Englefield Estate awarded top honour for climate change work by Carbon Literacy Project

A West Berkshire estate has achieved a major milestone on the road to reduce its carbon footprint.

The Englefield Estate has been awarded a prestigious honour for its efforts in tackling global climate change.

After a series of initiatives – including one-to-one and online staff training sessions – the estate has been granted official status as a silver level carbon literate organisation by the Carbon Literacy Project.

Staff at all the estate’s properties in Berkshire and Hampshire, London and Scotland underwent carbon literacy training earlier this year to understand the principles of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both at work and at home.

Estates director Edward Crookes praised the hard work of estate staff in achieving silver status.

He said: “Achieving this recognition is something we can all be extremely proud of and it is an important step in support of the estate’s commitment to playing our part to address climate change.

“It is very important that we maintain momentum across our estates and we will be working with heads of department to implement plans of action over the weeks and months ahead, and indeed for the estate’s operations long into the future too.”

The Carbon Literacy Project recognises the need for society to change its culture alongside technology if it is to cut its carbon emissions.

Staff at the Englefield and Benyon Estates undertook face-to-face training on becoming carbon literate with David Cope, an accredited sustainability adviser.

Mr Cope, who runs the sustainability advisory business 600 Strategy, said the training helped people to understand the costs and impacts of greenhouse gas pollution and then gave them practical training and advice to help reduce it.

He said Englefield was “at the forefront of rural estates in doing this work”, adding the training had created a mood of optimism among staff they could take action to tackle climate change.