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I went from being a mildly climate-concerned new mum to a campaigner in just a few years, thanks to Carbon Literacy training giving me a major wake-up call.

I had my first child in 2021, during the third lockdown, when there was plenty of time to think about what the future might hold for my daughter. At the same time, I was re-thinking my professional life, wanting to find a way to use my marketing skills and knowledge of effective learning and behaviour change – for the greater good. I had no idea at that point what this could look like.

In 2022, I spotted that our local climate charity, Futureproof Cumbria, was recruiting volunteer climate champions, and I jumped at the opportunity.

The first step of this was Carbon Literacy training – and it’s no exaggeration to say it changed my life.

My Carbon Literacy induced “eco-piphany”

Prior to Carbon Literacy training, I considered myself to be relatively clued up – but the training put everything into perspective and created a real sense of urgency to act.

The pivotal moment for me was when the trainer showed a world map and the likely impact of climate change on temperatures in different regions. She explained that at these temperatures, large parts of the world would be uninhabitable.

I was shocked.

So I asked a question: What timescales are we talking about for this to be happening?

And she said: “It’s realistic to think this could be in 30 years’ time”.

That hit me hard – when my children are my age, large parts of the world would be uninhabitable?! How had I not grasped this before? Why is no one talking about this, the impact on migration, food security, conflict etc?

I felt distraught. Shock, fear, despair.

But the great thing about the Carbon Literacy training was that we quickly turned to solutions. And not just what governments and big businesses need to do, but also what we can do as individuals and the importance of that.

My fire was lit!

I made my personal pledges, a requirement of the Carbon Literacy training:

• Improve the energy efficiency of our home.
• Make smarter choices when shopping for food, drink and other items.
• Rethink holiday plans to reduce the number of flights I take.

From personal to community action

As part of being a climate champion, I hosted a toy swap before Christmas in our local town, giving local parents the chance to save money and get second-hand gifts for their children – for free! This was a huge success and has become an annual event in the local parent community calendar.

I started thinking – if parents are happy to give their own kids second-hand gifts – why does it feel like a taboo to give other people pre-loved presents?

Combined with hearing friends complain about the number of parties their children were being invited to, the plastic-filled party bags and mountains of presents…I realised this was something I could tackle.

A campaign was born 

So, in January 2025, I launched the Kids Party Pact campaign – to normalise more affordable, less wasteful gifting and party bags at children’s parties.

I realised that children’s parties could be the Trojan horse for tackling consumption habits – in a way that tapped into more pressing pains for parents (the cost of living and clutter!).

The campaign has received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, and has been covered in The Times, BBC, Positive news and more. There is now a community of 25k+ people supporting the campaign on Instagram and beyond.

Energised to act

The fire that was lit during Carbon Literacy training has opened up a whole new world for me, where I feel I can use my skills and energy to have a positive impact. The campaign is creating ripples, with more parents having the confidence to reject the social norms and influence those around them, too.

Charlotte Mason-Curl is a marketing and comms consultant and the person behind The Kids Party Pact. She believes children’s parties are overlooked as a place to spark change. What started as a few Instagram posts has grown into a campaign that’s reached millions of parents.

Follow @no.crap.parties on Instagram and connect with Charlotte on LinkedIn.