planned for January.

Contact info@carbonliteracy.com to register your interest for any of the workshops and tools available or if you would like more information about rolling out Carbon Literacy in your organisation/community.

 

 

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