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Following our first successful Trainer Month in September 2025, we’re launching a new quarterly series spotlighting the work of our Carbon Literacy Consultants. Find out how the most experienced Carbon Literacy trainers, certified at the highest level of our Trainer Certification Scheme, have created lasting impact through their Carbon Literacy training. In the first blog of the series, we hear from Dr Helen Rodgers PhD, CLC.

The transition to a low-carbon economy and society is underway, but in order to secure not just a survivable, but a ‘thrivable’ climate, we must go much further, faster.

A Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) understands this, and understands that to deliver effective carbon reduction actions, we must embark on a journey to get our own house in order AND bring others along with us – we must deliver IMPACT and ADVOCATE.

The Destination – a low carbon organisational culture, value chain, sector … system!

Since 2012, The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) and the wider Carbon Literacy Pioneers Network (of Facilitators, Trainers and Consultants) have engaged more than 12,000 organisations with Carbon Literacy – each having at least one certified Carbon Literate citizen in their team.

And now in 2025, the community is celebrating more than 300 Carbon Literate Organisations that have been accredited by the CLP as having demonstrated a substantial commitment to Carbon Literacy.

Across the four accreditation tiers of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, there is a wide range of organisations from the private, public and third sector, including more than 20 who have chosen DRH AMRE Consultants to support them on their CLO journey.

The “Journey” – CLO accreditation pathways

Each CLO is utilising Carbon Literacy (CL) as an essential colleague engagement tool, either within existing decarbonisation plans and sustainability strategies, or to initiate them. And those organisations leading the way are reaping the benefits, and wider co-benefits, of developing their Carbon Literate workforce.

The “Carbon Literate Organisation Journey” of increasing levels of impact and advocacy, is clearly mapped out by the CLP in their Carbon Literate Organisation accreditation pack. However, the way to travel will be different for every organisation – each journey as unique as the organisation themselves. For example:

• Some CLOs will be able to access an open or semi-open, sector-based or geographically based training initiative (maybe even fully-funded) to get them started.
  • This would be delivered by an independent, accredited Carbon Literacy Trainer (CLT)/Consultant (CLC) or a Carbon Literacy Training Organisation (CLTO).
  • These courses are listed on the CLP Events page.
• Some CLOs will be fortunate enough to have one or more internal Carbon Literacy Facilitators (CLF) or even accredited Carbon Literacy Trainer(s) (CLT) or Consultant(s) to prepare and deliver their own training initiative in-house.
  • A relevant sector toolkit or shareable course may be available from the CLP.
  • Please see the CLP Sectors page for more information.
• However, many CLOs require or prefer to have external support from an independent, accredited Trainer or Consultant, with dedicated training delivered to colleagues ‘in-house’, using accredited yet fully tailored training content.

As an independent Carbon Literacy Consultant, accredited by the CLP in 2024, I am incredibly proud to have supported +20 organisations on their journey to CLO accreditation, including 7 organisations that are now Silver CLOs and 4 who have now achieved Gold. This progression recognises their increasing levels of commitment and progress in the transition to a lower-carbon culture in their organisation and beyond.

At DRH AMRE Consultants, I take a collaborative approach to deliver Carbon Literacy services in a bespoke way to suit each organisation, but always with the same level of ambition – to travel further and faster towards Platinum CLO!

Enabling and Accelerating

Speaking of the need to go further and faster, one proven method of training deployment in large organisations is the ‘cascade model’. In this case, an external trainer supports the design and delivery of Carbon Literacy at the outset, working collaboratively with the in-house colleagues, and ideally starting with the leadership and the best internal advocates. The external trainer also then trains up in-house facilitators and trainers, using a CLP-accredited Train-the-Trainer course, to take the program further and further into the organisation, its value chain and beyond.

I have had the privilege of collaborating in this way with Indutrade, an international technology and industrial business group of more than 200 companies around the world. Here in the UK, I have worked with Indutrade since 2022 to design and deliver their initial pilot and leadership CL training, and then train 3 cohorts of in-house trainers, who then collaboratively took the training across many of their UK-based group companies.

This year’s CLO awards were another incredibly proud evening for me, as it was the third year where several Indutrade companies were receiving their awards, with MSP (Microspring and Presswork Co Ltd) receiving their Silver CLO award, and then Ellard and Adaero receiving Gold! Overall, in the last three years, the Indutrade cascade training program model has delivered seven Bronze CLOs, four Silver CLOs and this year’s two pack-leading Golds. Indutrade, itself awarded Silver CLO in 2024, also actively advocates for Carbon Literacy deployment in the group’s European companies (taking the train, of course!).

Collaboration is Key

Every CL training program is a collaboration. All Facilitators, Trainers and Consultants must collaborate with the CLP and their learners, of course. However, every DRH AMRE-supported program is also a collaboration between trainers, whether I am working with a co-trainer such as Susanne Bearblock of Sustainability Changemakers, or we are working with Speak Carbon Collective, or other CL Pioneers and CLTOs. At the start of every training day, I acknowledge that all of my training design and delivery stands on the shoulders of the trainers I have shadowed, trained with and learnt from over the years. Thank you to each of them for supporting me in delivering these fantastically impactful Carbon Literate Organisations. Our collective achievements are far greater than the sum of their parts.

For more information on CLOs, please visit the Carbon Literacy Project Organisation page.

For more information on Carbon Literacy open courses, please visit the Carbon Literacy Project Events Page.

Dr Helen Rodgers is an accredited Carbon Literacy Consultant (CLC) and founding director of DRH AMRE Consultants, providing Carbon Literacy training services to a cross-sector client base, alongside Onshore Wind Farm Management consultancy services. Helen has particular expertise in Carbon Literacy for the energy sector and other technology-based sectors including aerospace and manufacturing. In addition, Helen has an extensive proven track record and a particularly keen interest in a number of sectors (from enterprise to education, via equestrian!), with full details available on request. Helen is also a voluntary STEM Climate Ambassador for the education sector.

Helen can be contacted via The Carbon Literacy Project or directly via LinkedIn.