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Schools climate action guide and template

Making your climate action plan

For a successful climate action plan you will need to assemble and engage a diverse team. Appointing a sustainability lead who can help to coordinate is an important first step. It is also one of the DfE’s requirements. Sustainability leadership could be one person or a group of people. It should have responsibility for the development and implementation of your climate action plan.

Climate change goals rely on contributions from:

  • education staff
  • operational staff who understand the technical aspects of your school site
  • senior leadership team
  • pupils and parents

Working together will help embed your climate action plan. It will also help to successfully incorporate these changes within your school.

How to use this guide

In addition to this guide, we have developed a template for creating a climate action plan (docx, 2.2mb), which is ready to be completed for your school. It is intended to be downloaded and completed as part of the process. 

To get started, please refer to the climate action plan template (docx, 2.2mb).

The template is split into different columns that you should fill in with information about the action you are intending to take.

To help you complete the template, it includes examples of action plan goals and the corresponding steps to achieve them. For ease, these examples have been divided by theme. The examples provided are to help inspire and generate ideas on the opportunities for your school. The list is not exhaustive. If you like the ideas and are committed to carrying them out, feel free to copy the information straight into your action plan.

Once you have completed your climate action plan we recommend you publish it on your school's website. We also recommend you review how you are getting on with delivering your plan once a year and update it as goals are met. This is a good opportunity to get pupils involved in this process.

Download climate action plan template with examples (docx, 2.2mb)

Download climate action plan template without examples (docx, 2.1mb)