The Useful Simple Trust (UST) has reached a significant milestone in our climate action journey, advancing from Silver to Gold certification as a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO). This achievement demonstrates our commitment to embedding climate-conscious practices across our family of brands and throughout our organisational culture.
Our Carbon Literacy journey
Climate action stands at the heart of our ‘Get Set Zero’ initiative and unites all the Trust brands in a shared purpose. While many of our team members already operate as leaders in carbon reduction within their respective fields, we recognised the value of formalising and expanding this expertise through the Carbon Literacy Project’s certification framework.
The CLO accreditation uses a tiered system – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum – requiring increasingly robust commitments to climate action and low-carbon cultural transformation. Having achieved Silver certification last year, our progression to Gold reflects our organisational commitment to addressing the climate crisis.
Secured Gold status
Our certification journey involved several strategic initiatives:
- Specialised Carbon Literacy (CL) training to 55% of our workforce, using materials tailored to the specific needs of organisations transforming the built environment.
- Development of our first external-facing Carbon Action Plan (coming soon!), establishing a clear pathway to carbon neutrality that incorporates our employees action ideas generated during our CL training sessions.
- Appointed dedicated sustainability leadership and embedded carbon literacy throughout our updated People Strategy, ensuring climate consciousness is present at every stage of an employee’s journey with the Trust.
- Conducted a local needs assessment and initiated knowledge-sharing sessions with neighboring organisations in our Temple Chambers office building.
