Our commitment to sustainability – help us to transition to digital certification
As a responsible business City & Guilds is transforming the way we operate by finding more sustainable ways of working.
08 February 2023
We have recently joined the Race to Zero for Universities and Colleges, run by EAUC – the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education and United Nations Environment Programme. This means we have committed to reduce our carbon emissions by at least 50% before 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040 or sooner.
As part of this, one of our aims is to transition to digital certification as part of our responsible business agenda and our commitment to playing our part in climate action.
Opting out of paper certification in Walled Garden
As learners move through their journey there are several phases of certification including Certificate of Unit Credit (CUCs) and Notification of Candidate Results (NCRs). This means multiple paper certificates are issued per learner before they receive their formal qualification on completion.
As you will appreciate printing thousands of paper certificates does not contribute to environmental responsibility or support our commitment to our sustainability goals.
The good news is that over 50% of our customers have already opted out of receiving paper NCR's and results lists. This is great progress, but many centres are still opting into hard copy CUCs. If you haven’t already, you can also opt out of receiving paper CUC's via our Walled Garden platform at any time.
Guidance and support – watch our short demo to learn how to opt out
With a view to reducing the volume of hard copy paper certificates we would like to encourage you to review your settings in Walled Garden and opt out of some of these paper notifications and switch to digital issuing.
To help you we have created two short demo videos that provide step-by-step guides on how to opt out of CUC's and NRC's and how to access e-certs via walled garden.
Accessing e-certs
Opting in or out of CUCs
The benefits of e-certs and digital credentials
One advantage of e-certificates is that they can be securely verified. With the e-Certificate secure verification function, many of our customers are moving towards e-Certificates as a more secure, sustainable and cost effective alternative to paper certificates.
In addition, digital credentials are also now a core part of our offer and again we encourage you to provide your learners email addresses so that they can receive these important online credentials that will take them forward in their career.
We need your insights and feedback
We are keen to gain further insights into your approach to sustainable practice. We are inviting our customers to complete this short survey so we can understand your needs and how we can make this step easier for you in the future.
Complete our short survey
Thank you for your understanding on this important topic. If you have any queries on the above, please do not hesitate to get in touch via email.