Guidance

Streamlined energy and carbon reporting for colleges

Updated 23 July 2025

Applies to England

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.

1. Who is this guidance for?

This guidance is aimed at finance directors, principals, CEOs and governors of:

• further education college corporations
• sixth-form college corporations
• institutions designated as being in the further education (FE) sector under section 28 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, as amended (designated institutions or DIs).

Collectively known as ‘colleges’ in this guidance.

2. What is the status of this guidance?

The main financial reporting requirements for colleges are set out in the college accounts direction (CAD). This guidance is non-statutory and supplements but does not replace or modify any of those requirements. Accordingly, it should be considered in conjunction with the CAD.

The Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018 (the 2018 Regulations) implement the requirements for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR).

Whilst FE and sixth form college corporations and any non-company DIs are outside of the scope of the 2018 Regulations, the CAD encourages all colleges to make equivalent disclosures on their website. Further, those DIs with the legal character of a limited company must consider their individual circumstances to determine whether they are in scope of the regulations. DIs likely to be required to make formal SECR disclosures in their own annual report and accounts are those that meet these 3 points. They:

• cannot claim the low energy use exemption (as they have consumed more than 40,000 kWh of energy during the reporting period)
• are not part of a group where the parent reports their SECR information
• meet at least 2 of the 3 SECR criteria:
  • turnover (or gross income) of £36 million or more
  • balance sheet assets of £18 million or more
  • 250 employees or more

Further information can be found at Environmental reporting guidelines including Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting requirements.    

This guidance aims to support colleges by providing an overview of the 2018 Regulations. It is based on HM Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines: including streamlined energy and carbon reporting guidance March 2019 (the Guidelines) and is not intended to cover every scenario that may arise regarding a college’s energy consumption and reporting.

If colleges have any questions, they should consult external guidance or professional advisors in the first instance.

3. Why are businesses being asked to report on energy use?

The 2018 Regulations are designed to increase awareness of energy costs within organisations, provide them with data to inform adoption of energy efficiency measures and to help them to reduce their impact on climate change. They also seek to provide greater transparency for stakeholders.

4. Who should report and where?

DfE encourages all colleges to publish the information set out below on the college’s website before 31 March each year. Although it is not a requirement for most bodies in the statutory FE sector (but may be mandatory for some designated institutions as set out in section 2 above), colleges may also choose to include the information in their annual report and accounts. Prior year equivalent figures should also be reported for comparison.

The environmental reporting guidelines acknowledge that in some circumstances, an element of the required energy and carbon information may not be practical to calculate. Where this is the case, this fact should be reported, and the college should explain what is omitted and what steps it is taking to acquire this information in future.

5. What should the disclosure include?

Colleges making this disclosure should include, as a minimum:

• its annual UK energy use (in KWh) as a minimum relating to gas, purchased electricity and transport fuel and associated greenhouse gas emissions (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e))
• an emissions intensity ratio chosen by the college. Intensity ratios compare emissions data with an appropriate business metric or financial indicator, such as staff numbers, to allow comparison over time or with other organisations
• the methodologies used to calculate the required information
• a narrative of measures taken to improve energy efficiency in the period of the report - if no measures have been taken, this should be stated
• the prior year’s equivalent figures should also be disclosed for comparison purposes - if a college was not in scope in the previous year, it is not required to report prior year figures, however the college may choose to report them voluntarily, as comparative figures can help the reader better understand energy consumption

5.1 Subsidiaries

If a college is reporting at group level it should include energy and carbon disclosures of any subsidiaries included in the consolidation, unless the subsidiary would not itself be obliged to include the information if reporting on its own account.

5.2 Basis of occupancy

For any colleges where there is a landlord and tenant arrangement in place (for example, through a private finance initiative (PFI) agreement), the party responsible for the consumption of energy should take responsibility for reporting of it, despite not being directly responsible for its purchase. It is anticipated that in the majority of circumstances the college is both the purchaser and the consumer of energy.

