Sustainability leadership and climate action plans in education

Have you seen the Department for Education’s (DfE) sustainability leadership and climate action plans initiative?  This states that: “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.

Wherever schools are on their sustainability journey, this non-statutory guidance and the support now available can help them get started or take the next step. Support is available to nurseries, schools and colleges and is provided by DfE through:

• Sustainability Support for Education: provides resources, services and tools to help you identify appropriate action to develop, or build on, your climate action plan
• Climate Ambassador Programme: provides access to on-the-ground volunteer climate ambassadors and regional networks to support the development and delivery of impactful climate action plans, working in partnership with Let’s Go Zero Climate Action Advisors
• The National Education Nature Park: provides curriculum-linked resources and practical activities to engage children and young people in nature and the improvement of their local environment. Participation in the Nature Park is a great way to add meaningful education, skills and biodiversity action to your plan

There are many organisations providing courses, products, and services to support an education setting’s approach to climate change. As senior decision makers, SLT and governors should support and drive a school’s 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.

After DAG’s successful seminar on Environmental Sustainability last summer we are following up with a Spring DAG Community Network for Governors and Trustees online seminar on Environmental Sustainability on 2^nd April 2025 at 6.00pm to hear from Climate Ambassadors on what boards should be doing to stay up to date with the requirements to have a climate action plan in place.

The online seminar will be open to all involved in school governance across Devon, so please reserve your place as soon as possible by contacting  [email protected].