Gain a complete understanding of how to save CO₂ and raise quality of life in seven lively sessions – at a time to suit you. Featuring special guest speakers.

Carbon Savvy is now offering a Flexible Learning Course (pilot version), which gives you access to the acclaimed Carbon Ambassadors Course in a format that you can follow in your own time. This course is for decision makers, enthusiasts and those who need to communicate about carbon savings for their work or volunteer groups. Carbon Savvy’s positive, uplifting and guilt-free approach means you’ll soon enjoy fielding any carbon question that comes your way and make the connection between saving CO₂ and raising wellbeing.

Featuring special guests Satish Kumar (Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and Schumacher College), Penney Poyzer (BBC2 No Waste Like Home), Peter Owen Jones (BBC2 Extreme Pilgrim) and more. See full programme below.

What you will learn

• How the carbon cycle works

• Key elements of a UK carbon footprint and the fastest ways to reduce it

• The five major lifestyle areas and how to save CO₂ in each

• What psychologists say makes us happy and how this links to saving CO₂

• Why a positive, guilt-free approach is more effective and how to make it fun

Course content

• Sessions on Carbon Footprints, Transport, Shopping, Holidays, Quality of Life, Heating and Food

• Seven video modules, each with a 50-minute presentation, 30-minute guest speaker and 20-minute Q&A

• Interactive exercises, including how to calculate your footprint and quality of life

• Three Q&A sessions recorded live with Mukti Mitchell on 11 & 25 November and 9 December 2021 at 2pm

Course graduates can join the Carbon Ambassadors Network. Material will be available online until 1 September 2022.

Special price for this pilot: £39/concessions £29 (previous live course £79)

Feedback from participants

“The energy and enthusiasm of the speakers is palpable, and the questions and comments of participants are also highly engaging. This pilot version uses simple Zoom recordings, which are unpolished, but the content is so good you won’t be disappointed. Carbon Ambassadors Uncut made me feel the low-carbon world is just around the corner, and we are all here to make it happen. As a flexi-learner, I found it exhilarating.”

“A really well presented, factual, concise and enjoyable overview of both the wider issues around living more sustainably and how we as individuals can do our bit… I feel much more optimistic now.”

“Mukti’s passion entwined with his knowledge and non-judgmental stance is a highlight.”

Praise for Carbon Savvy

“Carbon Savvy will come to be seen as a turning point in our approach to sustainability. This is the highest praise I could offer anything or anybody in these times.” – Tim Smit, Founder, Eden Project

“Mukti is a truly inspirational speaker offering a new paradigm in the low-carbon lifestyle arena.” – Barbara Quilliam, Co-operative Group, Isle of Man

Session content

Session 1: Carbon footprints

What is the carbon cycle? What is contraction and convergence and how does it link global, national and local carbon reductions? What are top-down and bottom-up carbon footprints, and why is bottom-up more useful? What roles can councils, business and individuals play? What are the ten biggest actions we can take to save CO₂, and can they improve our quality of life?

Course presenter Mukti Mitchell is a sailor, a carpenter, author of ‘The Guide to Low Carbon Lifestyles’ and founder of Mitchell & Dickinson period insulation services and Carbon Savvy. He is known for sailing around the UK in a hand-built eco yacht to promote low-carbon lifestyles endorsed by the Prince of Wales and the prime minister.

Session 2: Transport

How will we get transport to net zero? What are the merits of different power sources? How do different types of transport compare? How much difference do size of car and type of fuel make, and how long should you keep your car? What’s so amazing about e-bikes, and how can we make our journeys better for health and wellbeing?

Guest speaker Barbara Haddrill worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales and famously travelled from Wales to Brisbane, Australia over land and sea to be a bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding. She will share highlights of her travel experiences.

Session 3 – Shopping

How can individuals influence manufacturing? How can we reduce the footprint of products by 80%? What is embodied energy, and how important are product miles? What are the rules of thumb for low-carbon shopping, and what is the ancient Indian BUD factor? How do our products affect our quality of life?

Guest speaker Satish Kumar will talk about our relationship with the material world and share personal experiences. Satish is a pilgrim, author and activist, co-founder of Schumacher College and editor emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. His books include ‘No Destination’ and ‘Elegant Simplicity’.

Session 4 – Holidays

How can we get the most out of our holidays? What are the most common holiday objectives, and how can we achieve them with a small carbon footprint? How far can you travel by different forms of transport on a tonne of CO₂? What are the carbon footprints of different kinds of holiday and activity? How can low-carbon holidays raise our quality of life?

Guest speaker Peter Owen-Jones will talk about the origins and meaning of holidays and share some of his own experiences. Known as the ‘maverick vicar’, Peter is an author and presented the two BBC series Extreme Pilgrim and Around the World in 80 Faiths.

Session 5 – Quality of life

What do we mean by quality of life, and how does it connect to saving CO₂? How can we monitor our quality of life and track it over time? What do psychologists say makes us happy and doesn’t make us happy? How can lowering your footprint raise your quality of life and save money? What does Happy Planet Indexing say about happiness and sustainable living?

Guest speaker Nic Marks will talk about the international Happy Planet Index, in which countries like Costa Rica score both a high quality of life and a small carbon footprint. Nic is author of ‘The Happiness Manifesto’, creator of the Happy Planet Index and founder of Friday Pulse.

Session 6 – Heating

What are the principles of a carbon-neutral home? How does the UK government plan to get Britain’s homes to net zero? How much heat is lost through each area of a typical home, and how can we conserve heat in buildings old and new? What does ‘ready for retrofit’ mean? What are the merits of new heating systems like biofuel boilers and air-source heat pumps?

Guest speaker Penney Poyzer will talk about how she turned her Victorian semi into a superhome. Penney has been dubbed Nottingham’s ‘queen of green’ for her BBC TV show No Waste Like Home, and she is chair of Nottingham Good Food Partnership.

Session 7 – Food

What kind of food supports the highest quality of life? Why does an organic carrot from Kenya have a smaller footprint than a non-organic carrot from the UK? What is low-carbon meat, and why is UK meat better than international meat? How can you buy low-carbon food? Why is farming going to avert climate change, and how will carbon farming increase nutrition, sequester CO₂ and earn farmers more money?

Guest speaker Jonathan Smith will discuss low-carbon farming practices and his work with the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit. Jonathan is a councillor for the Isles of Scilly, runs Scilly Organics veg box scheme and helped develop the concept of carbon farming.

Session 8 – Carbon offsets (40-minute bonus session)

What is carbon offsetting and how does it work? Can offsets help us out of the crisis, or do they only contribute to the problem? A brief analysis of genuine vs false offsets, and how to make offsetting work for you by using appropriate time frames. Why supporting a variety of projects whose offsets will vary over time makes more sense.