Decarbonisation Strategy Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Sustainability Managers, Energy and Facilities Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CCA-016

Before you join: Participants should understand their organisation's core operations, major energy uses, suppliers, assets, or services.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Decarbonisation has moved from a reporting task to a business planning requirement. Organisations need credible emissions baselines, funded reduction initiatives, supplier engagement, and transition plans that stand up to board, investor, customer, lender, and regulator scrutiny. Climate adaptation adds another decision: emissions reduction projects must remain viable under heat, flooding, water stress, energy disruption, and changing insurance conditions. Teams often have fragmented data, unclear organisational boundaries, unsupported targets, and project lists without quantified emissions or financial value.

This course develops the practical foundations for designing and managing a decarbonisation strategy. Participants learn to build a GHG inventory using the GHG Protocol, define Scope 1, 2 and 3 boundaries, assess data quality, identify material emissions sources, set science-based targets, and prioritise abatement initiatives. The course covers energy efficiency, renewable electricity, electrification, transport, procurement, circularity, capital planning, governance, climate risk, adaptation links, and transition-plan disclosure. Participants assess trade-offs between emissions reduction, cost, timing, operational feasibility, and resilience.

Teaching combines concise technical briefings with worked cases from banking, manufacturing, public infrastructure, real estate, logistics, extractives, and consumer supply chains. Participants use structured worksheets, emissions datasets, marginal abatement cost curves, investment cases, and implementation planning tools. By the end of the course, each participant has developed and presented a decarbonisation strategy pack for a realistic organisation or their own workplace: an emissions baseline, target pathway, prioritised initiative portfolio, governance model, implementation roadmap, and adaptation considerations.

The course suits professionals who contribute to sustainability, energy, operations, finance, procurement, risk, reporting, or capital investment decisions. It is designed for people who need to turn climate commitments into funded, measurable actions rather than produce high-level statements.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct a Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG inventory using GHG Protocol principles
  • Define organisational and operational boundaries for a defensible emissions baseline
  • Assess emissions-data quality using completeness, accuracy, consistency and traceability criteria
  • Set a science-based target pathway using absolute and intensity reduction methods
  • Develop a marginal abatement cost curve for prioritising decarbonisation initiatives
  • Prepare financial cases for emissions reduction projects using cost, carbon and risk criteria
  • Integrate physical climate risks and adaptation measures into decarbonisation decisions
  • Present a board-ready decarbonisation strategy, implementation roadmap and governance model

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build confidence challenging unsupported net-zero claims and emissions calculations
  • Produce credible carbon reduction proposals for management and investment committees
  • Apply recognised GHG accounting and target-setting methods to workplace data
  • Connect adaptation risks with asset, energy and decarbonisation investment decisions
  • Gain reusable strategy materials for sustainability, operations or climate-risk roles

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency of emissions baselines, boundaries and supporting evidence
  • Prioritises reduction projects using quantified carbon, cost, feasibility and risk criteria
  • Strengthens board oversight through defined accountabilities, milestones and performance measures
  • Reduces exposure to weak climate claims, poor data controls and unplanned transition costs
  • Links decarbonisation spending with physical climate resilience and operational continuity

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can frame a decarbonisation mandate around business value, climate exposure and decision ownership.

  • Physical climate hazards, transition drivers, and decarbonisation strategy decision points
  • Mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and net-zero claims distinguished precisely
  • Paris Agreement temperature goals and national climate policy architecture
  • Corporate value-chain emissions linked to financial and operational exposure
  • Materiality screening identifies emissions sources, dependencies, and decision owners
  • Decarbonisation programme charter defines scope, governance, milestones, and evidence

Participants can apply core GHG accounting principles to a corporate emissions inventory.

  • GHG Protocol Corporate Standard principles: relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, accuracy
  • Carbon dioxide equivalent calculations using global warming potential factors
  • Emission factors, activity data, and source hierarchies compared
  • Base-year selection and recalculation policy requirements examined
  • Location-based and market-based Scope 2 reporting distinguished
  • ISO 14064-1 requirements mapped against corporate inventory processes

Participants can define organisational boundaries and assign emissions responsibility consistently.

