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Big Life recognised for Carbon Literacy

We are delighted to announce that we have been accredited as a Bronze Carbon Literate Organisation by the UN-recognised Carbon Literacy Project.

This prestigious accreditation recognises our commitment to upskill our people to play a proactive role in reducing our organisational carbon emissions and work towards a zero-carbon future.

Carbon Literacy is defined as “An awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis,” and revolves around a day’s worth of learning and action on climate change.

Our Carbon Literacy training programme has been developed and delivered by Nigel Wood, Trainer at The Big Life group. The programme recently debuted internally to Directors and some of our senior leaders. We will also be disseminating Carbon Literacy awareness training to wider Big Life staff.

All staff members will have the option to make pledges to improve their carbon output. Staff will be encouraged to use the Carbon Calculator to assess the impact of their actions.

“By becoming a Bronze accredited organisation, Big Life has demonstrated its commitment to genuine low carbon action, environmental and economic impact, and the building of a low carbon future for us all.”

Whatsmore, as part of our commitment to being a Bronze Carbon Literate Organisation, we will deliver on the pledges already made by Directors. This includes providing only vegetarian food at training events, reducing and reusing waste from Big Issue magazines, and exploring salary sacrifice schemes to support staff in switching to electric vehicles or bicycles.

Being accredited as a Bronze Carbon Literate Organisation is an important achievement for us because it:

• Supports our people to collaborate in identifying and implementing opportunities for carbon reduction on an organisational scale.
• Demonstrates our commitment to maintaining a low-carbon organisational culture.
• Enables us to drive faster action on climate change.
• Sets a positive example of sustainability leadership in our industry.

Dave Coleman, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Carbon Literacy Project, said:

“Carbon Literacy is an essential skill, vital to every workplace, community, and place of study. It is the foundational knowledge and a catalyst to empowering people to act on climate; however, Carbon Literacy is only the first step. The actions taken and pledged by The Big Life group as part of their Carbon Literacy have an immediate impact within their organisation; however, it is the maintenance of these and further actions, supported by Carbon Literate organisational culture, that reaps the greatest rewards for both participants and their organisations. By becoming a Bronze accredited organisation, Big Life has demonstrated its commitment to genuine low carbon action, environmental and economic impact, and the building of a low carbon future for us all.”