News 

We are proud to share the news that we are the first organisation in Northern Ireland to achieve Carbon Literacy Organisation (CLO) Bronze status for the progress that we have made in reducing carbon emissions.

The Carbon Literacy Project awarded Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful the accreditation in recognition of the development and delivery of a range of Carbon Literacy programmes for teachers, youth and community leaders and for successfully guiding the majority of our team across the organisation through their own certified Carbon Literacy training.

Since the final months of 2021, internal sessions have been delivered in modular format by our in-house Climate Action team, and staff have committed to a mandatory carbon-cutting pledge as part of their training. Some notable examples include transitions to vegan and meat-reducing diets, installation of solar panels and solar-charging devices at home, and responsible disposal of hard-to-recycle items through local Terracycle programmes.

Our CEO, Dr Ian Humphreys, commented on the success: “We are a great believer in practising what we preach, and earning Bronze accreditation from The Carbon Literacy Project is an important step in helping Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful get our own house in order. On behalf of the wider organisation, I would like to thank Scott and his entire team for driving us towards this proud award.”

Dave Coleman, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Carbon Literacy Project added: "We’re delighted to be able to present the first Carbon Literate Organisation award in Northern Ireland to Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and congratulate them on their achievement. The award recognises their commitment to supporting their staff to become Carbon Literate, maintaining a low carbon culture in the organisation to reduce carbon emissions, and advocating and working to deliver reduced carbon emissions across a range of groups in society, creating a more sustainable economy now, and a better future for tomorrow, for everyone in Northern Ireland and beyond."

Carbon Literate Organisation accreditation is a tiered system, spanning from Bronze and Silver, right through to Gold and Platinum. Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful is already working towards the Silver standard, which will involve embedding Carbon Literacy throughout our organisation performance systems and keeping the public aware of our carbon journey.