Reducing the carbon footprint of your setting

Steps to help your setting be more sustainable.

Carbon emissions have a devastating effect on our environment. Reducing your carbon footprint by improving your settings energy sources, choosing sustainable options and making small behaviour changes can slow down climate change and preserve our planet.

Developing your settings ethos and making pledges to sustainability, including setting realistic and achievable targets that will make a difference, is becoming increasingly important.

In practice, taking action to become environmentally sustainable may seem complex. However, small changes can make a big difference.

Things to consider:

  • How can your setting be more environmentally sustainable?
  • How will you reflect on your progress and share your successes?
  • How can you embed responsible learning into the curriculum?
  • How can you take this beyond the setting into the home learning environment and the wider community?

Are you prepared for the new climate change requirements?

The Department for Education (DfE) has set a target for all education settings, including early years and childcare settings, to "nominate a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan". This requirement is for:

  • childcare settings on non domestic premises
  • maintained nursery schools
  • schools with early years provision

It is not an expectation for:

  • childcare settings on domestic premises
  • childminders
  • home childcarers

Although these types of providers may want to develop an action plan or carry out work to reduce their carbon footprint.

To support settings to develop their action plans, the Sustainability Support for Education website allows providers to set up an account and identify actions that their setting can implement from a range of options.

The Early Years Alliance will release a new Environmental Sustainability toolkit in summer 2025, which will include:

  • comprehensive guidance on how to operate in an environmentally-sustainable way
  • creating an effective Climate Action Plan
  • supporting children to learn how to care for the environment

You can register your interest in accessing this toolkit.

You may also be interested in other programmes that can support settings:

Tips to get you started on the journey

  • Start by measuring your setting’s carbon footprint derived from your business activities, in order to know where you stand and which are the areas to prioritise. Many tools are available for organisations to calculate the total greenhouse gas emissions they generate.

  • The principle of the three 'R’s is important when we look at our environmental impact and the actions we can take.

    Consider how you can apply this to every aspect of your business, from supplies to packaging and operations. What can be reduced, reused, or recycled? It may be more than you think.

  • With more green energy providers on the market, switching to renewable energy usage is much easier today than it used to be. First check with your energy provider if they have any renewable energy plans available.

    If they don’t, then consider switching to a provider that can guarantee that your energy consumption comes from renewable sources.

  • Have you considered the impact of yours, employee’s and families commute to your setting when it comes to the CO2 emissions generated by your business?

    Supporting your staff and families to have greener commutes is starting to be seen as more of a responsibility for businesses.

    Some examples of things you can do to encourage greener commutes are:

    • encouraging walking or cycling to your setting
    • offering safe bike storage
    • encouraging car sharing
    • implementing flexi drop off and pick up times

  • No matter how big or small it may be, whether it is through a financial contribution or a wider effort to participate and help with tasks, there is always something that can be done for the environment.

    Think of what can be done within your setting as well as outside. This could be implementing eco-friendly initiatives and rewards or taking part in community projects to preserve the local environment such as tree planting.

  • Education is key in order to succeed in this reducing carbon emissions and everyone needs to be kept informed. It is important to keep in mind that education is an ongoing process and, therefore, it is necessary to regularly re-visit the subject.

Other useful websites