The Let’s Go Zero coalition is made up of 20 organisations who share in our ambition to support UK schools decarbonise, improve biodiversity and empower students and staff to live more sustainable lives.
They also support our work with the Department for Education, using their voice to back initiates that enable school decarbonisation.
The members of our coalition can be found listed below:
Ashden leads the Let’s Go Zero campaign calling on the government for support and funding to get all UK schools to zero carbon by 2030.
Every school, college or nursery that joins will be pledging to work towards a more sustainable future while also urging the government to support this vital mission. As well as lobbying politicians, the campaign will give school leaders the tools and resources to become more sustainable.
Having previously run LESS CO2, Ashden has many years of experience supporting schools to reduce their energy usage, save money on bills, and lower their carbon emissions. LESS CO2 is now delivered by the Let’s Go Zero team.
GenEarth aim to educate, inspire, and empower young people to address the climate crisis by giving them a voice and the opportunity to take collection action. They focus on adaptability and responsiveness to the ever-changing political, social, and environmental landscape. They bring together the private, public and voluntary sectors, to deliver a range of action-led free programmes for schools centred on innovation, design and creativity.
Global Action Plan is a charity that’s working for a green and thriving planet where people enjoy their lives within the Earth’s resources. Transform Our World is their online, centralised, quality-rated resource hub to help teachers to bring environmental action into the classroom. It provides opportunities for students to lead impactful projects that tackle the root causes of the climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. The range of curriculum-linked, low prep resources is teacher-reviewed and tested, to ensure it is as easy as possible for teachers to channel the excitement around climate action into schools-based activities.
Having previously run LESS CO2, Ashden has many years of experience supporting schools to reduce their energy usage, save money on bills, and lower their carbon emissions. LESS CO2 is now delivered by the Let’s Go Zero team.
For over 30 years, WWF has been working with teachers and schools to provide a wide range of topical classroom resources and real-world activities to engage and inspire young people. Over 10,000 UK schools participate in their education programmes and they have a wide range of climate change resources, species and food growing activities to inspire pupils. Their work with schools is part of their mission to build a brighter future for both people and nature.
Learning through Fairtrade opens up a fascinating world, revealing how we are all connected. Use their curriculum resources to discover where our food comes from. Becoming a Fairtrade School means joining a worldwide movement. It offers a great opportunity to look at global issues such as where our food comes from and how we are connected to people around the world. Students can also learn a range of skills, from teamwork and co-operation to persuasive writing to running a stall or tuck shop.
The Eco-Schools programme consists of three structural elements – The Seven Step Framework, the Eco-Schools Topics and assessment for the international Green Flag award. The programme requires support from school leaders and active involvement from staff, as well as a long-term commitment and the willingness to involve students in decision-making.
Sustrans is the charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle. School Streets tackles the congestion, poor air quality and road safety concerns that many schools experience, by restricting motor traffic at the school gates for a short period of time, generally at drop-off and pick-up times. Sustrans School Streets is our programme to support schools and local authorities to trial and implement school streets across the UK.
Carbon Trust provide solutions to the climate crisis. They support organisations globally to accelerate towards Net Zero. From target setting, Net Zero pathways, assurance and footprinting, to policy advice, strategy setting and programme delivery, they seek smarter ways to turn intent into impact, where sustainability and economic realities go hand in hand.
The Tree Council brings everyone together with a shared mission to care for trees and our planet’s future. They inspire and empower organisations, government, communities and individuals with the knowledge and tools to create positive, lasting change at a national and local level.
They offer an extensive programme for schools as well an exciting #ForceforNature campaign, encouraging children to stand up for trees and the natural world. Through their Orchards for Schools programme, The Tree Council provide free bespoke training, resources and tree and hedgerow packs to enable children and teachers to grow their connections, knowledge, skills and passion for trees and nature while improving the treescape and biodiversity on their grounds. The Young Tree Champion Ambassador programme helps children and teachers to build their confidence and creative abilities so that they can speak up and share their passion for being a Force for Nature in their local community and beyond. To find out more, visit The Tree Council Schools Webpage.
WRAP is a climate action NGO working in 40 countries to give the planet a sustainable future. Engaging citizens, governments and businesses, it’s mission is to end waste in food, textiles and plastics and promote the circular economy. WRAP run campaigns such as Recycle Now and Love Food Hate Waste to help make recycling the norm and keep food out of the bin, with The Action Pack programme for schools.
WRAP also runs the Guardians of Grub campaign which aims to reduce the 1.1 million tonnes of food thrown away by the Hospitality and Food Service industry every year.
At Better Planet Education, formerly known as the Young People’s Trust for the Environment (YPTE), our mission is clear: to inspire the next generation to become passionate stewards of our planet. For decades, we’ve been at the forefront of environmental education, and now we’re excited to enter a new chapter under our new name, while maintaining our commitment to fostering a generation of eco-conscious leaders who will shape a brighter, more sustainable future.
