The first cohort of students and staff to take part in Carbon Literacy training gathered on campus to receive their certificates from the Carbon Literacy Trust recently.

Professor Julian Chaudhuri, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), presented certificates to students and staff in person, while more joined the event online.

The University of Bath was the first UK university to include Carbon Literacy as part of induction for all new students in the academic year 2021/22. The training forms part of the University’s ‘whole institution’ response to the climate crisis.

Dr Steve Cayzer, Climate Action Learning & Teaching Liaison, and PhD student Hannah Hogarth outlined the content of the induction course undertaken by over 1,000 students in October.

Around 100 students then went on to complete the full training and receive endorsement as Carbon Literate from the Carbon Literacy Trust. Further staff and students have also gone on to complete the training throughout the academic year 2021/22.

Attendees also heard from undergraduate student Elsa Swetenham, PhD student Tianqi Lu, and staff member Emily Richards about their experiences of the training and how their pledge commitments have increased climate action amongst the student body, education curriculum and professional services teams.

Pledges included to eat a vegan diet while at University, walking or cycling to campus, and rolling out the Carbon Literacy training to University colleagues.

Dr Cayzer said: “It was fantastic to be able to get together with staff and students who had undergone the carbon literacy training, celebrate their success, and hear about how the training had made an impact already.

“As a University it’s particularly important that we use education to give people the knowledge and skills to help tackle the climate emergency, and indeed our Climate Action Framework commits us to ensure that every student has the opportunity to study and work on climate related issues.”

The Carbon Literacy programme will again be available to all incoming undergraduate and postgraduate students in autumn 2022, and to teams of academic and professional services staff.

For more details contact Steve Cayzer sc579@bath.ac.uk and Hannah Hogarth heh23@bath.ac.uk.