  • Equity share, financial control, and operational control approaches compared
  • Joint ventures, franchises, leased assets, and acquisitions treated
  • Organisational charts translated into an emissions consolidation boundary
  • Operational control tests applied to complex asset ownership arrangements
  • Boundary decisions documented through an inventory methodology statement
  • Responsibility matrices assign data owners, reviewers, and accountable executives

Participants can calculate and document direct and purchased-energy emissions.

  • Stationary combustion emissions calculated from fuel consumption records
  • Mobile combustion sources separated by owned, leased, and contractor fleets
  • Fugitive refrigerant emissions estimated using equipment and recharge data
  • Purchased electricity emissions calculated with location-based emission factors
  • Market-based Scope 2 claims tested against contractual instrument criteria
  • Energy-data collection plan specifies meters, invoices, systems, and frequencies

Participants can identify, screen and prioritise material Scope 3 emission categories.

  • Fifteen Scope 3 categories mapped to purchasing and operating activities
  • Spend-based screening estimates emissions from procurement expenditure data
  • Supplier-specific, activity-based, and hybrid methods compared for priority categories
  • Purchased goods emissions linked to supplier, material, and commodity records
  • Use-phase and end-of-life assumptions tested for product portfolios
  • Materiality thresholds rank value-chain categories for further measurement

Participants can establish data controls and evidence trails for an auditable inventory.

  • Data-quality scoring assesses completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and representativeness
  • Audit trails connect source records, calculations, assumptions, and reported figures
  • Control matrices identify data risks, control owners, and testing evidence
  • Estimation methods documented where primary data remains unavailable
  • Reasonableness checks compare energy intensity, trends, and operational drivers
  • Limited assurance readiness assessed through evidence and control-gap reviews

Participants can produce an emissions baseline and identify the most material reduction opportunities.

  • Baseline inventory segmented by scope, site, business unit, and source
  • Carbon hotspots identified through Pareto analysis and emissions intensity metrics
  • Operational drivers linked to emissions through activity-based analysis
  • Historic trends separated into structural, operational, and methodological changes
  • Intensity metrics selected for revenue, production, floor area, or service output
  • Baseline dashboard presents material sources, data confidence, and ownership

Participants can set credible reduction targets and translate them into annual pathways.

  • Absolute contraction and sectoral decarbonisation target methods compared
  • Science Based Targets initiative criteria interpreted for corporate targets
  • Near-term, long-term, and net-zero targets distinguished by purpose
  • Annual carbon budgets derived from baseline and target trajectories
  • Target boundaries aligned with inventory boundaries and material Scope 3 categories
  • Residual emissions and neutralisation claims separated from reduction activities

Participants can identify practical reduction initiatives and define their operating requirements.

  • Abatement opportunities sourced from energy, process, procurement, and asset reviews
  • Initiative charters define emissions mechanism, owner, timing, dependencies, and evidence
  • Technical feasibility assessed against asset condition and operating constraints
  • Implementation barriers classified as financial, behavioural, contractual, or regulatory
  • Avoided emissions distinguished from inventory reductions and renewable energy claims
  • Interdependencies mapped between efficiency, electrification, procurement, and grid capacity

Participants can prioritise initiatives using marginal abatement costs and investment appraisal.

  • Marginal abatement cost curves rank initiatives by cost and carbon impact
  • Capital expenditure, operating expenditure, and lifecycle costs modelled separately
  • Net present value and payback period applied to reduction projects
  • Internal carbon prices tested through sensitivity analysis and investment scenarios
  • Implementation sequencing considers asset cycles, procurement windows, and dependencies
  • Portfolio decisions balance quick wins, strategic projects, and residual emissions

Participants can establish governance and financial processes for decarbonisation delivery.

