Training & Certification: Your journey to sustainability.
Learn about the first steps of your emissions reduction journey with Climate Smart. Access our exclusive certification program online.
Introduction
How It Works
Climate Smart Software
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FAQs
Climate Smart isn’t just another online course. It’s your future-proof business strategy.
Become a sustainability leader. Develop your reduction plan and design a path to carbon neutrality.
Become a thought leader.
Transform your industry.
Climate Smart Certification is an award-winning training program that helps small and medium businesses in every industry create greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, then devise emissions reduction plans to take action and make change.
Over the course of 4 to 6 months, we will guide you from “How do we start?” to “Wow, we have a solid plan, real data, and support to achieve our our carbon reduction goals!”
Cut costs
Energy, fuel, and waste savings can have big financial impact. In a good way.
Cut CO2 emissions
Be a company that makes the effort to emit less pollutants.
Future-proof your business
Adapt to changing tides, mitigate risk, and cultivate positive environmental outcomes.
Build in-house skills
Help your team drive environmental and community initiatives long into the future.
Make it a community effort
Access a network of Climate Smart Certified businesses to tackle ambitious climate change targets.
Measure what matters
Attain carbon footprint metrics for reports, RFPs, plus solid numbers for complementary assessments like BCorp, Green Marine, and ISO.
Measure, reduce, leverage.
Session 1: How to measure your current impact.
- GHG 101. Learn the basics about greenhouse gas emissions.
- Calculate a baseline. What is your carbon footprint right now?
- Map your emissions. Where are they coming from? Learn how to collect and analyze data. Input your findings into our emissions calculation software.
- Practice the Greenhouse Gas Protocol—the international standard for carbon accounting.
Sessions 2 & 3: Make an emissions reduction plan.
- Identify your best opportunities to reduce emissions and costs.
- Build your own emissions reduction strategy.
- Forecast financial and climate change benefits.
- Create an actionable plan to reduce your emissions.
Session 4: Communicate and celebrate.
- Inspire your team to actively participate in your emissions reduction plan.
- Leverage your Climate Smart Certification in your internal and external marketing efforts.
- Become a climate leader in your industry.
- Learn how to become carbon neutral.
Climate Smart Software.
FAQs
To become Climate Smart certified, a business/organization is required to:
- Complete the Climate Smart training program, either in a cohort or individually.*
- Complete a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, according to the GHG Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, and have it reviewed and approved by a Climate Smart client advisor.
- Create a GHG emissions reduction plan that includes actions to address the most significant sources of emissions measured in its GHG inventory. The emissions reduction plan must be approved by a senior decision-maker in the organization.**
* Completing the training program is only required in a company’s first year of membership with Climate Smart. However, many businesses choose to send additional staff through training in subsequent years.
** For companies that have been working with Climate Smart and reducing GHG emissions for multiple years, it may be difficult to find new actions they can take to reduce their most significant sources of emissions; in this case, they will need to have taken action in prior years.
A thousand things! The most pertinent is this: Our Climate Smart training programs allow businesses to achieve their business goals and lead in their industry while cultivating a climate-conscious culture internally at the same time. Our unique combination of training, tools, and technical assistance enable small, medium, and large businesses to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, make informed decisions to invest in efficiencies, and communicate compellingly about the action they’re taking on climate change.
Climate Smart is distinct from other consultancies in our capacity-building approach. Climate Smart Certified businesses come away with the internal ability to analyze, measure, and reduce their company’s impact. We train key staff from each participant business in GHG management through training sessions, one-on-one coaching and access to Climate Smart’s online software tool. The idea: You get Climate Smart Certified AND your team has the tools to lead the emissions reduction charge from within your organization ongoing.
Ultimately, it’s up to you. Generally, up to two people from each organization attend the Climate Smart training sessions. Ideally, one should be able to help locate emissions data (e.g., electricity, gas and fuel bills, travel records, etc.). Think about who is best to lead and champion the climate change charge within your organization. Who can inspire the team to act? If you want to send more staff, you absolutely can!
Approximately 4-6 months. This includes:
- 3-4 half-day training sessions (interactive online or in-person)
- Greenhouse gas inventory compilation
- Inventory review by Climate Smart technical experts
- Development of a cohesive, action-oriented emissions reduction plan
Knowledge is power.
Climate Smart helped us to identify the waste and inefficiencies within our business in terms of energy and also materials. This helped build an optimal implementation plan that is practical yet still leaves room for us to be aspirational.
MELISSA RADU Sustainability Manager, Edmonton Convention Centre
