Climate conversations in the tech space are becoming increasingly more prevalent, and rightly so. Calculating the global carbon footprint of tech is complex, perhaps more so than most other industries. Tech is everywhere, because it’s an integral part of most – if not all – other sectors. Having said that, even the most conservative estimates put tech’s footprint on a par with that of the aviation industry. When it comes to how much we talk about the footprint of tech in wider society however, the conversation is a mere whisper in comparison. This is one of the reasons we were so keen to work with tech firm Netcompany to deliver Carbon Literacy training to their teams.
Netcompany are industry leaders in digital and tech solutions. As such they are keen to drive the transformation to climate conscious tech. Senior colleagues within the organisation were cognisant that the people working in this industry, and those utilising the solutions created, have minimal awareness of the carbon footprint and impacts of their digital activities. They therefore sought to engage their people on climate in order to accelerate action both internally and within stakeholder groups.
Speak Carbon and Netcompany
Netcompany and Speak Carbon first started discussing this project in 2023, following a connection made via Leeds-based environmental groups. It quickly became clear that this was a great opportunity to collaborate, bringing together Netcompany’s knowledge and experience within the tech industry and our ability to deliver meaningful climate learning.
As well as engaging colleagues to support action, Netcompany were keen to give their people the opportunity to gain a globally recognised qualification, so chose a Carbon Literacy framework to deliver this training programme.
The training
Working in collaboration with Netcompany’s project team, Speak Carbon’s Michelle Marks developed a bespoke Carbon Literacy course specifically for this project.
Following Carbon Literacy accreditation, our trainers delivered two cohorts of in-person training in Netcompany’s Leeds and London offices in January 2024.
Our in-person Carbon Literacy workshops typically take place over the course of one full day. This allows participants and trainers to keep the associated carbon costs of things like travel & accommodation to a minimum.
Our trainers in the room had this to say about the sessions:
‘participants were…switched on to climate issues. They were very enthusiastic and couldn’t wait to make some big changes in their organisation to reduce emissions.’
The results
The two sessions generated some incredible pledges, with participants taking a range of different approaches to the actions they planned to take. Pledges included actions on: colleague engagement, business travel, improving internal energy efficiency, and working with clients to identify carbon hotspots in their digital operations and develop low-carbon IT solutions.
Decarbonising internal operations is a vital part of any organisation’s net zero strategy, not only to achieve set targets, but also as a form of influence. Calling it modelling, call it ‘walking the walk’. We cannot expect our stakeholders to decarbonise if we are not.
In addition to this, organisations like Netcompany have a unique opportunity to work within digital systems to build and deploy low-carbon solutions across client groups. These greener solutions can have a really significant impact on the global carbon footprint of tech.
It was therefore really exciting to see how many of the pledges made during these sessions were around client engagement and creating low-carbon products for clients.
You can read more an example of one such pledge – this one around greener coding – on the Pledge of the Month page on our website.
Climate learning for the tech sector
Speak Carbon develops and delivers Carbon Literacy and other climate learning programmes across multiple sectors. Get in touch to talk to us about climate learning for your organisation.
Speak Carbon partner The Digital Gene is currently offering their accredited Digital Decarbonisation Carbon Literacy course to organisations looking to learn more about how to decarbonise their digital operations. Join their waiting list for upcoming open courses here.