New City College

Effective decision making on sustainability investments

Effective investment into sustainability of the scale and speed required for achieving any kind of net zero ambitions cannot be delivered within existing organisational structures. This was the hypothesis by New City College when it set up a dedicated Green Investment Board in 2022 to prioritise and oversee investment into sustainability initiatives.

Since its creation, the Board has committed nearly £10m of spend on sustainability initiatives from heat decarbonisation projects to sustainable waste management. The Board reviews investment proposals against agreed sustainability and financial criteria but also takes value-based decisions when something is ‘the right thing to do’.

As a result of the Board’s decisions to date, New City College will reduce emissions by nearly 900 tonnes of CO2e and achieve a quarter of a million in annual cost savings.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Sometimes established decision-making structures can prevent investment into sustainability.
2. Objective methods are needed to compare different and new sustainability initiatives.
3. In addition to sound business cases, investment can be secured just because ‘it is the right thing to do’.