According to Wendy Edie, eCom's Managing Director, "Legislation to limit the effects of climate change, along with worldwide economic and political factors that are affecting energy prices, are putting unprecedented pressures not just on energy consumers, but also on energy producers and contractors.

"As these companies transform their businesses to becoming net zero carbon producers, one of the key business areas most heavily affected is the learning and development (L&D) department. So, we've been helping L&D departments rethink and remould their strategy to support this major move, in order to ensure their organisation achieves its goals."

As well as working with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to help several smaller companies reduce their environmental footprint, eCom has also been working with larger organisations in the energy sector. This includes developing bespoke eLearning materials for Pict Offshore, an engineering innovator, to help make offshore wind-turbine maintenance technicians' jobs safer - especially when they are working in rough seas.

"Furthermore, eCom has helped the International Well Control Forum (IWCF) - which administers training, assessment, and certification programmes for the oil and gas industry's exploration and production sector - to reduce its environmental impact by using eAssessments, along with digital badges instead of paper certificates," explained Wendy. "Along with the many benefits of badges, this means that IWCF needn't print and ship these certificates around the world, thus reducing the environmental impact of a programme that deals with some 30,000 candidates annually."

In addition, eCom's strategy development expertise, via its consultancy arm, is helping organisations transform processes and systems in the pursuit of net zero carbon emissions.

"In particular, our consultants are looking at current L&D activity, attitudes to change, and levels of digital confidence to determine how best to integrate the learning that will drastically reduce the organisations' carbon footprint and produce the skills in their workforce to enable that organisation to remain effective, efficient, and profitable in the rapidly changing world of work," said Wendy.

"We recognise that, where reducing carbon footprint is concerned, change on this scale can be daunting and involve many moving parts," she added. "Much of eCom's success in this area is due to the empathy we build with clients, backed up by the high degree of customer support and care we provide, as we work with clients' senior management teams to ensure that the new L&D objectives align with their overall business strategy."