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BAND Briefing - Environment Policy and Climate Action Plan

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BAND Briefing - Environment Policy and Climate Action Plan

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Environment Policy and Climate Action Plan

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BAND Briefing - Environmental and Climate Action Plan Powerpoint PDF

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BAND Briefing - Environmental and Climate Action Plan Powerpoint PDF

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Environment Policy and Climate Action Plan

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Education Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy

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Education Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy

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Overview

A key initiative of DfE's sustainability and climate change strategy for education is 'sustainability leadership and climate action plans'.

The strategy states: "By 2025, all education settings will have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan". This includes early years settings, schools, multi-academy trusts, colleges, and universities.

Sustainability leadership could be a group of people or an individual responsible for the development and implementation of a climate action plan.

A climate action plan is a detailed plan to enable your education setting, or trust, to progress or commence sustainability initiatives.

There are many organisations providing courses, products, and services to support an education setting's approach to climate change. There are also many examples of excellent practice when it comes to sustainability and climate change in the education sector, and your individual setting or trust may already have a plan in place. Where this is the case we are not suggesting that you create a new plan, but you may find that some of the non-statutory guidance below supplements what you are already doing.

We want to help every setting engage with the support it needs. From December 2023 we will begin to roll out a free programme of support including:

a digital hub of resources, best practice, and tools which will help you develop, or build on, your climate action plan

access to a network of regional coordinators who will provide local expert support and peer to peer learning opportunities

Why this is important

Our engagement has highlighted that settings and trusts have the greatest success in driving change where there is a holistic action plan that is supported by a leadership team with the authority, knowledge, and commitment to take it forward.

Ensuring you have clear leadership for sustainability in place, and a climate action plan, will help your setting to:

increase the confidence and expertise of your leadership team, staff, learners, and students in understanding climate change and how positive change can be achieved

create a culture that prioritises sustainability

share effective practice with other education settings and develop a peer-to-peer learning network

use data to identify and prioritise action

improve energy and water efficiency

calculate your carbon emissions and identify ways to reduce them

reduce operating costs

increase resilience and start adapting to the impacts of climate change

enhance biodiversity

help learners develop skills and knowledge which help them to contribute to sustainability and climate change in their lives and future jobs

Identifying your sustainability leadership structure

Though it is up to each individual setting or trust to decide the structure of their sustainability leadership team, best practice shows that change is delivered when driven by a diverse team of passionate individuals. It is important that both educational (for example, teaching staff) and operational (for example, estates management) expertise is brought to this team.

The presence of senior leaders from your organisation is critical for planning and implementation to be successful. They have the authority, capacity, and support to influence and lead strategic change within the setting.

You may choose to take an individual setting approach to building sustainability leadership, set it up across a multi-academy trust (if your setting is a member of one), or both.

A whole-setting approach

It is important that the whole education setting, or trust, is engaged so that planning becomes action.

Learners

Involving children, young people and learners is important in climate action planning.

Doing so can:

inspire their enthusiasm to help drive positive change

increase their practical knowledge of sustainability and climate change

give young people a sense of agency where anxiety stems from climate concerns

create a sense of pride in their education setting

enable them to share their knowledge and enthusiasm in their local communities

enable them to engage their parents, carers, and wider community in sustainability and climate change

Senior leadership team (SLT), governors, trustees and executive leaders

As senior decision makers, SLT and governors should support and drive your sustainable activity. They should:

provide the authority and support to drive and embed culture change

ensure climate change and sustainability feature on the agenda at key meetings

be responsible for succession planning, so that commitment to sustainability endures in the setting

Estates management

It is important your estates manager or management team inform your plan as they will have the knowledge required to enact more sustainable practices.

The performance management and sustainability section of the good estate management for schools guidance explains the role of estates management in encouraging sustainability and managing energy and water use.

For settings in further and higher education, a sector specific methodology for calculating carbon emissions, based on the greenhouse gas protocol, has been published by EAUC - the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education. This follows collaboration with participants of the Platinum Jubilee Challenge, the Royal Anniversary Trust, the Association of Colleges, Colleges Scotland and Universities UK.

The standardised carbon emissions framework for further and higher education aims to:

give confidence to institutions who want to start monitoring

ensure transparency and comparability between institutions who report their emissions

Climate action plans

Creating a climate action plan will allow you to take a structured and strategic route toward ensuring your setting or trust is acting toward, and educating about, sustainability. You may choose to have a climate action plan that sits within an individual setting, or across a trust, or both.

