The education sector is constantly adapting to changing demographics, expectations and requirements. In 2025, the sector is dealing with Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) implementations and renegotiations, teacher shortages and cost increases.
For many in the sector, sustainability is a ‘nice to have’ as most education providers are registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) or are governmental agencies, and as such do not have mandatory reporting requirements. In this article, we explain that although sustainability reporting is not required for many education providers, that does not mean it’s not of value.
Our first article in this insight series, Sustainability reporting: The business case, outlined 10 reasons why organisations should implement sustainable business practices, adopt sustainability reporting, and obtain sustainability assurance.
For the education sector specifically, there are a number of other factors to consider.
1. The academic impact of climate change
Academic results and preparing students to fulfill their potential in later life regularly appear in the most important factors driving school choice. Recent research by Zurich and Mandala considered how climate risk affects over 9,800 schools across Australia. This research shows that increased climate risk is associated with poorer academic attainment (due to lost school days from wildfire, floods, extreme heat and other weather events) and lower future earnings (arising from poorer academic outcomes). These risks could reduce academic attainment by over 7 per cent and reduce lifetime earnings of students by $73,000 due to reductions in academic attainment.
Understanding how climate risk affects individual schools gives education providers an opportunity to mitigate the impact on itself and its students, protecting academic outcomes and quality of service provision. Adopting sustainability reporting gives education providers the detailed understanding they need of the risks and opportunities they face from a changing climate, enabling them to plan ahead in an efficient and effective manner. These providers will be able to outline to prospective students and their families how choosing their school will set them up for success in a world affected by a changing climate.
2. Expectations of a new generation
The environment is consistently rated as one of the most important issues in Australia by young people. With parents and students increasingly selecting schools which align with their interests, there is an opportunity for education providers to demonstrate that the importance of environmental matters for students is reflected in the importance given to it by the school.
Integrating sustainability in schools can be done in many ways, including:
- Improving energy efficiency (through renewable energy)
- Implementing green building practices when developing capital masterplans
- Instituting comprehensive recycling programs and composting of organic waste
- Investing in sustainable transportation options (such as carpooling, cycling, and public transportation)
Each of these initiatives present opportunities for cost savings, and may be supported through grant programs. There is also an opportunity for education providers to involve students in these efforts, empowering them with a practical understanding of sustainability.
3. Guidelines already exist
Education providers are already covered by various State guidelines which set out expectations regarding sustainability. While not mandatory, these guidelines and expectations need to be considered by education providers. Many are meeting the spirit of these guidelines and have instituted processes, controls and systems to this end. There are costs incurred to maintain these, but often these are not leveraged in a structured manner to demonstrate the education provider’s environmental credentials more broadly, whether that be to parents, students, employees, regulators, providers of finance or ratings providers.
Adopting sustainability reporting gives education providers an opportunity to use what they already have to generate opportunity from it, rather than simply as a means to meeting government guidelines.
4. Responding to stakeholder requests
Education providers interact with a large number of stakeholders. Of these stakeholders, suppliers and government bodies are increasingly being captured by sustainability reporting requirements. Those stakeholders are increasingly requesting environmental information and feeding that into their procurement decisions.
For education providers, the most cost-effective way to address these requests is to proactively develop processes, controls and systems to measure and validate the information so that it can be provided in a consistent, standardised manner that avoids repeat ad-hoc costs of meeting information requests.
The World Economic Forum highlights that organisations tend to underestimate the financial impact of climate change, while overestimating the cost of action. We now know the impact on students: a 7 per cent loss of academic attainment and $73,000 reduction in lifetime earnings.
Families and students are clear that environmental sustainability is a significant concern for them, and education providers now have an opportunity to demonstrate their values are aligned. In doing so, they can mitigate the worst impacts of climate change on their students, protecting academic quality and empowering students to succeed in a world where knowledge of sustainability is increasingly important.
Implementing sustainable business practices, adopting sustainability reporting, and obtaining sustainability assurance gives education providers an opportunity to respond to the expectations of this new generation, meet existing governmental guidelines and minimise costs associated with mandatory sustainability reporting requests from their supply chain.
Investing in this area means investing in your people, and with Grant Thornton’s ‘education-first’ approach, this is a single investment which can have a disproportionately positive impact on education providers and their students.
Learn more about how our ESG, sustainability and climate reporting services can help you
