A London-based sustainability organisation, set up with UK government backing in 2001, that helps businesses and public bodies cut carbon emissions and develop low carbon technology.
The Carbon Trust helps organisations work out how much carbon they produce and how to cut it. Carbon here means the greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, that warm the planet. It advises companies and public bodies, develops independent standards that certify whether an organisation is measuring and reducing its carbon, water, waste and supply-chain impacts, and measures and labels the footprint of products. It also supports new low carbon technologies, including offshore wind and marine energy. Its pages describe its work as speeding up decarbonisation and energy efficiency in both the public and the private sector, around the world.
The Carbon Trust was established in March 2001 in London as a not-for-dividend company limited by guarantee, after being announced in the UK government's 2000 climate change programme. It was designed to work at arm's length from government, with a board that included people from outside business. Its original aims were to help UK organisations meet emission targets, improve competitiveness through using resources efficiently, and build a UK low carbon technology industry. Its milestones include the Carbon Reduction Label (2007), the Carbon Trust Standard (2008), the Water and Waste Standards (2013) and a Supply Chain Standard (2015), described as the first independent certification of its kind.
The head office is in London; a recruitment listing gives 5 New Street Square, EC4A 3BF. Its Wikipedia entry says it also has offices in Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and South Africa, and a search result for the company in Companies House shows it as a UK-registered company (04190230). We could not confirm from the pages we read which other UK cities it works from today. Its UK work spans businesses of all sizes, local authorities and government bodies.
Tom Delay was its founding chief executive and led it for 22 years, announcing his retirement in 2023 after earlier working at Shell. Chris Stark, who previously led the UK Climate Change Committee, was appointed in January 2024 but left after about three months for a government role. Michael Rea, formerly its chief operating officer, is the chief executive named on Wikipedia, with Baroness Brown of Cambridge as chair. We did not find a culture statement on the pages we read; the leadership details are from Wikipedia and may have changed.
A GreenJobs listing for the Carbon Trust shows the kinds of roles the organisation employs: carbon consultants, energy and carbon analysts, energy managers, a principal scientist in carbon capture, and a head of sustainability. Behind those sit people in sales, project management, technology, finance and communications. If you like science, engineering, data or business, and want to apply it to cutting emissions, the Carbon Trust is a long-running example of how that can become a career. Its own website lists openings.
Website: www.carbontrust.com
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