Colleges and education providers face growing funding, estate, and sustainability pressures. We look at why ESG matters in education and highlight funding routes that may support climate, biodiversity, and decarbonisation projects.
Sustainability is now a Core Education-Sector Issue
Education providers are operating in a period of sustained financial and operational pressure. Rising costs, regulatory scrutiny, funding constraints, evolving delivery models, staff retention challenges, energy costs, and sustainability compliance are all placing greater demands on leadership teams, finance teams, and governing bodies. Menzies highlights these as key challenges across the education sector, encompassing those in the further and higher education sectors, academy trusts, independent schools, and training providers.
Against that backdrop, sustainability can no longer be considered as ‘nice to have’. For colleges and other education providers, ESG is increasingly linked to access to funding, financial resilience, estate planning, student experience, curriculum relevance, reputation, compliance, and long-term risk management.
The challenge is clear: many organisations want to reduce emissions, improve biodiversity, strengthen climate resilience, and embed sustainability into learning. The harder question is how to fund that work while core budgets remain under pressure.
ESG in Education: More Than Environmental Reporting
In the education sector, ESG is about more than carbon accounting. The “E” covers energy use, heat decarbonisation, waste, water, biodiversity, transport, and climate resilience. The “S” includes student wellbeing, access, skills development, community benefit, and the role colleges play as local anchor institutions. The “G” addresses robust decision-making, transparent reporting, responsible procurement, clear controls over grant income and strong oversight by governors and senior leaders.
Sustainability is becoming commonplace into the way those in the education sector are expected to plan and operate. The Department for Education guidance states that, by 2025, all education settings should have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan; this includes colleges and universities. The same guidance identifies four key areas for climate action plans: adaptation and resilience, biodiversity and nature, climate education and green skills, and decarbonisation and net zero.
For colleges, this creates an opportunity to connect estate strategy, curriculum, employability, student engagement, and community impact. A well-designed sustainability project can reduce operating costs, improve the learning environment, support green skills, and demonstrate responsible stewardship of public or charitable funds.
The Funding Challenge
The difficulty is that sustainability projects often require upfront investment. LED lighting, insulation, solar PV, heating upgrades, biodiversity improvements, drainage, climate-resilient landscaping, and monitoring systems can all create long-term benefits, but they still need to be funded, procured, delivered, and evidenced.
Grant funding can help, but the landscape is fragmented. Some funds are designed for capital works, others focus on student-led projects of for-community benefit, while other funding prioritises for early-stage feasibility or partnership-led activity. Eligibility can depend on geography, legal status, land ownership, match funding, public access, deprivation measures, environmental outcomes or whether the applicant is a school, college, charity, local authority, or community energy group.
This is why funding opportunities need to be considered alongside a
wider sustainability and financial strategy. A grant application is usually strongest when the organisation can show a clear need, a deliverable project, measurable outcomes, an overall organisational objective for sustainability, and alignment with an existing climate action plan or estate strategy.
Funding routes colleges may wish to monitor
The following examples are not exhaustive, and eligibility criteria can change. They do, however, indicate the range of funding routes that may be relevant to education-sector sustainability projects.
| Grant | Theme | Who Should Apply | Grant Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Education Nature Park | Nature, biodiversity, and outdoor learning. Eligible uses include items such as planters, trees, green walls, water butts, grasslands, ponds, gardening equipment, fieldwork equipment, and specialist contractor support. | Those in education settings | Up to £5,000 |
| Royal Society Partnership Grants | Projects that work with STEM professionals on investigative projects, with Tomorrow’s Climate Scientists specifically supporting climate change and biodiversity research by schools and colleges. | UK schools and colleges | Up to £3,000 |
| National Lottery Awards for All England | Projects in England that improve the environment and help people connect with and enjoy nature locally. | Community-led organisations | £300 to £20,000 |
| Green Roots Fund | Projects that improve green and blue spaces, including parks, trees, community gardens, wetlands, rivers, and sustainable drainage. The fund focuses on biodiversity, climate resilience, access, and public benefit across London. | London-based local authorities and not-for-profit organisations | £10,000 to £500,000 |
| Tesco Fruit & Veg Grants | Smaller food-growing or healthy-eating projects that improve access to healthy, nutritious food. Examples include growing initiatives, cooking classes, breakfast clubs, and holiday food projects. | Schools, registered charities and not-for-profit organisations supporting children and young people | Up to £1,500 |
Community and partnership-led sustainability funding
Several sustainability funding opportunities are better suited to charities, community organisations, or partnership vehicles than to colleges applying alone.
