Charitable social enterprise GLL has achieved ‘Bronze’ accreditation as a Carbon Literate Organisation, recognising the company’s commitment to climate awareness and responsible action.
The award was granted by The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP), a charity dedicated to showing individuals, businesses and academic institutions on ways they can ‘do their bit’ and reduce carbon emissions and climate impact.
‘Respecting the Planet’ is one of GLL’s core values so four colleagues from GLL’s National Standards and Compliance team were keen to attend CLP training last year. However, this was only the first step to achieving Bronze accreditation.
The first requirement was that one of the course participants had to be a director so Chris Hebblewhite, GLL’s National Standards and Compliance Director, joined the programme.
“Following that, we had to provide a plan showing how we intend to keep spreading the word on sustainability right across GLL and training other staff,” Richard Houlihan, Sustainability Officer with GLL, explains. “We’re rolling out a carbon literacy course designed by our membership body, Community Leisure UK (CLUK), which is specific to the leisure industry.
“We also needed to show that we have a tool or platform to monitor the impacts of our actions. We can do this through our energy and water management portals such as ‘Stark ID’ and ‘Meter’ to identify carbon reductions and savings on a centre and partnership basis.”
Each participant was also required to submit two pledges for approval – one personal and one business-related – stating how they intend to make ‘greener’ choices in all aspects of their lives.
“This was an unusual approach but very effective,” Houlihan reflects. “I’ve got a master’s degree in Environmental Studies but making a pledge reawakened my awareness of climate impact and gave me the opportunity to reflect on how I live. One of my pledges is to reduce food waste at home.
“As part of my corporate pledge to deliver a substantial impact across the business, I chose to focus on a company-wide water reduction plan,” he continues, “particularly in light of rising water costs, increasing drought risk, and the growing recognition of water’s contribution to energy use and associated emissions.
“Actions included improving leak detection and implementing targeted water-reduction strategies. As a result, in 2025 we reduced our water consumption by around 5%, saving approximately 33 tonnes of CO₂e.”
GLL’s sustainability team will be required to report back to the Carbon Literacy Project in three years’ time, providing proof that they have met their objectives and demonstrating how the training has had a useful impact across the organisation.
“Reducing climate impact is a collective effort,” Houlihan continues. “It’s up to the sustainability team to set an example. You might make one small change as an individual but that might influence other people and the idea snowballs.
“The Bronze award shows customers that GLL is serious about reducing its carbon footprint. When they come into one of our leisure centres or libraries, they know we really care about them and the environment. As a social enterprise, it’s key to our purpose and that adds to the ‘feelgood factor’, too.
“In addition, many of our business partners are also taking steps to reduce their climate impact – often via The Carbon Literacy Project as well. This demonstrates that we all have similar values.”
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