Background

Between 1990 and 2025, UK greenhouse gas emissions fell from roughly 791 MtCO₂e to 367 MtCO₂e, marking a 54% reduction (DESNZ, 2026). The innovations and changes that have helped enable this progress haven’t just emerged from thin air.

Behind each sustainability-centric innovation, efficiency improvement or material technology breakthrough is a specialist, someone who understands both their industry and the need for sustainable alternatives to traditional goods.

CILS International has built its business on expertise. From our manufacturing quality leads to our operations team, everyone at CILS has the knowledge and experience to challenge the way we work, contribute new ideas and make meaningful improvements to our business. In the past, this has led to developments such as the implementation of our 3.0 print technology and the expansion of our services into new laboratory and industrial markets.

However, addressing climate change on both a domestic and global scale presents a significant challenge for the durable labelling industry. Our leadership has always been committed to exploring how CILS can reduce its environmental impact and contribute positively to a more sustainable future. This ambition is shared by many SMEs across the UK, but businesses, including our own, continue to face common barriers, access to the right knowledge and confidence in the practical steps required to drive meaningful change.

This is why we partnered with the Carbon Literacy Project to help make these hurdles a little less daunting. The UN-recognised, Manchester-based non-profit provides organisations and individuals with training, certification, materials and guidance on climate change and carbon emissions.

Our Training Programme

Due to the niche and highly technical nature of our industry and products, we decided that this learning should be delivered internally by a trainer who understands both our business and the wider world of climate science and sustainability. To complement this, our training programme was specifically designed to include locally relevant case studies and print-and labelling-specific materials. The programme was then fully reviewed, approved and licensed by the Carbon Literacy Project, ready for delivery.

Team leads from across the business were invited to take part in a full day of training, covering the science of climate change, our current warming trajectory, the ESG regulatory landscape and, perhaps most importantly, practical ways in which our business can improve its environmental performance.

We are proud to announce that, to date, 15 members of staff have been certified as Carbon Literate, with an additional team member receiving their Carbon Literacy Facilitator qualification in recognition of their role in delivering the training.

Looking Forward

So, what do next steps look like for CILS?

Well, the first step will be fulfilling our pledges.

A core part of Carbon Literacy certification is the submission of two separate carbon reduction commitments: one personal and one to be carried out as part of a group. We are already seeing changes implemented across the business as a result of these commitments, and as they come to fruition, we look forward to sharing them with you

Looking towards the end of the year, CILS will be exploring Carbon Literate Organisation status, reflecting the progress we have made against our sustainability targets. In addition, we are currently developing our first ESG report, which will formally outline our sustainability performance alongside our targets and commitments through to 2030.