The course will help participants understand the science of climate change, how different activities affect greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for reducing emissions.

The Carbon Literacy Trust has helped to develop and accredit the course, with the course to be made available in-house and online through the Market Research Society (MRS), with the first MRS course running from November 2023.

As part of the course, participants will devise a personal and organisational pledge to reduce emissions and to be accredited as ‘climate literate’ by the Carbon Literacy Trust, with organisations working towards becoming a ‘climate literate organisation’.

Jane Powell, managing director at Shift Insight, said: “We believe it is vital that the insight industry is fully carbon literate. Our role as insight professionals in advising and informing organisations gives us the potential for huge impact in addition to what we can do as individuals and organisations to reduce our own carbon emissions.

“Sometimes our intuition about where emissions come from can be incorrect, so it is important we really educate ourselves if we’re to play our full part in getting to net zero.”

Jane Frost, chief executive at MRS, said: “Carbon literacy is usually the first stumbling block people and businesses come to in their journey to net zero. 

“This training will provide crucial support for everyone who knows that they or their organisation needs to do something about the climate crisis but doesn’t quite know what that means in practice. 

“We’re pleased to be working with Shift Insight to break down that barrier and help the sector – and our clients – to mitigate our impact on the environment.”