Find Out More - Using Carbon Conversations

CONTENTS

What’s it all about?
Materials
Six meetings
Facilitation and training
Who do groups appeal to?
What does it cost?
Join or start a group

 

What’s it all about?

Carbon Conversations handbookCarbon Conversations Groups offer a supportive group experience that helps people halve their personal carbon footprint.  They deal with the difficulties of change by connecting to values, emotions and identity. The groups are based on a psychological understanding of how people change. 
Groups of 6-10 members meet with trained, volunteer facilitators in homes, community centres, workplaces or other venues. The 6 meetings create a non-judgmental atmosphere where people are encouraged to make serious lifestyle changes. The groups offer:
  • space for people to explore what climate change means for themselves, their families and their aspirations
  • permission to share their hopes, doubts and anxieties
  • time to work through the conflicts between intention, social pressure and identity
  • reliable, well-researched information and practical guidance on what will make a difference
  • support in creating a personal plan for change
The meetings use professionally designed, reliable materials to cover climate change basics, ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Discussions of practicalities are woven together with discussions of how people feel and what these changes mean personally. Carbon reductions of 1 tonne CO2 are typically made by each member during the course, with plans developed to halve individual footprints over a 4-5 year period.
Basic facilitation training equips suitable volunteers to facilitate effective, stimulating groups. Carbon Conversations groups operate well as a cascade scheme. Typically 10% of participants train to become facilitators of further groups.

Materials

  • Carbon Conversations: 130 page course member’s handbook with detailed information, ‘at-home’ activities’, resource lists and FAQs, illustrated throughout with stories taken from Cambridge Carbon Footprint's story-collecting and Akashi projects.
  • 3 interactive games for group discussion, each on a brightly coloured, cloth board with laminated playing cards, instructions and players notes.
  • The facilitators’ guide: 50 page booklet providing guidance on the emotional dynamics of a group, on the psychology of climate change and on the course content, including outline programmes for each meeting; guidance on recruiting members, supporting facilitators, using Carbon Conversations in different settings and embedding it in other activities.
  • Access to the Carbon calculator from the Centre for Alternative Technology provides a base-line footprint for each participant.

Single copies of the Carbon Conversations handbook can be purchased through our office. Multiple copies are normally only available on completion of training.

Six meetings

Carbon Conversations are normally divided into 6 sessions, typically of 2 hours each. 6-10 people meet with 2 facilitators.
1. Low-carbon futures
Change is tough. It involves letting go of the past and daring to live differently. In this meeting we imagine the futures we want and talk about the journey we're starting.
It gives you a template –shows you how to begin.
2. Home energy
Home means comfort and safety. It's a place for family and friends. Homes can carry our memories or express our aspirations. But our homes are also a key source of carbon emissions. In this meeting we learn how to make them live up to all our dreams.
I love my home... it's painful to think it could be causing damage as well.
3. Travel & transport
Car, bike, bus, plane? We use them to get from A to B and each tells a story about who we are: our status and our desires. In this meeting we explore what travel means to us and how to gear up for a low-carbon future.
Back home in Senegal, people like to hear that you're driving a flashy car - but I ride my bicycle with pride!
4. Food & water
Most people have strong feelings about food. - what they like, when to eat, who to share it with and why. In this meeting we explore how to make our diets healthy, enjoyable and low-carbon.
Food is a real bonding thing - it brings families, communities and cultures together.
5. Consumption & waste
Clothes, gadgets, home improvements, holidays: they all take energy to make and add to our carbon emissions. But they also express who we are, what we value and how we feel.  Can we live contentedly with less?  This meeting helps us explore some of the most difficult questions about a Western, high-consumption lifestyle.
I love to shop - but it doesn't always make me feel happy.
6. Moving on
Our final meeting is a reunion. After a few weeks have passed we meet again to celebrate, reflect on learning, share progress, make plans and organise ongoing support.
It had a huge effect on me..it was really, really positive.

Facilitation and training

Carbon Conversations groups need good facilitation if they are to work well. They are usually delivered in the community by pairs of trained, volunteer co-facilitators who receive ongoing mentoring and support. Groups can also be delivered by professional facilitators, commercially or as part of their job and have been used successfully in workplaces.
The approach is sometimes called ‘psycho-education’, a term that expresses the combination of exploratory, participative learning coupled with psychological understanding of how groups work and people change.
Volunteer facilitators need to be people with good, intuitive ‘people’ skills. It is an advantage if they have prior experience of small group facilitation. They also need to be prepared to master the basic content and point people to reliable sources of information.
Training in the material and methods is provided by the Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) and its network of Designated Trainers. On completion of training, facilitators sign an Agreement about use of the scheme. They are then added to COIN’s list of ‘Approved Facilitators’ and can purchase multiple copies of the materials for use with their groups.
More details about Facilitator training can be found in the downloadable pdf. 

Who do groups appeal to?

Carbon Conversations primary audience is people who are aware of or who are becoming concerned about climate change (in Defra’s audience segmentation terms the 44% of the population who are ‘Positive Greens’ ‘Concerned Consumers’ or ‘Waste Watchers’). Although more aware of climate change than the average, these audiences do not have correspondingly small footprints. Involving other audience segments is also possible but is likely to require extended engagement activity first. Activities and games from the course can also be used as part of an engagement strategy with less aware audiences.
Group members can be recruited through outreach work, marketing, publicity, networking and by word of mouth. Any local community group with an active membership would be well placed to run a group.

Evaluation

Carbon Conversations was created through a lengthy process of developmental testing where text, activities, games and training were drafted, tested and refined through feedback from participants. Every Carbon Conversations group is evaluated. All participants are aked to fill out a simple form giving their views of the group, and listing the carbon savings made and the carbon savings planned. The innovative ‘star ratings’ added to the Carbon Conversations handbook in January 2011 enable participants to estimate the significance of the actions taken.

Download an analysis of participant forms from some early Carbon Conversations groups here.
Download a research study of Carbon Conversations by Pam McLean /The impact of a values-based change method on the environmental performance of an organisation/.
Carbon Conversations is currently being researched by Southampton University’s research project /Third Sector Innovations for Low Carbon Practices./

What does it cost?

Charges for participating in a Carbon Conversations group (usually 6 sessions) are set by the organisation running it, typically £15-25, including a copy of the Carbon Conversations Handbook.  Ask your local group

Single copies of the Carbon Conversations Handbook can be purchased for £20, including postage and packing, by contacting our office.

Multiple copies are normally only sold to people who have completed Facilitator training. They are available on a sliding scale of prices, basically at cost to small, unfunded community groups and with mark-ups for funded organisations and commercial use. The cost of the Carbon Conversations Handbook ranges from £10- £25 and the Games Pack from £50-80.

2-day basic training weekends are offered on a sliding scale with the price starting at around £165 per person for self-funded facilitators. A few bursaries are sometimes available.
1-day training courses are offered to people who have already participated in a Carbon Conversations group. These are sometimes free and sometimes cost £35-40 depending on the funding of the organising group.

Join or start a group

If there are no groups running in your area why not start one? Contact us for details of Facilitator training courses coming up.