Educating sustainably in 2024

Happy new year to you all. After the warmest and wettest year on record in 2023, 2024 is likely to be warmer still on land and sea, and there will be even more droughts, forest fires, and unpredictable severe storms with intense flooding, as our atmosphere continues to warm, absorbing more moisture and energy. More than 3 billion people will be affected: mainly children, the aged, and the economically and physically disadvantaged. Our current and future students are getting ever more eco-anxious, as we are now on a critical tipping point in the climate crisis, with a greater probability that a 1.5 C increase is already locked in. Caroline Hickson at Bath University, working with Mind, estimates that 90% of our students are concerned about climate change and biodiversity loss.

The climate emergency is now widely recognised by the UN, our government, and most of our staff and learners. Further guidance may follow this year from the DfE, which has its own climate change and sustainability unit, and it is likely to be based on their current strategy, the FE roadmap for sustainability, and the following six Cs:

• Co-construction with our learners 
• Collaborative action with our community partners
• Curriculum for all students on all courses at all levels
• Capital investment 
• Communication of the agreed vision and strategy, and 
• Clarity of purpose and targets.

2024 will require you and your governing body to take two clear statutory actions:

1. Nominate a climate action plan champion (CAPC)

2. Produce a climate action plan, co-constructed with your learners and community partners, and approved by your governing body. The strategy should be costed and have clear timescales and targets. 

Additionally you might like to consider, as most colleges now have,

3. Having a clear CPD strategy to support your staff and governing body, e.g. providing opportunities for them to all undertake one day's learning on sustainability. One such example, and the most widely-used in the sector, is CLP, the Carbon Literacy Project. It is available in both online and face to face formats.

4. Providing similar opportunities for your students; most colleges who have used CLP for students have been able to either embed it in the curriculum or within the tutorial programme. Over 120,000 students have now completed the FE version of the CLP.

Brighton, Hove, and Sussex Sixth Form College and Loreto College in Manchester have done excellent work in this area. BHASVIC, as part of a partnership of all the Sussex colleges, won the 2022 SFCA award for sustainability. The partnership nominated a champion who organised the annual Sussex Colleges Sustainability conference including students, and who developed a clear CPD strategy including the Carbon Literacy Project and sharing of best practice between all the colleges in the partnership. This included training for the governing body and senior leaders, as well as staff and student ambassadors. Loreto College are the first institution in the United Kingdom to introduce level 3 Carbon Literacy training, via the CLP, to all staff and all students in their college. They plan to then be able to lead on this for the Manchester Catholic diocese, and are organising a national conference to support 11 to 16 learners through national consortia. They too have a nominated climate action plan champion, who is producing their climate action plan co-constructed with learners and community partners. Both have successfully used the FE Roadmap for Sustainability and the six Cs to meet the needs of their learners, staff, governors, and their communities, as well as the statutory requirements from DfE.

There are a range of organisations that can provide you with help including:

DFE Climate Change and Sustainability Team ….Website with six point plan 

EAUC ……..Especially for help on the more technical requirements of how to measure and record your carbon footprint and set meaningful targets for emissions that fall into the categories of scope 1, 2 and scope 3

ETF…. Especially for help with embedding sustainability into your curriculum, and with governance training

SOS…. Students Organising for Sustainability

CLP….. The Carbon Literacy Project, based in Manchester; a charitable trust who produced courses for students, staff, governors, and employers in conjunction with Manchester Met University

Unloc… Student training on advocacy, governance, entrepreneurship and being a climate change ambassador.

Award-winning SFCs, including BHASVIC, Varndean, Collyer’s, and Bexhill in the FE Sussex consortium, Loreto etc .

SS4FE ……….. Help with writing your climate action plan, developing your sustainability strategy, producing and delivering staff development plans to support your teams, governing body training and briefings, supporting learners, and creating student awards in the sustainability space.

Steve Frampton was principal of Portsmouth SFC from 2005-2018, co-authored the FE Sustainability Road Map and FE version of the CLP, served as FE-HE Climate Commissioner 2021-2023, and is now Founder of SS4FE, a not-for-profit consultancy working with over 100 schools and colleges. You can email him here.