We aim to give young people clear and balanced information on a wide range of environmental issues. Better Planet Education provides a range of free education services and resources for schools in the UK, including downloadable lesson plans, free online talks/ presentations, videos and an extensive fact sheet library. We also run Better Planet Schools, an online environmental education platform for primary schools in the UK. To find out more and enrol your school free of charge, please visit www.betterplanetschools.org.uk/schools.
Green Schools Project’s Zero Carbon Schools Programme is a series of pupil sessions, teacher training and community engagement outreach that supports pupils to learn more about climate change and for schools to reduce their carbon emissions. The programme explores the causes and effects of the climate crisis, investigates schools’ carbon footprints and enables pupils to design projects to reduce carbon emissions and inspire climate action. It starts after October half term and runs until the end of the school year. Find out more and sign up here!
Energy Sparks is a registered charity providing an online energy management tool and education programme, specifically designed to help UK schools reduce their electricity and gas usage, through the analysis of smart meter data. Energy Sparks helps pupils and the wider school community to reduce their school’s carbon emissions and make a real contribution to addressing the climate emergency. Using a school’s electricity, gas and solar data, Energy Sparks shows pupils, staff and volunteers how much energy the school is using each day. The unique online tool presents bespoke analysis of the energy data with suggestions of actions the school community could take to save energy and reduce the school’s carbon emissions. Energy Sparks has over 100 energy and sustainability education activities and accompanying resources that pupils can participate in through eco-teams or curriculum learning. To enrol your school or Multi-Academy Trust, visit www.energysparks.uk/product
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is a leading UK conservation charity. Their mission is to create ocean activists everywhere with a vision for a thriving ocean and thriving people. SAS actively campaigns for the environmental protection and restoration of the ocean on four main campaign areas: plastic pollution, ocean recovery, water quality, and ocean & climate.
SAS offers two environmental education programmes: Plastic Free Schools and Ocean School. Plastic Free Schools is a pupil-led education programme to empower young activists to help stop the use of single-use plastics in UK schools. It is completely free and open to any UK school, from early years up to secondary. As part of Ocean School, SAS provides educators with resources to lead their own beach-based activities or take a virtual trip to the coast through Digital Ocean School.
ProVeg UK supports local authorities, multi-academy trusts and individual schools throughout the UK through its School Plates programme. The team helps school menus become healthier, more sustainable and save money through menu reviews, plant-based recipe development and both online and in-person plant-based cooking training with catering staff. You can download The Guide to the programme, as well as The Recipes – 35 plant-based recipes, created specifically for primary schools with key nutrition facts, costs, allergens and CO2 emissions for each recipe. The team have so far helped to swap over 6.4 million meals from meat-based to meat-free or plant-based. They are currently supporting 35 major catering partners (including 29 local authorities), responsible for over 3,500 schools, and over 580,000 children. For more information, get in touch at [email protected]
Young Climate Warriors aims to inspire a national team of children who are engaged and empowered to help tackle climate change. They provide weekly, term-time and age-appropriate fun climate change related challenges encouraging carbon emissions-busting action, sustainable living choices and an appreciation of nature. Being part of a wider, virtual national team enables children’s voices to be heard and encourages a positive sense of collective action.
Young Climate Warriors provides teachers with a weekly ‘schools pack’ linking to the weekly challenge topic – with ready-to-use, trustworthy, rigorous and reliable resources. With a positive outlook, and a ‘this is do-able’ mindset, they encourage action – ‘little by little, a little becomes a lot’. They also offer a series of 10 sessions as a ‘Climate Change Club in a Box‘; a resource that can be used by an eco-council, after-school club, or to stimulate form time discussion. Their Ambassador Programme links schools with local ambassadors and provides in-person, discussion-based, interactive climate change assemblies. Materials are designed for children aged 7 – 14yrs. (KS2 and KS3).
Climate Friendly Schools provides whole school communities with a framework to enable climate action. Developed by, and with teachers, Climate Friendly Schools facilitates the establishment of a Climate Friendly Action Team, enables a school to audit its current climate responsiveness, helps schools to write a Climate Friendly Action Plan and provides guidance on how to complete effective climate actions. Oases North east – Outdoor and Sustainability Education Specialists, the charity behind Climate Friendly Schools, has been delivering this type of support to schools for over 20 years, helping schools to improve their Curriculum, Campus, Culture, Community engagement and Climate Careers guidance across the 7 themes of school Buildings, Consumption, Energy, Food, Grounds, Transport and Water. Climate Friendly Schools is freely available to help schools take climate action, enabling them to reach Lets Go Zero’s ambition for all schools to be zero carbon by 2030, an ambition we whole heartedly support.
