Exploring EDI and sustainability in post-16 education
Sustainability is more than bins and lightbulbs. At its heart, it is a project of justice and equity: a commitment to meeting the needs of all people, within planetary boundaries, today and tomorrow. If environmental programmes do not simultaneously dismantle social inequity, they risk reproducing the very harms they seek to avert.
EAUC’s organisational value of inclusivity therefore commits us to “centre equality, diversity and inclusion in everything we do”. Yet, as we have often acknowledged, neither EAUC nor the post-16 education sector is “diverse enough” and we are “not doing a good enough job” of ensuring historically marginalised people are seen, valued, heard and able to lead.
Research aims and methodology
Against this backdrop, in early 2025 we asked: how well are sustainability teams across post-16 education embedding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) into what they do and how they do it.
We surveyed 138 practitioners, representing 108 institutions. These responses were complemented by interviews with sustainability professionals who identified as being part of excluded or marginalised groups.
The findings, available below in full report and the executive summary, highlight a significant gap between belief in EDI and its implementation in sustainability work.
| 26th November 2025 | |
| Resource | |
| Executive Summary | |
| Key Findings Infographic | |
| Action Guide | |
| Full Report and Findings | |
| EAUC Administrator |
