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Surefoot was engaged by The Scottish Government to facilitate the series of Carbon Conversations workshops with 2 groups of 8 people in the Edinburgh and Glasgow government offices comprised of a people across a number of departments. Participants also took part in an online evaluation.
Over 6 sessions of 2 hours each, the participants were guided through topics related to climate change and on how to make positive shifts in attitudes and actions within the workplace. The Carbon Conversations offer a non-judgemental space to explore climate change and what it means for attendees both at home and at work, to work through why we can't always realise our intentions, and to create an action plan. This includes focus on: • Gaining a comprehensive grounding in all areas of a 'carbon footprint' • Understanding wider context of climate change and sustainability • Understanding why behaviour change can be difficult and ways to tackle barriers • Reducing your own carbon footprint • Create recommendations and/or an action plan to implement in the workplace. To learn more about our Carbon Conversations methods, please visit Carbon Conversations in the Community and Carbon Conversations for Businesses and Larger Organisations. As our report Carbon Conversations Programme, 2013-2014, Evaluation and Recommendations states, all participants recognised the benefits of taking part even with high levels of pre-existing knowledge about climate change. The handbook, given out to participants, was a source of knowledge for them: “Although I am keenly interested in this area, I learnt a lot of new material in an accessible way. I like the holistic approach, not least which includes the psychological aspects.” “Great introductions and exhaustive list of literature. I also found the case studies very useful as well as interesting to read.” Some participants highlighted facilitated group work as a positive way of dealing with the topics: “Very useful and reassuring to discuss with others and find out that everyone faces similar issues and personal dilemmas.” “The group facilitators were very enthusiastic but at the same time realistic. The atmosphere in the group was good.” We are pleased that the Carbon Conversations moved both the participants’ attitude as well as their actions. As this extract from our conclusion shows: “Throughout the attitudinal survey we can see some significant changes to both how participants were feeling about the various topics and issues raised in the programme, as well as actions they are now taking. "For example, there was a 35% movement towards participants being in full agreement with the statement ‘It is better to avoid using products that have a harmful effect on the environment’ and 35% more participants giving the statement ‘I generally buy used or ethical/sustainable products and try to recycle or reuse old products’ a score of eight or more, where 1 = totally disagree and 10 = totally agree. "Other significant movements occurred within the Energy, Travel and Food sections as well. Within Ethics and Responsibility where before the programme only 33% of participants totally agreed with the statement ‘We are all responsible for tackling the impacts of global climate change’, 85% totally agreed with this statement after the programme.” Read more about outcomes and feedback in the document: Carbon Conversations Programme, 2013-2014, Evaluation and Recommendations Comments are closed.
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CIC Number SC437410 |