Become Green Together

Our offer

We’re inviting voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the North East of England and Cumbria to join Become Green Together, a training cohort in environmental sustainability. This programme will take you step-by-step through the process of creating a practical sustainability strategy which fits your needs, and embedding environmental knowledge and sustainable practise in your workplace. Wherever you're at on your environmental journey, we're here to help!

Become Green Together has helped provide tools and focus for us to take our climate action ambitions to the next level. Genee and Smart Carbon have been incredibly helpful and we feel so much more confident as to how we can move forward positively with our plan for Net Zero.

-- Meadow Well Connected‍

The benefits of taking part:

Membership of Investors in the Environment (iiE) and their nationally recognised Bronze level accreditation for one year. This includes access to the iiE website and resources, training events on the iiE framework and its requirements, access to support, and auditing of organisational progress in order to receive iiE Bronze accreditation.
Access to the SmartCarbon Calculator, training on reducing your carbon footprint through a half-day Carbon Footprinting, Managing and Reporting course, and additional support in using the tool for one year.
Joining a peer support network, where you can learn alongside other VCSE organisations with similar needs.
The opportunity to request additional webinars, briefings, training events and resources
from the Going Green Together programme and our partners SmartCarbon and Genee.

Become Green Together will provide you with heavily subsidised access to these benefits based on the size of your organisation (see below), with up to 75% off!

We also have a bursary scheme to cover the full cost of taking part for those with financial barriers. We currently have bursaries available for organisations in County Durham, Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, and the Tees Valley. Enquire at hello@goinggreentogether.org to check the availability of bursaries before you apply.

Fees: SmartCarbon Training and access to carbon calculator (including VAT)

Organisation size

Subsidised Cost

Normal cost

Under 10 staff or under £2m turnover

£93.15 (save 80%)

£470

Under 50 staff or under £10m turnover

£378 (save 55%)

£840

Fees: Investors in the Environment Membership & Accreditation

Organisation size

Subsidised Cost

Normal Cost (inc. VAT)

Under 50 staff

£210.28 (save 73%)

£778.8

50+ staff

£1003.75 (save 46%)

£1858.80

250+ staff

£1338.34 (save 28%)

£1858.80

250+ staff and greater than £10m turnover

£4860 (save 19%)

£6000

Total Cost of Courses

Organisation size

Subsidised Cost

Normal Cost

Under 50 staff, under £2m turnover

£303.43 (save 75%)

£1248.80

Under 50 staff, £2-£10m turnover

£588.28 (save 64%)

£1618.80

Over 50 staff, £2-£10m turnover

£1381.75 (save 49%)

£2698.80

Over 250 staff, £2-£10m turnover

£1716.34 (save 36%)

£2698.80

Over 250 staff, over £10m turnover

£5238 (save 23%)

£6840

These subsidised costs cover membership in iiE and use of the SmartCarbon dashboard over the 12-month period this programme covers. Organisations who wish to use these resources beyond the programme will be responsible for meeting the ongoing costs. We advise organisations to begin to include environmental sustainability costs such as these as part of their ongoing core costs in organisational budgets.

Your commitment to the programme

Going Green Together has been awarded funding to deliver this pilot programme in order to build a foundation for climate action in the VCSE sector, and to learn how best to achieve this in future projects. When you apply to join this cohort, we therefore ask that you ensure at least one member of your organisation is available for the following:

Events, briefings, training courses, and webinars from October 2023 to March 2024 (1-4 days)
Involvement in peer learning sessions, and other monitoring and evaluation activities prior to March 2024 (1 day)
Supporting organisational work towards the iiE Bronze accreditation (approx. 10+ days over a 12-month period, depending on the scale and complexity of your organisation)
Collecting, collating and inputting data for the Smart Carbon carbon calculator (5-10 days over a 12-month period, depending on the scale and complexity of your organisation)

Your organisation also needs to commit to paying the subsidised fees for accessing the SmartCarbon calculator and Investors in the Environment framework as outlined above.

Save the date: the first training sessions for the SmartCarbon element of the programme are scheduled for Monday 25th September or Monday 16th October, 3-4.30pm.

How to apply

Applications will be re-opening in two windows, from 1st April-31st May 2023, and 1st July-30th September 2023. This involves filling out a quick and simple form about your organisation.

To apply to join this cohort, please fill out the following form. Please note that spaces are not guaranteed, as we are required to ensure that participating organisations are from a diverse range of geographical areas, organisational scales and different carbon-intensity activities e.g. transport, office, housing.

If you require a bursary to cover the costs of the course, please email hello@goinggreentogether.org to enquire before filling out the form below. Bursaries are limited, and will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Applications for the last cohort are open 1st July to 30th September 2023. You can apply by filling out the form below. To ensure you are able to enjoy all the benefits of being in the cohort, we recommend applying as soon as possible.

Become Green Together

Our offer

Fees: SmartCarbon Training and access to carbon calculator (including VAT)

Fees: Investors in the Environment Membership & Accreditation

Total Cost of Courses

Your commitment to the programme

How to apply

Apply to the programme

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