“It was great to have so many employees coming out of the training with an increased awareness of carbon literacy and a passion to drive positive change for Kia. It really helped employees understand Kia’s sustainability goals around carbon neutrality by 2045 and identify individual commitments to support this. I’m excited about continuing to work with Anthesis to reach Gold level in 2023.”
Gemma Benbow
Director, People & Organisation, Kia UK
Kia UK, a multinational automobile manufacturer, had the objective to create a sustainability mindset within Kia UK employees. This included providing employees with a better understanding of the impact of their actions through education on the climate crisis.
Furthermore, Kia UK wanted to understand the climate impact within the automotive industry to allow for robust sustainability planning and to embed its carbon reduction and sustainability commitments, including carbon neutrality by 2045.
Project
To ensure colleagues were “speaking the same language” on climate topics, Anthesis created and delivered a bespoke, interactive Carbon Literacy training program for Kia UK. The program covered the causes of climate change and looked additionally at how it could affect the automotive industry and the UK. We further explored some practical ways which can be used to mitigate the climate crisis, both on an individual and on a business level.
Following the completion of the course, Anthesis supported Kia employees to become certified as Carbon Literate Citizens. Anthesis then guided Kia UK through the process of becoming a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO). Kia is currently certified as a Silver Level CLO and is working with Anthesis to move to Gold Level in 2023.
The commitments made after this training program will incur ~88,690kgs CO2e savings per year. Savings will be made both in the carbon footprint of Kia UK, and the personal carbon footprint of Kia colleagues.
Impacts
- Kia UK colleagues gained new confidence when speaking about the climate crisis. This has enabled open, productive discussions about how Kia UK can best take action.
- The momentum gained from the program has kickstarted multiple initiatives, including solar panel installations, internal communications, and supply chain commitments.
- Over 70% of Kia UK colleagues committed to partake in new actions that would remove 1000s of kgs from their individual carbon footprint, and the footprint of Kia UK.
