From learning to leading – Papilo’s Carbon Literacy journey

Carbon Literacy has been a core part of Palatine’s approach to building long term resilience across its portfolio since 2021. Established by the Manchester-headquartered Carbon Literacy Project, Carbon Literacy training provides organisations with an understanding of the climate impacts of their activities, and the knowledge and motivation to take meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

We were the first UK private equity firm to train our entire portfolio of companies, supporting businesses to move beyond awareness and embed climate considerations into decision making at all levels. Nearly 70% of the Palatine team is now carbon literate, and we are committed to having a 100% carbon literate portfolio. As a minimum, at least one Board member in every portfolio company must be trained, which means carbon literacy training is embedded into our onboarding of new investments. 

Papilo – a leading sustainable waste management solutions provider – joined our portfolio in 2023 and first engaged with Carbon Literacy through Palatine’s Carbon Literacy training programme. Following participation in this training, Papilo, recognising the meaningful outcomes that the training can deliver, developed internal capability to deliver Carbon Literacy training itself. In 2025, Papilo trained 18 employees to become Carbon Literate, marking a shift from participation to ownership and making sure that Carbon Literacy is embedded within the organisation. 

This approach supports long-term capability building and aligns with Palatine’s ambition to create self-sustaining, climate-literate businesses across its portfolio and deliver sustainability outcomes beyond our investment.  

Ashleigh Duke, ESG Lead at Papilo, reflects on what enabled this transition and how Papilo plans to sustain Carbon Literacy going forward. 

What inspired Papilo to move beyond participation and take ownership of delivering Carbon Literacy internally? 

Papilo has always seen the power of engaging its staff and customers in the importance of sustainability. The decision to move beyond participation was that we understood the need to embed the idea of climate responsibility more deeply across the business and its employees. 

One of our main drivers was to build the idea of accountability. By developing our own Carbon Literacy Training, Papilo could ensure that the messaging was consistent and we could align with our own sustainability goals and those of our clients. We also wanted to empower our employees to contribute something meaningful through effectively reducing their emissions. 

What we really wanted to do was help shift mindset; we wanted to move away from seeing Carbon Literacy training as simply a ‘learning exercise’ and present it as a way to continue to be innovative, to promote leadership, and employ it as a tool to create cultural change. Taking ownership signalled a clear commitment to climate action and positioned the business as an active contributor to the transition to a low-carbon future, rather than a passive participant. 

What did Carbon Literacy change in how Papilo thinks about its role in the low-carbon transition? 

Although Papilo considers itself to be at the forefront of innovation in supporting customers with effective waste management solutions, we also recognise that we can always do more, especially when it comes to regulation, climate science and the evolution of the waste industry. This was really what drove the decision to develop our own Carbon Literacy Training. 

Carbon Literacy Training provides both employees and customers with an opportunity to look further at the waste sector and understand its individual and group role in the wider climate challenge. What Papilo wanted to do was get its delegates to look beyond just operational compliance and get them to understand what their environmental impact from everyday activities is at work, and at home. This would then help them in making better and more informed choices. 

 The training reinforces Papilo’s commitment to leadership in sustainability moving beyond innovation in services alone to building deeper understanding, accountability, and long-term behavioural change that supports the transition to a lower-carbon future. 

How did you approach delivering Carbon Literacy at Papilo? 

When I initially took part in the training, it was delivered entirely online, which worked well in bringing together participants from different industries and locations. For Papilo, an office-based business with the majority of people in one location, we were able to deliver the training in person over two days, which we thought would better support open dialogue, collaboration, and deeper discussion, helping to strengthen understanding and connections across different teams in the business. 

As a waste management business, we are already highly innovative in how we handle waste streams and resource recovery. Because of this, some candidates initially struggled to see where their individual or team actions could make a meaningful difference. To address this, I encouraged participants to focus on what they could change, rather than what felt out of their control, and to identify actions that were both realistic and significant enough to deliver tangible impact.  

Once people started to look at what was achievable for them in their roles within the business and their own personal life, the training seemed to click and become more accessible. Bringing different departments together in one room has helped spark interdepartmental ideas, encouraged practical solutions and created change that felt realistic and sustainable. 

Where has Carbon Literacy had the greatest influence on day-to-day behaviour, rather than policy or strategy? 

The largest influence of the training has been the way that people are now talking about climate change, not just in the workplace but at home and in their wider communities. Where people may have felt that making any sort of tangible change was impossible and out of reach, employees now feel that they are better equipped to share ideas, start conversations and challenge misconceptions in a much more constructive way. Taking something that can feel incredibly overwhelming and making it feel more relevant and achievable. 

Whilst policy and regulatory change play a critical role, their effectiveness ultimately depends on meaningful engagement across the organisation. The only way we can make real progress is if everyone understands why change is important and how they can be a part of that solution. By empowering our employees to take ownership of their role within the business and at home, they can make a real behavioural change that is much more impactful and sustainable. 

How does Papilo plan to embed and build on Carbon Literacy over time? 

Papilo plans to continue strengthening its Carbon Literacy knowledge and ensuring that everyone within the business becomes Carbon Literate. Embedding Carbon Literacy throughout the organisation supports informed decision-making at every level. We also aim to achieve Carbon Literate Organisation status, reinforcing our commitment to climate awareness in our work culture and long-term strategy. 

We also recognise the importance of extending our impact beyond our own business by working closely with our customers and supply chain. Through extending the delivery of our CL training, we can support our customers and supply chain to better understand how they can reduce emissions and contribute to addressing climate change, we aim to foster open dialogue and collaboration. We hope to help drive meaningful and lasting change across the sector.