Bradford College Wins UK’s Biggest Sustainability Competition in Further Education

Bradford College recently triumphed in this year’s Planet Earth Games – the biggest sustainability competition for the UK Further Education sector.

With over 3,000 good deeds for the planet undertaken since January, we topped the FE colleges national leaderboard and lifted our very special bamboo trophy! In total, our staff and students racked up an incredible 9,045 points – 3,000+ points clear of second place.

Bradford College Sustainability Lead, Chelsie Naylor, said: “We are thrilled to win this year’s Planet Earth Games! Although we’re at the start of our sustainability journey, this competition has started the conversation about climate change and sparked an interest in small, local action.”

“By taking part in challenges, staff and students engaged with environmental issues in a positive and tangible way; this often feels more empowering than signing a petition or sharing something on social media – it’s real action. The staff and students from the ESOL department earned over half of the total points collected by Bradford College throughout the duration of the competition, so special thanks and well done to them! Congratulations also goes to Sarah Cooper, who was the highest scoring Vice Principal.

“Winning Planet Earth Games has again put Bradford College on the map and at the heart of conversations with other colleges nationally. We are committed to tackling climate change to support the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and have an ambitious roadmap in place to reach a net-zero target by 2050.”

Planet Earth Games uses an innovative model with the aim of supporting climate action through sport and physical activity, seeing institutions of all types battle it out to help save the planet. The Games run from January to April, in partnership with the Association of Colleges.

By signing up for the initiative, student and staff competitors were encouraged to participate in various challenges of all different types to earn points for our wider College team. Bradford College student-led activities included a climate march by the Students’ Union and a large-scale community clean-up by the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) department.

After securing nearly £32 million of funding over the last two years, the College now aims to make substantial carbon savings from retrofitting estates, energy-efficiency upgrades, and new buildings such as the Future Technologies Centre (opening 2025/2026). Work also includes a successful £2.6m Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme grant, run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and delivered by Salix.

On top of all this, we are also working as an institution to embed sustainability and green skills across all curriculum areas. Delivery of Carbon Literacy training has already begun with more sessions planned for October and beyond. Electric vehicle (EV) training, sustainable fashion collections, environmental staff development days, water refill stations, and electric vehicle charging points are just a few of the successful green initiatives already in place at Bradford College.

Find out more about our College Sustainability Plan or visit our dedicated Capital Projects page for the latest Bradford College estates sustainability news.