Manchester City Council has become the first local authority in the UK to be awarded ‘Gold’ status for its staff’s understanding of climate change.
More than half of the people working for the Council and associated bodies such as MCR Active – and more than 90 per cent of senior officers and councillors – have completed Carbon Literacy® training which gives an insight into the implications of climate change, how harmful carbon emissions cause the problem and how they might be reduced.
Being Carbon Literate enables people to take informed decisions in both their personal and work lives which will support Manchester’s commitment to become zero carbon by 2038 or earlier.
In total, Manchester City Council and its associates have almost 4,000 employees who have completed Carbon Literacy training – the most of any council in the country.
Being named a Gold Carbon Literate Organisation by the Carbon Literacy Project is a further marker of progress for the Council, which had previously become the first local authority to gain Silver status in February 2021.
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment, said: “We’re pleased that Manchester City Council is leading the way nationally in empowering our staff with an understanding of environmental issues and giving them a foundation to take actions which will support our mission to cut harmful carbon emissions, in both their professional and personal lives.
“Getting to Gold status has been a long journey but what’s important is not the accolade itself but the understanding which now runs through the organisation. It's something that our staff have really embraced.”
“We have also launched and are actively supporting the Manchester Carbon Literate City initiative which aims to be another UK first for Manchester, the first city where 15 per cent of people who live, work and study here will have been certified as Carbon Literate.”
Dave Coleman, Co-founder and Managing Director of The Carbon Literacy Project, said: “As the city in which Carbon Literacy was created, it probably shouldn’t be any surprise that Manchester is the first local authority anywhere to achieve Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) Gold level accreditation.
“Gold CLO required not just that more than half of the Council’s workforce be Carbon Literate, and delivering action on climate in their jobs, it also required the Council to demonstrate evidence that it is culturally Carbon Literate and has embedded the values of Carbon Literacy in its delivery, its working practices and its policy.
“We applaud Manchester City Council as the UK's very first local authority to achieve Gold CLO status.”
Image credit: iStock
