What sustainable education means
Sustainable education helps people understand how their everyday choices affect the environment, the economy and their communities. It covers knowledge, such as how climate change works, and practical habits like using less energy, wasting less and thinking about the longer-term effects of what we buy and do.
It is about more than greener habits, though. Inequality, fair access to resources, working conditions, health and the interests of future generations all matter too. Good sustainable education also helps people weigh up evidence and see how institutions and policies shape the choices open to them.
Related terms include education for sustainable development (ESD) and, particularly in Scotland, Learning for Sustainability. Their scope varies, but they share this broad concern.
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Between 1998 and 2003, the government ran a Sustainable Development Education Panel. Its work helped establish the idea that schools should run sustainably as well as teach about the environment.
In England, the Department for Education (DfE) leads policy. Its 2022 sustainability and climate change strategy covers early years, schools, colleges, higher education and children's services. It expected education settings to have a sustainability lead and a climate action plan by 2025. This is policy guidance rather than a universal legal duty, and progress varies. Check the DfE's latest implementation guidance for current expectations.
Education is devolved. Scotland's Learning for Sustainability brings together sustainable development education, global citizenship and outdoor learning. Its 2023 to 2030 action plan aims for all places of education for learners aged 3 to 18 to become sustainable learning settings. The Curriculum for Wales connects sustainability to helping learners become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world. In Northern Ireland, primary pupils explore environmental topics through The World Around Us, and relevant post-primary subjects build on this.
Requirements differ across the four nations and, in England, between types of school. Current curriculum guidance from the relevant government will confirm what applies.
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Schools, colleges and universities
Schools can introduce sustainability through both lessons and everyday activities, including:
- teaching about climate, nature and resources across subjects such as science and geography
- using school grounds for nature projects, for example through the National Education Nature Park in England
- recycling, cutting food waste and reducing energy and water use on site
- designing new buildings, or upgrading older ones, to be more energy efficient
- preparing buildings and grounds for overheating, flooding and other climate risks
- pupil-led groups, such as those taking part in Eco-Schools, run in England by Keep Britain Tidy
What schools teach depends partly on the curriculum requirements that apply to them. Wider projects and improvements to buildings also depend on leadership, staff capacity, funding and the school estate.
Further education colleges matter too. Apprenticeships and courses in retrofit, construction, land-based industries and catering build skills needed for net zero. Sustainability also belongs within vocational qualifications generally, not only in courses labelled green.
Universities contribute through research, teaching, professional training and how they run their campuses. Many publish sustainability or carbon reduction plans.
Learning beyond the classroom
Adults can keep learning through councils, libraries, community groups and charities. The Energy Saving Trust and WRAP publish practical guidance on cutting energy use and waste at home, and your council's website will explain local recycling.
Parents and carers can help by talking with children about choices such as switching off lights, mending things or buying less.
Understanding an issue does not always make change easy. Cost, housing, transport, disability and access to services all limit what people can do. People also need affordable options, supportive services and a say in wider decisions. Sustainable education works best alongside that practical support and change within institutions.
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