Introduction

Packaging producers are facing unprecedented regulatory pressure to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment. Having an understanding of the climate crisis and the carbon impact of packaging is critical to ensure the best packaging decisions are made.


What is Carbon Literacy?

Carbon Literacy is defined as:

"An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisational basis."

Individuals can become Carbon Literate via a day’s worth of learning, developed and accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project. This impactful training provides the knowledge required to create a positive shift in how humanity lives, works and behaves in response to climate change.

Think of it as essential learning that catalyses action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon Literacy is growing fast too - at the time of writing, 117,245 citizens have successfully completed the training and more than 8,350 organisations are engaged with Carbon Literacy across 16 different sectors. Ecosurety has been a Carbon Literate organisation since 2023.


Why is it important?

Current packaging regulations and policy drivers are primarily concerned with packaging reduction, recyclability and recycled content. Overall, this should help to reduce the carbon and environmental impact of packaging, but producers are not explicitly required to assess, report on or to understand their packaging in relation to its carbon impact and the climate crisis.

Indeed, making packaging decisions to reduce compliance costs or plastic usage may not necessarily result in lower carbon emissions.

With the urgency of the climate crisis, being Carbon Literate is essential. This is even more pertinent if your organisation is focused on achieving a Net Zero target. If a team or organisation is Carbon Literate at all levels, from leadership down, then ‘thinking’ carbon and taking action to reduce emissions becomes fully embedded in the organisational culture.

Carbon Literate individuals and organisations will generally:

  • Understand the urgency to consider the carbon impact of their actions

  • Have the knowledge, skills and motivation to reduce packaging carbon footprints

  • Understand targets that industry is already working towards

  • Identify more opportunities to reduce carbon emissions

  • Be more confident communicating about the climate crisis and carbon to engage stakeholders

  • Understand where to access resources to learn more


How to become Carbon Literate

To help producers think and act beyond policy drivers, we have developed our own bespoke ‘Carbon Literacy for the packaging sector’ one-day training course.

This is delivered in-person and is accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project. It provides you with all the essentials to become Carbon Literate and includes the complexities you need to understand as a producer when reducing the carbon impact of your packaging.

Our Carbon Literacy for the packaging sector training covers:

  • The history, science and impacts of climate change

  • Climate justice

  • Carbon footprints

  • Net Zero and Scopes 1, 2 and 3

  • How climate change affects your business

  • The carbon impacts of packaging

  • Tools relevant to your business

  • Examples of positive action other producers are taking

We provide two choices for the training – an open course with producers from multiple organisations, or bespoke training just for your organisation. Each has its advantages, with the open course a great way to knowledge share and network with other organisations in a safe space about the challenges of the climate crisis. Bespoke training meanwhile is perfect to get your team up to speed quickly with an increased focus on your specific packaging, strategies and challenges.

On completion of the training, you are required to make an individual and group pledge to reduce carbon emissions, which is assessed by The Carbon Literacy Project, resulting in you becoming certified as Carbon Literate. The pledges are an effective way of continuing the momentum of the training, through to meaningful action.

It is important to understand that the course won’t teach you which packaging formats or materials you should switch to – this is way beyond the scope of the training – but it will arm you with essential knowledge and build confidence to ask the right questions and communicate clearly about carbon impacts.


Feedback from our trainees

Our members who have completed the training have rated it 5 out of 5, with the following feedback:

“I left the training feeling empowered about the role I can play both personally and professionally to make a real difference.”

“A really insightful day spent debunking myths and misconceptions, whilst being equipped with the science behind the climate crisis. All of this was done in a relaxed environment, surrounded by industry peers working on making a difference.”

“After attending the course I now have a completely different view and can see the reality of the problem and the real scale of what is required to slow it down.”


Book now

To view and book our next available Carbon Literacy training dates, or to enquire about bespoke training for your organisation, please visit our training page.

The training is charged at £200 per person, including a vegetarian lunch and refreshments. Premium Ecosurety members are entitled to one free training place each year.


Learn more about packaging sustainability

If you’d like to learn more about packaging sustainability, please read the following articles:

Ben Luger Ecosurety

Ben Luger

Marketing Project Specialist

Ben helps drive marketing communications and projects for Ecosurety, including our websites and member knowledge content. He also leads our Carbon Literacy efforts, helping to train both packaging producers and our team.