  • Board, executive, operational, and assurance responsibilities defined through governance maps
  • Climate steering committee terms of reference specify decisions and escalation
  • Capital allocation criteria incorporate carbon, resilience, and strategic value
  • Budget ownership assigned for data, projects, maintenance, and transition activities
  • Performance incentives linked to verified emissions and implementation milestones
  • Decision logs record assumptions, approvals, exceptions, and management actions

Participants can develop emissions reduction measures for buildings and energy-consuming assets.

  • Energy audits identify operational, maintenance, and capital efficiency measures
  • Building energy intensity benchmarked using floor area and occupancy data
  • Heating, cooling, lighting, and controls opportunities quantified using load profiles
  • Retrofit packages assessed against asset life and planned refurbishment cycles
  • Measurement and verification plans apply International Performance Measurement principles
  • Heat resilience requirements incorporated into building efficiency project design

Participants can evaluate electrification and renewable electricity options for emissions reduction.

  • Electrification candidates screened by process temperature, duty cycle, and grid capacity
  • On-site solar feasibility assessed through load, roof, land, and connection constraints
  • Power purchase agreements, green tariffs, and certificates compared
  • Renewable electricity claims tested against market-based Scope 2 requirements
  • Grid emissions factors considered within electrification business cases
  • Energy supply resilience assessed for outages, heatwaves, and extreme weather

Participants can plan emissions reductions for fleet operations, travel and freight movement.

  • Fleet emissions segmented by vehicle class, fuel, route, and utilisation
  • Vehicle replacement plans compare electric, hybrid, biofuel, and conventional options
  • Charging infrastructure requirements assessed through duty cycles and depot capacity
  • Route optimisation reduces distance, empty running, idling, and delivery failures
  • Freight procurement criteria include carrier data, load factors, and modal shifts
  • Travel demand management addresses aviation, commuting, meetings, and policy controls

Participants can develop supplier and product actions for material value-chain emissions.

  • Supplier segmentation prioritises emissions, spend, influence, and business criticality
  • Supplier engagement plans request inventories, targets, product data, and transition actions
  • Low-carbon procurement specifications define materials, evidence, and evaluation criteria
  • Life-cycle assessment stages identify product design and material reduction opportunities
  • Circular economy interventions assess reuse, repair, remanufacture, and recycling pathways
  • Contract clauses establish emissions disclosure, improvement plans, and performance review

Participants can assess sector-specific process emissions and material substitution options.

  • Process emissions distinguished from fuel combustion and purchased energy emissions
  • Material substitution assesses carbon intensity, specification, availability, and cost
  • Methane sources mapped across extraction, waste, agriculture, and gas systems
  • Leak detection and repair programmes define inspection frequency and evidence
  • Process heat options compare efficiency, electrification, biomass, and hydrogen
  • Asset retirement decisions consider stranded assets, remediation, and transition timing

Participants can integrate physical climate risk and adaptation measures into reduction planning.

  • Physical risk assessment identifies heat, flood, drought, storm, and wildfire exposures
  • Climate scenarios test project performance under changing weather conditions
  • Asset vulnerability analysis connects hazards, exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity
  • Adaptation options assessed for cost, effectiveness, timing, and residual risk
  • Renewable energy and electrification projects tested against climate resilience requirements
  • Maladaptation risks identified where reduction actions increase physical climate exposure

Participants can structure a credible transition plan and communicate progress accurately.

  • Transition plan components connect targets, actions, finance, governance, and metrics
  • ISSB climate disclosure requirements mapped to strategy and emissions evidence
  • Scenario analysis disclosures distinguish assumptions, uncertainties, and management responses
  • Greenwashing controls test claims against evidence, boundaries, and delivery status
  • Stakeholder communication plans address employees, investors, customers, and communities
  • Progress reporting combines emissions outcomes, project delivery, and financial indicators

Participants can convert a strategy into an owned, phased and measurable delivery roadmap.

