NOE CPC colleagues' journey to becoming Carbon Literate
The Carbon Literacy Project and Greener NHS have worked together to develop the Carbon Literacy for healthcare programme. This ‘days worth of’ training acts as a bridge between NHS netzero policy and staff engagement and aims to provide all NHS staff with the basics of climate science, impacts and the critical link between climate change and healthcare.
The Carbon Literacy Project have developed an entire Toolkit package which contain training materials which are free to access for NHS organisations. Resources have been developed in partnership with sector professionals and are designed to be delivered by anyone within the organisation who is accredited and passionate about the subject.
There are different routes to accreditation to best suit the varied NHS audience these include;
- Generic pathway (suitable for all)
- Leadership pathway
- Elearning pathway
The most popular route to receiving Carbon Literacy Accreditation, is the elearning pathway. Designed in partnership with Elearning for healthcare and NHS elearning this route requires two steps. The first step is to complete the elearning sessions, which are split into five modules which broadly cover:
- Climate change science, impacts, and policy on a global, national, and organisational scale.
- The impacts of climate change on health, the contribution of healthcare to overall emissions, and the NHS’ plan to reach net zero.
- Climate equity and our most vulnerable
- Strategies for taking action on climate
Upon completion of the elearning, learners then need to book a follow-on workshop to complete their training and apply for their accreditation. Having focused on climate science and impacts the workshop will focus on discussion based activites to guide you in practical emission-saving actions in your workplace and will be personalised to your organisation and/or workforce group.
Learners are asked to focus their emission-reducing actions on workplace behavior changes which are fully optimising the potential to reduce carbon on an impactful scale.
A number of NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) colleagues, working in different sections of the business, have completed the training and gained a greater understanding of the importance of climate change when it comes to healthcare. Here’s what they had to say about their experience of completing the training and what they have taken away from it:
“The training has helped me encourage and support suppliers to come on the carbon reduction journey with the NHS.” Ruth Burns, Supplier Relationship Manager
“The training has empowered both me and the business to make better sustainable procurement decisions with our procurement activity and contract management through a better understanding of carbon emissions.” Alastair Clay, Social Value and Sustainability Manager
“Completing this training has helped me to focus on the benefits of taking action on climate change both in the workplace and home life.” Jackie Williams, Senior Category Manager
“I can apply what I have learned from participating in the programme to my everyday role as a Pharmacy Category Manager, which is an area where the NHS is currently working hard to reduce its carbon impact.” Paul Dunn-Jones, Category Manager
“The training has provided guidance to use in my role as a Procurement Support Officer and has encouraged me to influence other colleagues to participate in the Carbon Literacy programme.” Katrina Hepworth, Procurement Support Officer
A limited number of pre-funded training spaces are currently available for NHS staff to complete their accreditation for free. You can complete your elearning here and then book onto a half day workshop to become accredited here.
If you would like to deliver training within your organisation or have any other questions: get in touch at healthcare@carbonliteracy.com
Link to elearning: https://learninghub.nhs.uk/catalogue/Carbon-Literacy-for-healthcare
Link to workshop booking page: https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/actionworks/organizations/the-carbon-literacy-project/
Link to CLP website: https://carbonliteracy.com/toolkits/healthcare/