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On October 16th we held the first-ever Carbon Literate Educator (CLE) Awards! Hosted at HOME in Manchester, we celebrated the huge achievements of our first cohort of 15 Carbon Literate Educators.

We’ve put together a CLE Yearbook to highlight all the great work our Class of 2024 has been doing to educate staff and students as Carbon Literate and drive carbon-reducing action.

What is a Carbon Literate Educator?

The Carbon Literate Educator accreditation, launched in January this year, was developed as an education sector-specific version of our esteemed Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) accreditation. It enables educational institutions to gain recognition for all the work they do, not just in educating their staff about the climate crisis and their carbon impact, but their students too, and empowering both to deliver tangible carbon-reducing action within their institution and future workplaces. It also ensures that educational institutions use their influence in their wider community to deliver further, more widespread benefits through the actions they take.

Bronze CLEs

The ceremony started by awarding our 14 Bronze awardees, from universities and colleges across England and as far afield as Australia! Among these were the first Australian universities, Curtin and Swinburne, as well as the first medical school, Bristol Medical School, to achieve CLE status!

Leaders shared the positive impact of Carbon Literacy on their institutions, the accomplishments it has enabled, and their ambitions to further advance Carbon Literacy. Our Bronze Awardees videos (Part 1 & Part 2) showcase the highlights.

Q+A: Empowering future climate leaders

We know firsthand that students given the opportunity to earn Carbon Literacy certification at college or university go on to drive climate action in their workplaces.

We heard from guest speaker Will Moody, a Strategy Advisor for Net Zero Delivery at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. While completing his PhD in cancer immunology at The University of Cambridge, Will introduced Carbon Literacy to the university, supported by Manchester Metropolitan University and using their Carbon Literacy for Universities Toolkit to launch a Carbon Literacy society and trainer programme and engage students in delivering training to others. It was this work that led him to a career in sustainability. “Without Carbon Literacy” he said, “I’d never have got the job I’m in now.” Read more about Will’s experience as a student Carbon Literacy pioneer in our Spotlight On – University of Cambridge.

We also heard from Councillor & former head teacher Linda Foley, who noted how important it is for students to be taught about the climate crisis and supported in taking action. “Green skills are essential” she said, not only for their future careers but because “giving young people agency is the thing that overcomes eco-anxiety” which so many are struggling with.

Silver CLE

We then awarded our first and currently only Silver CLE – Barnsley College! Head of Sustainability Sasha Beswick accepted the award on behalf of the college, which demonstrated the impact of her hard work in cascading Carbon Literacy across the college.

Not only have they ensured significant staff and student training (training a record-shattering 820 learners on the 2023 Carbon Literacy Action Day alone – earning them a CLAD Catalyst Award!), but they are also working to expand Carbon Literacy into their community, training local businesses and working with their local authority to develop materials which students can deliver within Barnsley and enhance their employability.

Looking forward

We can’t wait to see what this year’s CLEs go on to achieve as they work their way up the CLE levels. University of the Arts London has shared its plans for expanding its Carbon Literacy across the university, developing training suitable for each of their university disciplines. Truro and Penwith College has similar plans to expand their training across the entire college. The University of Hull is keen to lead the way in the Humber region for Carbon Literacy and climate action and Keele University is looking forward to using the Carbon Literacy Healthcare Toolkit to deliver training to their healthcare students during the upcoming 2024 Carbon Literacy Action Day.

Become a CLE

If you’d like to become an accredited CLE and demonstrate the impactful work you and your college, school or university have been doing with Carbon Literacy, or if you’d like to get started with Carbon Literacy training and work your way up to this accreditation, you can read more about the award and see some of the fantastic work being done in the sector on our Carbon Literate Educator webpage. For queries, email cle@carbonliteracy.com.