THE CARBON LITERACY TRUST

Registered charity 1156722 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q115260331

The Carbon Literacy Project was created to deliver on an objective in Manchester's climate plan to offer everyone who lives, works or studies in the city a day's worth of learning about climate change. This unique and ambitious project is now expanding to underpin action to reduce emissions and accelerate growth in the low-carbon economy across the UK and beyond.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN THE CONSERVATION, PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Manchester, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit for the year of £134,611, with unrestricted funds dropping to £9,383. However, the trustees note that cash balances were extremely positive at £629,708, supported by significant deferred income of £627,584 which they argue does not represent monies to be returned to customers. Per the trustees' report, reserves are considered to be in line with their policy target of holding three months' operating costs, despite the low reported unrestricted balance.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Third Sector Accountancy Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Carbon Literacy Project (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Alex Ganotis — Vice-Chair (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Westford Mill — “We would like to gratefully acknowledge the founding sponsor of The Carbon Literacy Project – Westford Mill , whose financial support has ma…” (source page)
• Beechfield Brands — “Roger McHugh, Managing Director at Beechfield Brands – Gold Partner and Founding Sponsor” (source page)
• BASF — “Tony Heslop, Senior Sustainability Manager at BASF – Friend of The Carbon Literacy Project” (source page)
• Auto Trader — “Christos Tsaprounis, Head of People & Culture at Auto Trader – Silver Partner” (source page)
• Patagonia — “Harry Brook, Community Marketing and Impact Specialist UK/IE at Patagonia – Bronze Partner” (source page)
• Ecosurety — “Will Ghali, CEO at Ecosurety” (source page)
• Hattrick — “Malin Cunningham, Managing Director at Hattrick – Silver Partner” (source page)

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/09/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (78% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 4.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (18/06/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• ALEXANDER GANOTISchair
• Diane Margaret Johnson
• JENNIFER ELIZABETH MARY WILSON-BROWN
• Malin Cunningham
• Simon John Foy

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with CLIMATE ED.

• CLIMATE ED income £154k
• CAMBRIDGE CARBON FOOTPRINT income £151k
• CLIMATE RESPONSE LIMITED income £545k
• BOOKMARK READING CHARITY income £4.1m
• THE CARBON COMMUNITY income £246k
• MANCHESTER CITY OF LITERATURE income £265k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.