Modeshift STARS is the national school awards scheme that has been established to recognise schools that have demonstrated excellence in supporting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable travel.
The scheme encourages schools across the country to join in a major effort to increase levels of sustainable and active travel in order to improve the health and well-being of children and young people. Every school in England (outside of London) can participate in Modeshift STARS for free. On completion of an application , schools will automatically receive a brand new national standard School Travel Plan.
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Another Way is a youth-led environmental education charity aiming to empower people to live with kindness towards our planet. Their flagship Power of 10 Movement aims to build a community of resilient young climate leaders across the U.K., hosted through an online platform and app. Events, workshops and resources empower young people to lead, inspire and create climate action initiatives at all levels of society. They also offer workshops on a range of environmental topics created by young people and teacher resources.
Retrofit Action For Tomorrow CIC is a community interest company with a mission to respond to the climate emergency by providing education and retrofit advice to schools and their surrounding local communities, resulting in energy and emissions reductions, resource efficiency and climate resilience. RAFT is an architect-led, multi-disciplinary team with expertise in deep building retrofit, community engagement, and zero carbon planning.
Pupils Profit works with schools across the UK enabling teams of children to set up and operate fully circular child led ECO Refill Shops, selling refills of eco friendly household products to their wider school communities. The shops actively reduce waste, build the children’s green skills, and change behaviour in the wider school community. You can find out more at www.ecorefillshop.com
Energy Heroes is an innovative teaching resource that equips schools and children with the skills and knowledge to reduce carbon emissions and become enthusiastic ambassadors for a sustainable future.
Through engaging lessons and hands-on activities, we inspire young minds to understand the importance of low-carbon, sustainable living — and to make a real difference.
Energy Heroes is an invaluable resource, offering educators vibrant, climate-focused lessons aligned with curriculum standards, along with ongoing support throughout the year. You can find out more at www.energy-heroes.org.uk/
Let’s Go Zero has a strong working relationship with local authorities across the UK helping to share best practice and offer support with engaging schools in climate action.
In England our advisors work closely with councils and schools under their remit, to streamline sustainability support and help them to create School Climate Action Plans.
Let’s Go Zero aligns with many local authority climate action goals across the UK. Councils can become official supporters of our work and the campaign, showing schools in their area that they stand by them in their climate action journey.
We partner with:
Brighton & Hove City Council, Bury Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, Cornwall Council, Devon County Council, Durham County Council, Essex County Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Hampshire County Council, London Borough of Southwark, Luton Council, Manchester City Council, Stockton on Tees Borough Council, Warrington Borough Council, Warwickshire County Council, West Sussex County Council, Wokingham Borough Council
They support us by speaking up on climate issues and the move to zero emissions.
They also offer advice to our leadership team on policies and effectively delivering a just transition to zero carbon across UK schools. They have been selected for their passion, vision, values, accountability, experience in stakeholder engagement, inquisitiveness, diversity, a learning mindset, and excellence in external engagement.
Adam Flint
Adam is the Education Manager at Keep Britain Tidy where he manages delivery of the Eco-Schools programme and oversees the running of the upcoming Count Your Carbon tool. Previously, Adam managed MADE, Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership, and before that he developed schools programming at the Science Museum Group for 10 years.
Adam has worked extensively with schools, co-creating arts and learning experiences with teachers and pupils, foregrounding different voices and youth perspectives. He’s passionate about placing young people at the forefront of climate action and giving them a platform to promote change.
Adam’s interests include cinema, music, football and literature. He lives in Manchester with his partner and young daughter.
Charlie Clift
Charlie is a 16-year-old secondary school student and passionate environmentalist based in Oxfordshire, and member of the student advisory group. He is also a staff member at Teach the Future, a student-led campaign for climate education, which has had enormous success including the introduction of the first ever student-written bill into UK parliament.
His general interest, along with his work at Teach the Future has given him huge knowledge and experience on the environmentalism movement, having advocated for sustainability issues in school assemblies, in meetings with MPs and at exam board consultations. Outside of work, he enjoys music, maths, learning foreign languages and coding.
Giles Bristow
Giles is the CEO at Surfers Against Sewage. He is a senior leader and environmentalist with more than 20 years’ experience gained in commercial, entrepreneurial, community and NGO environments in the energy, food, and ocean systems. He is also a committed RNLI Crew member, enthusiastic sea swimmer, surfer, wing-foiler, and sailor, with a passion for improving the state of the marine environment.
Previously the Interim CEO and Director of Programmes at Ashden and before this, Director of Programmes at Forum for the Future, with responsibility for its systems change work. He found his way to Forum from a previous career as an environmental lawyer in the City of London with Slaughter & May and worked directly with communities across the UK to scale community energy as CEO of Carbon Leapfrog.