| Grant | Theme | Who Should Apply | Grant Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva Foundation Communities Fund | The fund focuses on financial wellbeing and climate action, including projects that restore nature, improve access to green spaces, support biodiversity, engage communities in climate action, or install eligible renewable energy and energy-saving measures. | The fund supports small organisations with annual income of up to £1 million | Provides provide match funding of up to £25,000 per calendar year. |
| Stobart Sustainability Fund | Green, ecological or sustainability projects that benefit the environment. | Community groups, educational facilities, and small businesses | Not defined |
However, early eligibility screening is essential. Some funds that appear relevant to environmental improvement may expressly exclude college sites or educational organisations. For example, Veolia Environmental Trust’s current criteria state that it will not consider projects taking place at a school, college, or university, and will not consider applications from educational organisations or organisations affiliated with a school, including PTAs.
Estate Improvement and Decarbonisation Funding
For larger projects, colleges may need to look beyond small environmental grants and consider capital funding, estate allocations, and decarbonisation schemes. The EAUC provides a useful roadmap that can guide colleges towards their climate journey.
- The Further Education College Condition Allocation is a significant route for eligible FE colleges and designated institutions in England. For 2026 to 2027, the Department for Education states that the allocation provides £307 million to maintain, improve and ensure the suitability of FE college estates. The funding is intended for capital projects and estate-condition improvements.
- The Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund has historically helped public sector organisations develop heat decarbonisation plans. There is no funding for the Low Carbon Skills Fund in the 2025 to 2026 financial year, but government guidance points organisations towards Local Net Zero Hubs for free strategic and technical support.
- The Great British Energy Community Fund may be relevant where colleges work with local authorities, devolved bodies, or community energy groups. Government guidance describes it as a £5 million grant fund to support community clean power projects, helping communities generate their own clean power.
What Makes a Sustainability Project Funding-Ready?
A strong funding application relies on presenting a clear, well-evidenced project case. Grant givers want confidence that the project is well planned, strategically aligned, financially sound and capable of delivering measurable outcomes.
- Define the need: Clearly explain the problem the project will address and why it is important.
- Set out expected outcomes: Describe the intended benefits, who will benefit, and how success will be measured.
- Include measurable impact: Depending on the project, this could include:
- Depending on the project, this could include:
- Carbon emissions reduced
- Energy cost savings
- Biodiversity improvements
- Student learning outcomes
- Community participation
- Increased resilience to heat or flooding
- Development of greens skills
- Provide a robust delivery plan: Include timescales, responsibilities, budget, and project management arrangements.
- Demonstrate good governance: Show how the project aligns with the college’s climate action plan, estate strategy, financial plan, and risk management processes.
- Maintain strong grant controls: Ensure appropriate procedures are in place for procurement, application records, restricted funds, reporting deadlines, and evidence of expenditure.
- Communication of results: Follow on reporting of outcomes helps track delivery and achievements, and builds credibility
Connecting ESG Ambition with Financial Resilience
As funding pressures continue, the most effective sustainability strategies will be those that are practical, measurable, and financially grounded. Colleges that can connect ESG ambition with strong governance, clear data and robust project planning will be better placed to respond to future funding opportunities and deliver long-term value for learners, communities, and the environment.
Menzies works with education providers on areas including audit, assurance, governance, financial resilience, and ESG. Its sustainability and ESG services include strategy development, carbon footprinting, net zero planning, stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting, and ESG governance frameworks.
Disclaimer for publication:
This article is for general information only and does not constitute grant funding, financial, tax or legal advice. Funding criteria, deadlines and eligibility requirements change frequently, and organisations should review the latest scheme guidance before applying or committing expenditure.
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