Overview
This Carbon Literacy Qualification will ensure you fully understand the legal and social aspects of dealing with the climate emergency. It will coach you on the impacts of climate change, the scientific reason for treating it as an emergency, and practical actions and projects to deal with this. It will give you a host of ideas from updating your local neighbourhood plan and putting in LED lights through to setting up a repair café or a solar farm. It will guide you on their implementation.
Parish and Town Clerks are central to advising, deciding and implementing the right decisions in their councils. The climate emergency challenges all communities to change the way they live. Hence it is vital that Parish Clerks are qualified in their daily work to advise councillors on and implement the right choices for their community.
This qualification will help make the right long-term decisions with respect to housing, transport, energy provision, schooling, purchasing, countryside development and food production and consumption. These decisions will impact on the cost of living, health and well-being of the community. You will understand what a carbon footprint is, and how to engage all your community in reducing theirs.
It is based on the internationally renowned Carbon Literacy Project’s toolkit, which has been developed specifically for Parish and Town Councils. They will award you a certificate, provided you successfully complete their assessment.
You can find out more about the reasons why being carbon literate is important in this Making the Case document and / or watch a recording of the Carbon Literacy Launch Event, delivered in March 2023 by The Carbon Literacy Project.
It will be delivered by Save Our Shropshire who are a Platinum level Carbon Literate Organisation. They pioneered this course and have already educated dozens of parish councils across the UK. One Parish Clerk said “I would like to thank you for an excellent two-day course. I really enjoyed it, and the course has inspired me enormously.”
Carbon Literacy is a desirable asset for any employer. A Carbon Literate citizen will display compassion for the environment, their health and the health of those around them. This makes them directly more employable.
Dates
Tuesday 6 June, 9:00am – 1:00pm
Tuesday 13 June, 9:00am – 1:00pm
Price
Members: £120 + VAT
Non-Members: £120 + VAT
CPD points
Claim 4 CPD points upon completion of the qualification.
Joining instructions will be sent to you 3 weeks before the event (please check your spam inbox) and your invoice will be sent before the event. We advise that, on receipt of the joining instructions, you are liable for any fees incurred in order to attend the event.
“Having spent a lot of time since Shrewsbury Town Council declared its Climate Emergency back in March 2019 looking at climate related matters I really questioned whether the Carbon Literacy Course would be for me. I was surprised at how much I learnt in terms of the technical data around the emergency we find ourselves in but many of those practical measures that can help me as a Clerk help my Council achieve its long-term goals. It was evident from doing the course that it wasn’t really about how the town council could achieve carbon neutrality, but more about how we can influence others, and maybe not everyone is on the same page as we are about the position we find ourselves in globally. This is a worthwhile course to help any clerk address the needs of their council in addressing the Climate Emergency, but also challenging them to do their part individually and being confident enough to shout about it.”
Helen Ball, Clerk to Shrewsbury Town Council
“I would recommend this course to all Parish, Town and County Councillors and County Council officers so that all involved in these tiers of Local Government can understand the ‘connectedness’ of issues in relation to climate change and act to combat it.”
Mary Cade, Ketton Parish Council
About the Trainers
This webinar is kindly provided by Allan Wilson and Richard Watkins from Save our Shropshire (SOS).
Allan Wilson
Allan co-founded Save Our Shropshire CIO (SOS) in July 2021, a charity dedicated to increasing people’s understanding of Climate Change. SOS provides education to Householders and Parish/Town Councils to enable them to make lifestyle changes to achieve a net-zero carbon future in Shropshire.
Allan had a 31-year career in the Police Force until 2015. As part of his service, he provided 3-day courses in drink/drug driving and rehabilitation, to bring about behaviour change.
Since retirement in 2015, he has been actively involved in his passionate concern for the environment. He co-founded the Edgmond Wildlife Trust to increase biodiversity and protect the parish where he lives. In 2017 he created a hedgehog preservation organisation. He became a parish councillor and then was elected to become chair of the council in 2019. He was also elected to become vice-chair of the Shropshire Association of Local councils, holding the portfolio responsibility for climate change matters. Allan has presented to councils extensively on their responsibilities under the Climate change Act 2008.
He gained an MBA from Wolverhampton University.
Richard Watkins
Richard co-founded Save Our Shropshire in July 2021. He gained Carbon Literacy certification in 2020 and pledged to get involved in the fight against the effects of Climate Change. His enthusiasm builds on the power of education to bring about transformational behaviour change. His driving force is the need to pass on a safe environment for grandchildren.
For the previous 30 years, he provided education and consultancy for manufacturing companies, which helped big and small businesses change their systems, processes and culture. Clients saw phenomenal improvements in the way that they performed, improving customer service and improving profitability. At its core, the consultancy drove behaviour change.
Between 1978 and 1990 he worked for ICI Agrochemicals in a global marketing tole, and in a project team which transformed the business performance of the division. After university, he worked in industrial marketing with Tube Investments Ltd.
He gained an MBA from London Business School, and an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Wrong time? Wrong place?
SLCC is always keen to respond to members’ needs for training. If you would like to register an interest in having a particular course delivered via webinar or in your region, please let us know.
