Carbon Conversations
Background
Carbon Conversations was developed by ‘Cambridge Carbon Footprint’. The methodology has been developed by a combination of psychological, technical and professional input. The scheme has seen ever growing success over the last 3 years in England, gradually cascading across the country and – now – up to Scotland. Throughout this expansion the developers have taken great care to ensure quality and standards are maintained. Cambridge Carbon Footprint offer an official accreditation for both those taking the course and for those facilitating it.
Current Developers
Once the Carbon Conversations had travelled well beyond the confines of Cambridge, the programme was handed onto a national organisation to administrate it. The Climate Outreach and Information Network are now looking after the national day-to-day running of the course. Having taken the programme over in Summer 2011, they are currently working to familiarise themselves with all national facilitators and decide collaboratively where to take the programme in the coming years.
See the COIN website for more details and contact information
At the University of Edinburgh
‘Carbon Conversations’ have been running now at the University of Edinburgh for two years. For 16-months the expansion of the course was funded by the Climate Challenge Fund . With staff to coordinate its development and roll-out, we worked with 230 participants, trained 70 volunteer facilitators in Scotland and ran 22 groups. The programme at Edinburgh is now the biggest in the UK, with dozens of past alumni of the course going on to become trained facilitators.
Groups are now being coordinated by a Voluntary Network.
In the media
Participant Testimonies
Feedback from groups at University of Edinburgh in 2010:
“The nature of the course and the way it is structured allows participants to express their own ideas, exchange knowledge and raise questions all within an environment of mutual respect and friendship. Moreover it enabled most of us to grow in confidence and evolve our ideas in a measured way over the six weeks. The sessions, 2 hours apiece, always seemed too short and left us craving more. What this course does is to pave the way for ongoing dialogue and friendships, networking and no end of partnership work.”
“the group discussions are great to find out new ideas and ways to implement changes in your life”
“the games were excellent – especially the one about things you can do in your house – looking at the options visually was really helpful”
“an inspiring and motivating experience – I’d recommend it to anyone”
“I found the course very enlightening because it made me realise that its going to take more than taking my own bags to the supermarket, that doesn’t cut it anymore. Every little action counts, and understanding why I am doing what I am doing makes it meaningful”.
“The course itself is wonderful. It has been the catalyst for (my own) behavioural change towards the way I interact with the planet I live on. Although I come from a strong scientific/environmental background the course has opened my eyes to seeing issues from a different perspective. Specifically, it humanizes a theme that is traditionally addressed through statistics, graphs and complex formulae. By introducing and subsequently marrying the often mutually exclusive paradigms of the sciences and the humanities/arts, the course suddenly becomes relevant to real lives, relationships and thus, is able to help us explore practical solutions in our daily lives”.
