Gain a complete understanding of carbon reduction in eight easy, positive and uplifting sessions.

Price for the course is £89, or £15 for each session.

Concession tickets for the course are £55, or £9 for each session.

This course from The Resurgence Trust and Carbon Savvy gives you a complete overview of how carbon footprints work, the global, national and individual perspectives, the fastest ways to save CO₂ and how this can raise our quality of life.

The course features expert guest speakers from diverse fields who share their knowledge and experience on the road to net zero. Guest speakers include:

Mike Berners-Lee, author of "How Bad are Bananas?"

Jane Davidson, author of "FutureGen"

Baron Richard Layard, author of "Can We be Happier?"

Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College

Kirsty Schneeberger from Climate Care

Paul Allen from Zero Carbon Britain

Rob Richmond, Carbon farmer

Lucy Pedler, Architect from The Green Register

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.

Who is the course for?

Sustainability officers, councillors, teachers, decision makers and individuals who wish to learn more about CO₂ emissions and be fully empowered to make decisions and communicate with others on this vital topic.

What you will learn

• How the carbon cycle works
• Global, national and individual footprints and how contraction and convergence links these
• Key elements of a UK carbon footprint and the fastest ways to reduce it
• How individual footprints drive system change
• 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

About 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, co-founder of the Eden Project

Course format

Times: 09:00–11:00 BST on Fridays from 6th May to 24th June 2022 *Please note due to the bank holiday we have moved the shopping session from the 3rd June to Wednesday 1st June.

Schedule:

• 09:00–09:50 Presentation
• 09:50–10:00 Break
• 10:00–10:25 Guest speaker and Q&A
• 10:25–10:40 Exercise
• 10:40–11:00 General Q&A

A Carbon Ambassadors Certificate will be awarded to participants who attend all eight sessions. Sessions are recorded and available for viewing on catch-up.

Testimonials

“Mukti is a truly inspirational speaker offering a new paradigm in the low-carbon lifestyle arena.”

– Barbara Quilliam, Isle of Man

“This letting-go-of-guilt has freed me up to such an extent, I’m now making better choices – and it’s thanks to this wonderful course.”

– Annie Lewis, Devon

“I found the Carbon Ambassadors course so empowering that I created Bigbury Net Zero, and our Island Assembly attracted 50 VIP delegates and was featured on South West Television. Everybody who is interested in helping the climate should take this course.”

– Louise Wainwright, Editor, Bigbury Parish Magazine, Devon

Course content

Session 1 – Carbon footprints with Mike Berners-Lee – 6th May

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 role can councils, businesses and individuals play? What are the ten biggest actions we can take to save CO₂ and can they improve our quality of life?

Mike is a leading expert in carbon metrics, author of "How Bad are Bananas? The carbon footprint of everything" and “There’s no planet B”. He is a professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and founder and director of Small World Consulting.

Session 2 – Food with Rob Richmond – 13th May

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 I 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?

Rob Richmond is a dairy farmer who has pioneered carbon sequestration practices for grazing cattle. Since 2005 Rob has been managing his cattle and pastures with a focus on building soil carbon, using ancient and innovative techniques to achieve outstanding carbon sequestration rates.

Session 3 – Quality of life with Lord Richard Layard – 20th May

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?

Lord Richard Layard is the Founder of Action for Happiness, a charity, and author of "Can We be Happier?" Co-editor of the World Happiness Report and Professor Emeritus at London School of Economics, Lord Richard is a labour economist particularly active in Happiness Economics. He was co-editor of the first UN World Happiness Report.

Session 4 – Transport with Jane Davidson – 27th May

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 and fuel make in cars, and how long should I keep my car? What’s so amazing about e-bikes, and how can we make our journeys better for health and wellbeing?

With guest speaker Jane Davidson, Former Minister for Education and then for the Environment for Wales and author of "FutureGen - Lessons from a Small Country", Jane is an environmental activist and Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales.

Session 5 – Shopping with Paul Allen – 1st June

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 the products we use affect our quality of life?

With guest speaker Paul Allen

Paul has led research at Zero Carbon Britain, The Centre for Alternative Technology, for over 12 years, publishing six reports on how Britain can reach Net Zero and liaising directly with government, business, public sector and the arts to share their findings.

Session 6 – Holidays with Satish Kumar – 10th June

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 I 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?

With guest speaker Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College, author of 10 books including Elegant Simplicity and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence Magazine.

Session 7 – Carbon offsetting with Kirsty Schneeberger MBE – 17th June

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 versus false offsets, and how to make offsetting work for you by using appropriate time frames. Why supporting a variety of projects whose offsets vary over time makes the most sense.

With guest speaker Kirsty Schneeberger MBE, Head of Partnerships at Climate Care, London, and Previously CEO of Synchronicity Earth. Kirsty received an MBE at the age of 25 for her work representing future generations at UN Environment conferences.

Session 8 – Home Energy with Lucy Pedler – 24th June

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 relative merits of new heating systems such as biofuel boilers and air-source heat pumps?

With guest speaker Lucy Pedler, environmental architect and expert in sustainable building practices. Lucy is Director of The Green Register, promoting sustainable building and training a new generation of constructors to build and retrofit in ways that are good for buildings, people and reaching net zero.