A climate action plan should typically cover the following 4 areas, to align with DfE's sustainability and climate change strategy:

decarbonisation, for example calculating and taking actions to reduce carbon emissions, such as becoming more energy efficient

adaptation and resilience, such as taking actions to reduce the risk of flooding and overheating

biodiversity, for example engaging with the National Education Nature Park and enrolling in the Climate Action Award

climate education and green careers, such as ensuring the education you provide gives knowledge-rich and comprehensive teaching about climate change, and that your teaching staff and lecturers feel supported to offer this

What is needed if you have already started

Your setting or trust may already have an environmental plan or sustainability strategy in place and may already be calculating its emissions. Equally you may also be working with one of the many excellent organisations who help education settings address sustainability.

Our approach is not designed to duplicate planning and action that has already taken place. We recognise that different settings are at different stages of this journey. That is why the further support set out below is designed to ensure that settings are supported with further and complimentary information, regardless of where they are currently at in their journey.

Further detail about support to come

From December 2023, we will begin to roll out a programme of further support for the education sector. We will provide access to:

a sustainability leadership digital hub which will signpost to training, guidance and support offered by quality assured organisations working in this space depending on what your setting needs and already has in place. Settings who require this specific training will be able to access carbon literacy training via this hub

a network of local experts and peer to peer support that can assist you in establishing your sustainability leadership structure and develop and implement your action plan

In the sustainability and climate change strategy published in April 2022, we committed to "rolling out carbon literacy training to all settings". Having carried out user research and policy development since that date, we understand that each setting will have different support requirements and a single training offer would not be appropriate. We will provide support through the approach set out above, reflecting the different needs of each setting. The digital hub will signpost to carbon literacy training for all those that need it.

How to get started (if you have not already)

The following contains links, organised by sector, to demonstrate how some education settings have started this journey and to highlight some of the tools already available to settings. This is just a small selection of examples. There are many more settings also doing excellent work on this.

All settings

Early years settings

Schools

Multi-academy trusts

Further education settings

Higher education settings

We are collecting case studies for use in communications and guidance as we further develop our support.

If you would like to share your experience with others, please send a live website link to your sustainability strategy or send a written submission to DfE's Sustainability and Climate Change Unit: dfe.sustainability@education.gov.uk

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Sustainability leadership and climate action plans in education

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The Department for Education's (DfE) sustainability leadership and climate action plans initiative.

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Focus Area 4 - Education and Green Skills

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Focus Area 4 - Education and Green Skills

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Boosting nature in education. Nature is in trouble, and we know that young people and educators want to act and make a difference for the planet.

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The problem

The education sector is key to a more sustainable future - both in terms of the operations and estates of education settings, and ensuring we are preparing learners with awareness and green skills. Many settings have already made a start on their sustainability journeys. But research tells us they struggle to progress due to lack of time, resource, and sustainability expertise.

We know there are lots of great resources out there to help education settings overcome these challenges. However, educators tell us it can be overwhelming just deciding on next steps, and they don't have the time or know-how to find the right support for their setting.

What we're doing to help

Our aim is to promote the good work that has already been done in creating sustainability support for education settings. We will help settings find resources (such as guidance, support services, toolkits) that suit where they are on their sustainability journey, and guide them to take their next steps.

We will work closely with resource providers over the coming months to add resources that suit different settings across different aspects of sustainability.

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Sustainability Support for Education will help you find ideas and resources that are relevant to you and your setting.

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Skip to content

We match volunteer climate experts with education settings to develop climate action plans in nurseries, schools and colleges.

"If you have a great knowledge of climate change, biodiversity or sustainability, Climate Ambassadors is perfect for you. Young children have a lot of questions; they want to learn so much more about the world around us. If you want to go into schools and colleges to give talks, if you want to help education settings learn more about places they can find great resources, or you want to help the places and people in our education system become greener and more sustainable. So, if you want to make a difference, become a Climate Ambassador."

Broadcast Meteorologist and Climate Ambassador scheme champion

Funded by the Department for Education

Sustainability and climate change strategy

The Climate Ambassadors scheme connects climate and environmental sustainability experts with nurseries, schools and colleges across the UK.

Funded By

© 2024 Climate Ambassadors

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Climate Ambassadors: Turning Climate Ambition into Climate Action in Education

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The Climate Ambassadors scheme connects climate and environmental sustainability experts with nurseries, schools and colleges across the UK.

