Culture

Museums play a distinct role in our communities, inspiring and informing millions of people every year. It is important that the people who work and volunteer at museums feel confident about climate change. The Museums Toolkit is a ready-to-use course that any museum or gallery in the UK can use to deliver Carbon Literacy training. It contains practical information and tools to support museums’ efforts to reduce carbon impacts, meet funding requirements, and communicate confidently about these efforts. The Museums Toolkit also includes activities and tips to help museum staff and volunteers confidently act as storytellers and stewards, telling the important story of climate change through collections and activities.

The Museums Toolkit was co-developed with Museum Development North West as part of the Roots & Branches Project (a collaboration that also included Manchester Museum). The initial development of the Toolkit was funded by Arts Council England.

What’s included

The Museums Toolkit contains a slide deck, a detailed trainer manual, activity instructions, a resource document for learners, and everything else you need to deliver great Carbon Literacy training.

How to access

If you’re interested in using the Museums Toolkit, please contact culture@carbonliteracy.com, and a member of the team will get back to you.

The Museums Toolkit is currently free for non-nationally funded museums and galleries and freelancers actively working in the sector. Nationally-funded museums, governmental bodies, and out-of-sector organisations are currently required to pay a license fee to use the Museums Toolkit. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss costs further.

As demonstrated by Arts Council England’s “Let’s Create” strategy and the ActGreen audience survey, funders and audiences alike expect cultural organisations to take action on the climate. Theatres and theatre organisations hold significant cultural influence within their communities, and by taking action, they can reduce their own carbon impacts and become role models for other organisations and individuals.

The Carbon Literacy Shareable Course for Not-For-Profit Theatre Organisations in the UK is an affordable, flexible, and sector-specific training programme for Theatre organisations and companies based in the UK. The aim is to facilitate a simple path to deliver in-house training, while upskilling as many performing art professionals as possible across the UK to deliver on environmental ambitions. The course was created and is managed by Bristol Old Vic.

What’s included

The Shareable Course for Not-For-Profit Theatre Organisations in the UK incudes a full slide deck, facilitator notes, additional resources for participants, and everything else needed to deliver great Carbon Literacy training.

How to access

The Shareable Course is free for eligible organisations (per-learner certification costs apply). If you’d like to access the course, get in touch at culture@carbonliteracy.com.

The Shareable Course for Heritage Organisations is built on the successful Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit. Developed by Historic England and Historic Buildings & Places, the course aims to support the wider heritage sector, from organisations that manage heritage sites to those who provide heritage services, including case studies and examples from across the sector.

It’s important that people working in the heritage sector feel confident in their climate change knowledge, understanding how their actions can affect the historic environment and the heritage assets they care for. Like all sectors, the heritage sector needs to move towards net zero in line with the Government’s 2050 target. Although the deadline may seem a long way away, there’s an enormous amount to be done and heritage organisations must begin to plan for net zero now.

This course will provide your staff and volunteers with a foundational level of knowledge on climate change and acts as the basis for beginning to develop carbon reduction plans.

What’s included

This course includes a full slide deck, facilitator notes, additional resources for participants, and everything else needed to deliver great Carbon Literacy Training.

How to access

The Shareable Course is free for eligible organisations (per-learner certification costs apply). If you’d like to access the course, get in touch at culture@carbonliteracy.com.

The Shareable Course for Charities and Social Enterprises working in Public Leisure and Culture is specifically designed for charitable organisations managing facilities within the public culture (and leisure) sector in England, Scotland and Wales. Public culture facilities commonly, but not exclusively, include village/town halls, museums/galleries, libraries, and theatres. Local authority officers with a culture portfolio may also benefit from this course.

Perfect for people working in public culture, Community Leisure UK has developed a bespoke Carbon Literacy package for those working in this unique sector. It’s been tried and tested with Charitable Trusts and Social Enterprises who have given the course glowing feedback over the last 12 months. This course has now been ‘opened up’ to all organisations that deliver public culture through the development of a Shareable Course, making it easier to roll out Carbon Literacy training across staff teams.

Community Leisure UK designed this Shareable Course incorporating elements from the Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit and the Sports Kit as well as their own experience of supporting Charities and Social Enterprises working in public leisure and culture across England, Scotland and Wales on environmental sustainability.

What’s included

This course includes a full slide deck, facilitator notes, additional participant resources, and everything else needed to deliver great Carbon Literacy training.

How to access

The Shareable Course is available to purchase for eligible organisations. For Community Leisure UK members, the cost is £500+VAT. For non-members and partners of Community Leisure UK, the price is £800+VAT. Community Leisure UK donates to the Carbon Literacy Project for each sold course. The income from course sales will help fund Community Leisure UK and The Carbon Literacy Project’s work supporting engaged organisations.

If you’d like to access the course, contact culture@carbonliteracy.com.

Building your own bespoke Carbon Literacy course could be the right option if:

• You want to deliver training in your organisation or setting, and a course isn’t available.
• You want to deliver a highly tailored or specific course in your setting.
• You want to become a freelance trainer and add Carbon Literacy training to your creative practice/offer.

Our team can support you with this process and provide access to resources. Using an existing course as a foundation for your course may be possible.

If you’d like to discuss creating your own course, get in touch at culture@carbonliteracy.com.

If you would like to access training for yourself or your organisation, there may be a training provider who can support this. There are currently training offerings for several audiences, including:

• Museums and galleries
• Conservation
• Heritage
• Arts
• Theatre/theatre-makers
• The music industry

The trainers delivering this Carbon Literacy training are external from The Carbon Literacy Project. If you are interested in receiving training, contact culture@carbonliteracy.com, and we can point you in the right direction.