A new, innovative partnership is set to deliver opportunities for people operating in the agricultural, food and drink, and land-based sectors to gain a recognised qualification in carbon literacy to future proof their business and support Scotland’s net-zero ambitions.

SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), and environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, have joined forces to announce the initiative, which will lead the way in delivering Carbon Literacy qualifications for rural industries.

The partnership will offer certifications from the Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) through bespoke training delivered by SAC Consulting with Keep Scotland Beautiful (as official partner in Scotland for the CLP).

Carbon Literacy, and the management of carbon assets and processes, is considered to be key to the future of land management, agriculture, and food and drink production, which all hold significant carbon impacts for Scotland.

The accredited training scheme has been designed to embed and support sustainable behaviour changes within the sector and will provide the same foundation knowledge to level the playing field towards the Just Transition, no matter if participants manage a croft or a global multinational.

Once accredited, teams can embed the knowledge and skills to take tangible action towards measuring and reducing carbon emissions from everyday activities in their business.

Head of SAC Consulting and vice principal of commercial at SRUC, Andrew Lacey, said: “We all have a responsibility to ensure that we can all collectively understand the carbon impacts of our work, and our life choices, and can consider these everyday actions to positively impact climate change.

“With a growing emphasis on sustainable business activity to access funding, and on the measurement and reduction of carbon footprints in the rural, food and land-based industries, it is crucial that there are opportunities to build a broad understanding of the carbon landscape, terminology, and technical information.

“Our aim is to offer a valuable training course and recognised accreditation for those working in these industries to own the space, and positively lead the movement towards net zero for their own businesses, as well as within their local communities.”

Deputy CEO of Keep Scotland Beautiful, Catherine Gee, added: “Our Just Transition to net zero in Scotland requires innovation and cross-sector collaboration at an unprecedented scale and speed. We all need to think differently, openly, and creatively about the challenges, possibilities, and opportunities ahead.

“Our unique new partnership brings together expertise and credibility from SAC Consulting and Keep Scotland Beautiful to provide accredited Carbon Literacy training for the rural industries sector. Experts from both organisations have developed this new, certified course tailored specifically for agriculture and land-based businesses in Scotland.

“The accredited training will empower businesses working in these industries to develop and implement credible and feasible plans for measuring and reducing carbon emissions and catalyse behaviour change at scale.”

Details on the new training course from SAC Consulting and Keep Scotland Beautiful are available here: www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/carbonliteracy-ruralindustries