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Articles and play practice advice from BAND and their member groups - check out pages 7, 13, 17, 20 and 21

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United Nations World Wildlife Day (WWD) is

celebrated every year on 3 March to

celebrate wild animals and plants and

recognize the unique roles and contributions

of wildlife to people and the planet.

The WWD2026 Theme is “Medicinal and

Aromatic Plants: Conserving Health, Heritage

and Livelihoods”.

At your setting you could explore the plants

growing in your neighbourhood to see how

many different types there are. If you have a

herb garden or planter, you could

investigate smells and tastes.

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World Wildlife Day is not about any one single event. The Day has been observed by people, groups and authorities around the world and in various ways. Find out more about the events held globally or let people know about your event by registering it here!

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World Wildlife Day (WWD) is a United Nations international holiday that takes place every year on March 3 to celebrate the world's wild animals and plants. This date is the birthday of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which was signed in 1973.

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Wildlife Watch has a range of activities

around plant and animal wildlife including

their fantastic spotter sheets. They even

have tips of how to get started with wildlife

photography.

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Discover more about our amazing wildlife in the UK! Learn more about the plants and animals on your doorstep.

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Help Nature on your doorstep with the National Trust

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Help Nature on your doorstep with the National Trust

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The National Trust has ideas of how we can

all help nature where we live.

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...but your activity and behavior on this site made us think that you are a bot.

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The Woodland Trust has

a tree planting scheme for schools and

communities. Applications for a free tree

delivery in November 26 are open now.

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We’re giving away hundreds of thousands of trees

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Make a Seed Bomb

Get ready for spring. Make ‘seed bombs’ (or

balls) and throw or dig them into areas of

bare earth that need a little brightening up.

Use native wildflowers and you will be

supporting insects too.

You will need:

Wild meadow flower seeds

Peat-free compost

Water

Powdered clay (found in craft shops)

Mixing bowl

Creating seed bombs:

1. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of seeds

with 5 cups of compost and 2-3 cups of

clay powder (you could use clay soil

instead if you have it).

2.Slowly mix in water with your hands until

everything sticks together.

3.Roll the mixture into firm balls about the

size of a table tennis ball.

4.Leave the balls to dry in a sunny spot.

5. Now for the fun bit! Plant seed bombs by

throwing them at bare patches of earth.

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It’s the time of year that birds can find it hard to find food. With this handy bird feeder, you can help them through the cold and at the same time set up an observation station to see what birds live in your local area.

Junior Science and Nature have lots of

activities like this to help wildlife:

What you need:

Old teacup/s

Seeds and nuts

Enough coconut oil to fill the cup

Bowl

Microwave (you could use a bowl

over a saucepan of boiling water

known as Bain-Marie instead)

A small stick

Ribbon or string

Method

1. Fill the teacup with a nice mix of seeds and nuts.

2. Melt the oil in a bowl in the microwave or pan, stirring every 30 seconds until it is melted.

Pour it over the seeds until they are well coated and the cup is almost full.

3. Pop a small stick into your teacup at the side opposite the handle. This is for birds to

perch on while they eat.

4. Leave your teacup feeder to set in the

fridge. Then, tie a loop of ribbon or string

around the handle of your teacup and hang

it somewhere outside where birds will find it, such as on the branch of a tree.

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Blog and article from Bristol Early Years signposting to support and short videos to help begin and further your sustainability journey

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Climate Sustainability Under the government’s sustainability and climate change strategy for education all education settings should have a nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan”. This includes early years settings, schools, and multi-academy trusts. By ensuring there is clear leadership for sustainability and a climate action plan in place early years […]

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For plans, case studies, blogs and support for everything sustainability and climate action focussed.

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership.

Featured Resources

UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals

Early Years Sustainable Resource

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Sowing Seeds for the Future: Education for Sustainability for Childminders and Early Years Settings by Millie Colwey

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Sowing Seeds for the Future: Education for Sustainability for Childminders and Early Years Settings by Millie Colwey - Bristol Early Years Teaching Hub

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As the impacts of climate change become increasingly visible, the work of building sustainable futures for the youngest generations has never been more urgent. Millie Colwey explains how childminders and early years settings play a pivotal role in fostering environmental responsibility and sustainable behaviours in children. This blog explores the importance of education for sustainability, practical steps you can take, and how our sector can lead the way to creating a greener, safer future for young children. Through simple changes to their environments, such as using scrap stores for resources and choosing ethical banking, settings themselves can become more sustainable. Meanwhile, activities like outdoor nature exploration and food growing help develop children’s understanding of the world while teaching them they can make a real difference to our environment.