  • Roadmaps sequence initiatives by readiness, impact, dependencies, and investment gates
  • Work breakdown structures define deliverables, accountabilities, milestones, and resources
  • RACI matrices clarify executive sponsorship, delivery ownership, consultation, and approval
  • Change impact assessments identify affected roles, processes, suppliers, and customers
  • Key performance indicators track emissions, energy, cost, risk, and delivery
  • Review cycles trigger corrective actions when milestones or reductions miss targets

Participants can build, review and present a complete decarbonisation strategy pack for a defined organisation.

  • Inventory baseline consolidates boundary choices, calculations, assumptions, and data-quality findings
  • Target pathway translates emissions ambition into annual carbon budgets
  • Initiative portfolio ranks measures using marginal abatement cost and feasibility
  • Investment narrative connects capital needs, operating impacts, benefits, and risks
  • Adaptation assessment tests priority projects against material physical climate hazards
  • Governance roadmap assigns owners, milestones, controls, metrics, and review points

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. GHG inventory methodology statement template
  2. Scope 1, 2 and 3 data-collection plan
  3. Science-based target pathway model
  4. Marginal abatement cost curve template
  5. Decarbonisation initiative business-case template
  6. Board-ready decarbonisation strategy pack

Who should attend

  • Sustainability Managers — responsible for converting climate commitments into delivery plans
  • Energy and Facilities Managers — accountable for building energy, fuel and renewable electricity decisions
  • ESG and Climate Risk Professionals — connecting emissions strategy, disclosure and climate risk
  • Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — addressing supplier emissions and low-carbon purchasing requirements
  • Finance and Investment Managers — appraising decarbonisation capital requests and transition risks
  • Operations and Engineering Managers — identifying feasible process, asset and fleet reductions

Skills and tools covered

GHG inventory designTarget pathway settingAbatement cost analysisClimate investment appraisalTransition plan developmentAdaptation integration

Tools and standards

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, ISO 14064-1, Science Based Targets initiative Corporate Net-Zero Standard, Marginal Abatement Cost Curve

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, calculations, decision simulations, and structured application planning. Participants work with emissions datasets, energy records, supplier-spend data, project assumptions, and disclosure extracts modelled on realistic organisations. Trainers demonstrate each method before participants apply it to a case or workplace challenge. Peer review is used to test assumptions, boundaries, target choices, investment logic, and implementation priorities. The final sessions are dedicated to integrating individual work into a strategy pack and presenting it for challenge.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand their organisation's core operations, major energy uses, suppliers, assets, or services. Familiarity with basic sustainability reporting, energy consumption data, carbon emissions terminology, budgeting, or project planning is useful. Participants should be comfortable working with simple spreadsheets and interpreting business cases. Prior experience preparing a GHG inventory is not required, and the course does not assume engineering qualifications, climate science expertise, advanced financial modelling, or prior knowledge of disclosure standards. Participants benefit most when they can bring a current operational, emissions, procurement, or capital-planning challenge.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand your organisation's operations, assets, energy use, suppliers, or services and be comfortable with basic spreadsheet work. Prior GHG accounting, engineering, or climate-reporting experience is helpful but not required.

Bring a laptop and, where permitted, non-confidential information about energy use, emissions, procurement, fleet, assets, climate commitments, or planned investments. Participants without workplace data can use the supplied case materials.

It is intended for sustainability, energy, operations, procurement, finance, risk, engineering, facilities, and ESG professionals. It is particularly useful for staff expected to contribute evidence and project proposals to a climate or net-zero programme.

This course concentrates on building and delivering an emissions reduction strategy, from inventory design through initiative prioritisation and implementation. It also addresses physical climate risks where they affect decarbonisation projects, but it is not solely a climate-risk assessment or disclosure course.

Participants can use the templates to improve an emissions baseline, review targets, screen reduction options, prepare project cases, or structure a transition roadmap. The capstone pack provides a practical starting point for internal discussions with finance, operations, procurement, and leadership.

The first week establishes the baseline: GHG accounting, boundaries, Scope 1, 2 and 3 data, targets, and abatement analysis. The second week develops sector actions, adaptation integration, governance, disclosure, implementation planning, and the final strategy presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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