Giles worked with the Ashden team on LESS CO2 and developing and expanding Let’s Go Zero, and now works on the Education Programme (Plastic Free Schools and Ocean School), at Surfers Against Sewage.
Harry Paticas
Harry is an architect with a passion for beautifully crafted buildings that deliver robust building performance. He is a certified Passivhaus designer with broad experience in sustainable design. In February 2019, he won the Association for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) Overall Winner and the People’s Prize for the work he has carried out on his own home which is the first pre-certified step-by-step Passivhaus retrofit in the UK.
Harry was named RIBA London Project Architect of the year 2018 and is a co-director of 15-40 Architecture and Arboreal Architecture. He is currently a member of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Association (STBA) Panel of Experts and co-chair of the Technical Working Group on retrofit for the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings.
Harry is passionate about sharing his experience in low-carbon deep-retrofit to enable schools and local communities to significantly reduce carbon emissions and become resilient in the face of climate breakdown. In 2020 Harry founded RAFT (Retrofit Action For Tomorrow) and is currently working on zero carbon retrofit proposals for schools in Lewisham and Camden.
Hershil Patel
Hershil is the Sustainability Lead for Arcadis’ Government and Public Sector team. Formally, Hershil was the Head of Energy, Environment and Engineering at the Department for Education. During his time in Central Government Hershil lead the strategy to integrate sustainability into major capital programmes and funding schemes. During the Coronavirus Pandemic, Hershil, led the Departments technical input to keep school open.
At Arcadis is Hershil works with a wide range of public sector clients and supports them with solving complex issues from Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) to strategic sustainability and estate strategies.
His passion and drive to do things right provides a balance to the reality of delivering on the ground projects and achieving performance-based outcomes.
Hirra Khan Adeogun
Hirra is the co-director (campaigns & impact) at Possible. Previously, she was the campaign lead of the landmark Car Free Megacities programme, a two-year project across London, New York and Paris to reimagine our cities as places where private cars become obsolete and to dramatically raise policy and public support for urban car reduction.
Before this, Hirra managed events for Amnesty International UK, extensively explored British Muslim identities at New Horizons in British Islam, and used evidence and insight around the experiences of underrepresented people to drive positive change. She is passionate about designing sustainable futures that centre social justice, human rights and community cohesion.
Hirra is proud of her east London roots – she still lives there with her husband – and outside of her day job, she tries to make it better for local communities as Trustee of the Women’s Environmental Network (Wen) and as Vice-Chair of her tenants’ and residents’ association.
Jodie Bailey-Ho
Jodie Bailey-Ho is a 19-year-old undergraduate environmental science student at the University of Manchester, one of the co-founders of Teach the Teacher and one of the Department for Education Youth Focal Points for sustainability and climate change.
Her lobbying for climate and sustainability education began in 2019, and since then her commitment to sustainability and education has earned her recognition on a global scale – being named one of the finalists for Young Champion at the Global Good Awards, and one of CIWEMs ‘Climate Sheroes’ earlier this year. Through her work to progress climate education, she hopes that every young person, regardless of who they are, will feel equipped and empowered to create meaningful change.
Lucy Shea
Lucy Shea is the CEO of Futerra, the change agency. A firm believer in the power of business to create change, she advises Fortune 500 companies on how to unlock the value of sustainability for their business and brand. Lucy has long experience in developing bold goals and sustainability strategies plus powerful communications to drive social and environmental change. Her interests are in operationalizing sustainability and developing initiatives to make sustainable lifestyles choices more accessible.
She radically reimagined garment recycling with the creation of our Swishing campaign and was a founder member of the UN’s Sustainable Lifestyles Taskforce, when she authored Communicating Sustainability, today one of the UN’s most read reports. In 2014, she joined the Global Organising Committee of Fashion Revolution and is now a Trustee. She serves on the Steering Committee of the UNFCCC’s Fashion Charter.Her lobbying for climate and sustainability education began in 2019, and since then her commitment to sustainability and education has earned her recognition on a global scale – being named one of the finalists for Young Champion at the Global Good Awards, and one of CIWEMs ‘Climate Sheroes’ earlier this year. Through her work to progress climate education, she hopes that every young person, regardless of who they are, will feel equipped and empowered to create meaningful change.
Richard Hurst
Rich is an Education Development Advisor with responsibility for global sustainability education. Employed by Education Durham within Durham County Council, his role is varied working on projects across the County and further afield supporting the climate and ecological emergencies declared by the council.
Rich has worked in County Durham for over 25 years and in that time has worked on local, regional, national and international initiatives supporting schools in the broad sustainability agenda. He is passionate about helping children and young people understand their power to be active citizens to make a difference in the world.
Join thousands of UK schools working to become zero carbon by 2030.
