E‐learning tool enlists Oxfordshire County Council workers in the fight against climate change

Aug. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- The Council commissioned the tool as part of its commitment to reduce the energy and resources it uses when providing its wide range of services across the county.

As part of the Council’s ‘Future First’ programme, every council employee has been asked to use the e‐learning program to encourage a collective response to cutting carbon emissions and costs across the council. Inmarkets and Carbon Clear, experts in the field of e‐learning and carbon management respectively, created the course which captures basic information about work and home activities to generate an individual’s carbon footprint.

At the end of the course, learners are given suggestions as to how they can reduce their impact by thinking carefully about their energy, transport and work activities. Users are encouraged to then repeat the course in the future to track improvements to their carbon impact and the costs that they have saved as a result.

Simon Truckle, Head of E‐learning Consultancy at Inmarkets, said “It is of prime importance to us that learners are engaged with our programmes in order to create a demonstrable change in attitudes and behaviours. The challenge with this course was to provide a link between the concept of carbon emissions, Oxfordshire County Council’s carbon footprint as a whole, and how small individual acts could make a big difference.”

Mark Chadwick, CEO of Carbon Clear said “We’re delighted by the launch of this exciting e‐learning tool to help Oxfordshire County Council staff learn about the challenges posed by climate change. We believe that individuals want to do their bit and so this tool will be helpful to explain how small changes to our day‐to‐day activities can have a massive effect on our carbon footprint.”

John Jackson, Director for Social and Community Services and Chair of the Climate Change Board at Oxfordshire County Council, said "The need to reduce carbon emissions has become even more important recently with the introduction of new legislation which puts a tax on our carbon emissions. This new e‐learning course will give individuals the opportunity to understand where they contribute to our carbon footprint, and how they can reduce their carbon emissions not only in the workplace, but in their home too. Reducing emissions will not only help us reach our Carbon Management Programme’s 18% carbon reduction target but will also help us save money, by reducing our gas, electricity, waste and transport costs. "

One Oxfordshire County Council staff member commented "The course only took me 20 minutes, it was very interesting and I was pleased to see my emissions are low. It has made me see where I can make a difference at home and work and I will take the course again in 6 months time to see if I have been able to make a difference."

For more information please contact Carbon Clear on 0845 838 7564 or email press@carbonclear.com.

About Inmarkets
Inmarkets is a leading provider of e‐learning solutions to financial institutions and other corporate clients. Inmarkets combines high quality, interactive content with robust and scalable technology to deliver web‐based training that can be easily tracked and managed. For more information, please see www.inmarkets.com.

About Carbon Clear
Carbon Clear is a world leading carbon management consultancy with a proven track record of helping organisation to measure, reduce and offset their carbon emissions. For more information, please see www.carbon‐clear.com.

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Inmarkets is a leading provider of eLearning authoring tools, learning management system, off-the-shelf courses, tailored course production and managed delivery services that help organizations to achieve their training and communications objectives.