Carbon Literacy at Eastlight: empowering residents and staff to act on climate change
Social housing providers have a unique role in the transition to a low-carbon future – not only as major property owners and energy users but also as community anchors. Eastlight Community Homes embraced this responsibility by delivering climate knowledge and action throughout their organisation.
Why Carbon Literacy matters in Social Housing
With the built environment accounting for over 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions*, housing providers like Eastlight are critical to decarbonisation goals. But meeting these goals means more than just retrofitting homes – it requires cultural change, community engagement, and confident climate leadership at every level.
That’s where Carbon Literacy comes in.
The Carbon Literacy for Social Housing toolkits were developed by The Carbon Literacy Project and partners to support providers, tenants and communities in accessing a day’s worth of Carbon Literacy training. Speak Carbon are experienced in developing and delivering training using these toolkits, which organisations can use for ongoing delivery after the initial training has been deployed (user licence required).
Speak Carbon and Eastlight Community Homes
Eastlight Community Homes approached Speak Carbon to help develop a climate engagement workshop to a cohort of their people, including sustainability champions and engaged residents. On 21st March 2024, Speak Carbon delivered a bespoke Carbon Literacy training session for 25 participants. The training was co-facilitated by Pete Watkins and Michelle Marks, and focused on building shared understanding, boosting confidence, and sparking ideas for meaningful local action.
This session reflected a growing appetite in the social housing sector for training that connects technical challenges with human solutions. By bringing together both employees and residents, the workshop fostered a powerful sense of shared ownership and collaboration.
The training
The session combined climate science, sector-specific content, and space for reflection and discussion. Participants explored the carbon impact of housing operations, the role of residents in energy use, and the wider social justice dimensions of the climate crisis.
Training facilitators Pete and Michelle brought complementary skills to the day, Pete with a focus on systems thinking and behaviour change, and Michelle with her experience in climate engagement – specifically as a Director of a social housing provider herself.
Here’s what Pete had to say about the session:
“This training brought together two really important communities—those who manage the homes and those who live in them. The conversations were honest, hopeful and full of insight. It’s exciting to see Eastlight take a genuinely collaborative approach to climate action.”
Dylan Totton had this to say about working with Speak Carbon:
“Eastlight’s mission is to build stronger, more sustainable communities where residents can thrive. This session was a key step in helping colleagues understand the climate emergency and the need to make environmental improvements. It also highlighted the importance of social innovation and creating forward-thinking ideas, shaped with Eastlight’s people, residents and local communities. Thank you to Speak Carbon for their help and support.”
The results
Participants left the session with increased confidence, clear actions, and a strong sense of community momentum. Action pledges ranged from reviewing procurement practices and promoting energy advice, to championing retrofit awareness within their neighbourhoods.
Feedback from the session highlighted the value of bringing diverse voices together in one space, and the importance of making the climate conversation accessible and empowering.
“A very engaging and thought-provoking session with great detail and with engaged participants the session is exceptional.”
— Workshop participant
“Trainers Peter & Michelle from Speak Carbon were engaging, supportive and really give us the whistle stop tour of the climate emergency that I really feel everyone needs. We thought we were passionate before about sustainability, but this Carbon Literacy training has taken it to a new level. We all feel more empowered and motivated than ever.“
— Workshop participant
This short video has a few more reflections on the training from participants on the day:
What’s next?
Following the success of the March session, Eastlight is currently looking to review its Sustainability Strategy to ensure it meets customer need and future legislation in the years ahead. Its Sustainability Champions Group are working to deliver other initiatives that factors in the themes and findings in the social housing toolkit.
This work highlights the power of Carbon Literacy to unlock climate leadership from the ground up, and shows how housing providers can be catalysts for both environmental and social transformation.
To get in touch with Speak Carbon Collective about Carbon Literacy in your organisation or sector book a meeting directly with us here.
*UK emissions data taken from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6604460f91a320001a82b0fd/uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-provisional-figures-statistical-release-2023.pdf