Robinsons Brewery awarded Silver Carbon Literate Organisation certification
- Guild Secretary
- 55 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Robinsons Brewery has announced that it has been accredited as a Silver Carbon Literate Organisation by The Carbon Literacy Project, recognising the family-owned brewery and pub company’s continued commitment to tackling climate change, reducing organisational carbon emissions and building a low-carbon culture across its brewery, head office and pub operations.
What is Carbon Literacy?
Carbon Literacy is defined as, “An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis,” and revolves around a day’s worth of learning and action on climate change.
Robinsons first began its Carbon Literacy journey in 2023, shortly after creating its first dedicated sustainability-focused role. The business developed a bespoke course, Carbon Literacy for Robinsons Brewery, to support colleagues in understanding the carbon impact of everyday decisions and identifying practical actions they can take at work and at home. Since then, Carbon Literacy has grown from the leadership team into departments across the brewery and head office, with training delivered face to face by Robinsons’ Sustainability Lead.
What is a Carbon Literate Organisation?
A Carbon Literate Organisation is an organisation that has been accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project as being “culturally Carbon Literate”; maintaining a substantial proportion of its workforce as Carbon Literate and demonstrating its Carbon Literacy through its organisational behaviour. CLO accreditation is a tiered system with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels, requiring increasing levels of commitment to action on climate change and creating a low-carbon culture.
What changes have been implemented to achieve the awarded level?
To achieve Silver accreditation, Robinsons built on its Bronze Carbon Literate Organisation status, awarded in July 2023, and has now trained more than 30% of its brewery and head office support team. Following additional training in July 2026, Robinsons has increased the number of Carbon Literate colleagues to over 30% of its 258-person brewery and head office workforce, with a future goal to exceed 100 certified colleagues and reach more than 50% of this workforce.
Carbon Literacy has also been embedded into Robinsons’ performance management and business reporting. Energy, water, waste and carbon indicators are tracked across managed pubs, the brewery, packaging centre and head office, while learner pledges are shared with senior department leaders, reviewed through one-to-one and progress meetings, and discussed through Robinsons’ sustainability committee. Actions emerging from Carbon Literacy have supported projects including environmental awareness training for colleagues, nitrogen generation for beer top pressure, upcoming carbon dioxide capture and reuse in the brewery, utility tracking across managed pubs, dray driver efficiency training, and greater reuse of materials in pub refurbishment schemes.
What does the award mean to Robinsons Brewery?
The Silver award marks an important milestone in Robinsons’ wider sustainability journey and supports the company’s ambition to reduce emissions to net zero by 2040. Carbon Literacy now forms part of Robinsons’ wider sustainability, learning and development approach, helping colleagues connect climate knowledge with day-to-day decisions across brewing, packaging, pub operations, transport, property, training and support functions.
William Robinson, Managing Director at Robinsons Brewery, commented:
“Achieving Silver Carbon Literate Organisation status is a proud milestone for Robinsons and reflects the commitment of colleagues across our brewery, head office and pub teams. Carbon Literacy has helped us turn sustainability from an ambition into practical action, giving our people the knowledge and confidence to make better decisions every day. As a family business rooted in our communities, we know we have a responsibility to reduce our impact, support our people and play our part in building a lower-carbon future for hospitality.”
You can find out more about Robinsons Brewery's sustainability journey here.
Notes to Editors
[1] Carbon Literacy:
Carbon Literacy (CL) is “An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.”
It is delivered by testing and certifying successful individuals as Carbon Literate after they have participated in a day’s worth of learning and action.
[2] The Carbon Literacy Project: (www.carbonliteracy.com)
The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) was created and founded in 2011 and launched publicly in November 2012.
Note: ‘Carbon Literacy’ and the ‘Carbon Literacy Project’ logo (including the use of text, the speech bubble and the style of imagery including people) are registered trademarks®.
In general usage and specifically within copy, the term Carbon Literacy is correctly capitalised as a noun: It is therefore “Carbon Literacy” not “carbon literacy”.
The Project's Brand Guidelines covering usage of Carbon Literacy terminology and imagery are available at https://carbonliteracy.com/our-brand-guidelines/
[3] The Carbon Literacy Trust:
In 2013, The Carbon Literacy Trust (registered charity number: 1156722) was established and took on all Carbon Literacy Project assets, so that the charity’s trustees could oversee the dissemination of Carbon Literacy across the UK and beyond, for the public good.
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For more information:
Rachel Wallace, Robinsons Brewery
Third-party news items are published as received for informational purposes. Publication does not imply endorsement by the Guild. Please use the contact details within the post for any enquiries.
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