Carbon Literate Educator
What is a Carbon Literate Educator?
A Carbon Literate Educator (CLE) is an educational institution which has been accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) as having substantial understanding of, commitment to and experience with Carbon Literacy®. ‘Educator’ in this context refers to any kind of formal educational context which has a population of taught students as part of its organisational body. CLE acts as a demonstration of progress towards a low-carbon culture resulting in reduced carbon emissions whilst systemically embedding climate education and action.
Carbon Literate Educator (CLE) is the visible ‘badge’ which showcases an Educator as:
- Committed to Carbon Literacy
- Having a substantial number of Carbon Literate people
- Supporting its Carbon Literate staff and students whilst instilling and maintaining a low-carbon culture
- Positively utilising its influence in the community and wider world.
An Educator will use this status all the better to interact with its Spheres of influence, from staff and students internally, to local communities and businesses externally.
CLE has four levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These reflect increasing levels of Carbon Literacy commitment and achievement by the Educator. Unlike CLO, there are less prescribed and more self-selecting options, enabling Educators to customise their CLE. This is to reflect the diversity of educational settings and offers a differentiated accreditation suited to an Educators unique context. This means that they can tailor the accreditation by committing to actions which showcase where they can have the most significant impact in accordance with their capacity.
CLE Awards 2025
In Autumn 2025, we will hold the second annual CLE Awards night!
To make the deadline for the next wave of CLE accreditations and secure your spot at the CLE Awards 2025, applications must be completed and submitted to The Carbon Literacy Project by Thursday 31st July 2025. To apply, please follow the link to our CLE Pack at the bottom of this page, which contains everything you’ll need to apply, including information on the fees and application criteria.
Please note: You can still apply to become a CLE at any point after this deadline. You will receive your digital certificate as soon as you are accredited, but will be invited to, and awarded your trophy at, the 2026 awards.
Watch the CLE Launch
*Since the CLE Launch Webinar, there have been updates made to the CLE Standard. Please refer to the most recent version of the Standard in the CLE pack linked at the bottom of this page.
In October 2024, we held the first-ever Carbon Literate Educator Awards ceremony, where we celebrated the inaugural cohort of Carbon Literate Educators and their achievements in gaining CLE accreditation across Bronze and Silver levels.
Among this cohort are universities and colleges across the UK and Australia, all of whom displayed a substantial understanding of, and commitment to Carbon Literacy®, instilling climate action and a low-carbon culture, and positively using their influence in the community and wider world.
Meet the CLE Class of 2024 here.
"Very useful [training] and absolutely necessary in order to make changes both individually and at the institution."
Anna Arveschoug-Harby, Global Partnership Unit Program Administrator at Manchester Met University
“Some of the most important training I've ever done... I thought I knew about climate change, carbon reduction, and sustainability, I thought we were doing our bit, and then I went on a Carbon Literacy course. One day out of a busy diary, but boy did it make a massive difference. I was wrong on so many things that I thought I knew about."
Alice Webb, Director of BBC North
"We need to face up to this major challenge, partly because of the health and quality of life of our own residents. We want to clean up the air that they breathe, we want to reduce the use of plastic that's cluttering our rivers and our green spaces. We want to put Greater Manchester in a position of leadership on this crucial issue that will shape the 21st century, but if we are to succeed it does require radical action now."
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
I gained my Carbon Literacy certificate while I was in Year 5! The reason we were able to achieve this award is because we answered 3 questions: What is climate change? What causes climate change? What can we do to stop climate change? We are really happy that we have possessed this knowledge because then we can pass this knowledge onto our parents and then our family and it would keep being passed down. Therefore we are helping to stop climate change!
Yasin Hamza Ali, Heald Place Primary School
How to Apply
Interested in becoming a Carbon Literate Educator? To view our CLE Standard and complete the application process, please download the below pack. Once you are ready to submit your application, please send all supporting documents through to CLE@carbonliteracy.com where you can also ask any specific questions around the application process.
What to do if you haven’t started your Carbon Literacy journey yet:
If you haven’t yet started training your staff and students as Carbon Literate, you can contact us to discuss more about how you can do this. Email our Education team at education@carbonliteracy.com and find out more about the training materials available to the sector here.