International student air travel fuels Carbon Literacy Living Lab - Manchester Met University

Anthropogenic climate change is a global concern that is causing sea level rise; extreme weather events; leading to food insecurity and other catastrophic problems for humanity.  Manchester Met recognises our role in facilitating the transition to a sustainable low carbon society as educators and researchers to make students advocates for a more just, carbon-free future. 

Manchester Met’s Solution:

Our Carbon Literacy programme aims to compensate the carbon impacts of international student travel in HEIs.  We:

• calculate the carbon emissions associated with the journey that our international students make to attend Manchester Met;
• assign a carbon price to determine a compensation cost;
• secure an equivalent amount from financial savings achieved through university energy consumption reduction to create the ‘Environmental Education Fund.’;
• The Environment Education Fund is used to fund the carbon literacy student training programme.

We are delivering climate change education through a student orientated cascade-training model.  Manchester Met was one of the first organisations to pilot Carbon Literacy training to its students, and other city stakeholders by instilling a number of values:

• That actions of individuals make a difference.
• We need to work with others to create change.
• The outcome of the changes we need to see can lead to a better world and a better way of life.
• Equity and fairness.

Value delivered

• Over 670 students have been trained so far.  
• 13 students trained to train others, providing further employability skills and enhancing the student experience. 

“… it is not necessarily knowing what is climate change – it is how to make people aware and it is all those skills that comes with it such as leadership skills, communication skills, teamwork skills”.  – Manchester Met Student

www2.mmu.ac.uk/bigimpact/sustainability-in-action/carbon-literacy