6. Elements of the disclosure in detail

6.1 UK energy use

• Electricity consumption: includes the purchase of electricity by colleges for their own use, including for the purposes of transport.
• Gas combustion: includes gas consumed for stationary or mobile activities for which the corporation is responsible.
• Transport: includes energy consumption from transport where the college is responsible for purchasing the fuel, such as fuel used in company or fleet cars for business use, fuel used in personal or hire cars for business use (including where the corporation reimburses staff for business mileage claims) and fuel used in college controlled minibuses. This excludes where a transportation service is procured that includes an indirect payment for the fuel consumption, such as train, plane, taxi, coach travel or similar where the college does not operate the transport. However, a college may elect to report them separately (including as part of Scope 3 emissions).
• Collecting energy use data: It is not expected that colleges will need to engage specialist consultants to support the reporting requirements; the example below shows how a college could calculate the figures themselves.

Colleges should use verifiable data where reasonably practicable and should consider obtaining meter data or using invoices or annual statements from suppliers. Where verifiable data is not available colleges may estimate data by using data from another comparable time period to fill the gap, calculating figures using pro-rata extrapolation or benchmarking to proxy the energy consumption of one site to a similar site.

6.2 Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

The disclosure on the website should state the annual quantity of emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent resulting from the total UK energy use from electricity, gas and transport, as defined above. Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting should be used to help measure energy consumption in common units.

6.3 Emissions intensity ratio

The report should state at least one metric which expresses the college’s annual emissions in relation to a quantifiable factor. For consistency across the sector, colleges are encouraged to use tonnes of CO2e per staff member, based on staff numbers in the audited annual report and accounts. The same ratio should be used each year for comparability.

6.4 Methodology

Colleges should disclose the methodology used to calculate the required information and it is important that robust and accepted methods are used.

There are several widely recognised independent standards available (as set out in the environmental reporting guidelines) and the standard used in the worked example set out below is the GHG Reporting Protocol-Corporate Standard. Emissions are defined under three different Scopes by the GHG Protocol.

A sector specific methodology, based on the GHG Protocol, has been published by EAUC - Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework for Further and Higher Education (SCEF).  The Framework is aimed specifically at FE and higher education (HE) and aims to give confidence to institutions who want to start monitoring and to ensure transparency and comparability between institutions who do report.

6.5 Energy efficiency action

The report should include a narrative description of the principal measures taken to increase energy efficiency in the relevant year. It is recommended that the actions reported are those which have had a direct impact on energy efficiency and where possible the resulting energy saving from actions reported are also stated. If no measures have been taken, then this fact should be stated.

7. Definition of emission scopes and their minimum reporting requirements under GHG Protocol

	Definitions	Report as minimum
Scope 1 - direct GHG emissions	Emissions from activities owned or controlled by the college that release emissions into the atmosphere. Examples include emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, vehicles.	Emissions from gas and transport fuel combustion.
Scope 2 - energy indirect emissions	Emissions from own consumption of purchased electricity, heat, steam and cooling. These are a consequence of the college’s activities but are from sources not owned or controlled.	Emissions from purchased electricity.
Scope 3 - other indirect emissions	Emissions because of the college’s actions where the source is not owned or controlled. For example, business travel in private cars.	Energy use and related emissions from business travel in hire or employee owned vehicles where staff purchase the fuel.

8. Other sources of information

The Charities Commission has published an information sheet on the Energy and Carbon Report Regulations 2018, as applied to Charitable Companies. Although college corporations are not covered by the scope of this guidance, they may find elements of the information sheet helpful.

Colleges may find information contained in recent Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) bids, the DfE Energy Providers Framework and in Display Energy Certificates helpful. The Department for Education published Good Estate Management Tools which includes tips to reduce energy consumption. There is information on how charities can improve their impact on the environment and be energy efficient in Environmental responsibility for charities.

9. How might colleges go about calculating the energy, greenhouse gas emissions and intensity ratio?

The following is a worked example and method of how a college might undertake the calculations to support minimum disclosure.

The college has 3 sites, all with their own boilers which are gas fuelled and electricity is purchased. The college owns 2 diesel-powered mini-buses and has approximately 20 members of staff who claim business mileage. For the mini-buses and business travel, the college has recorded the number of miles travelled during the year.

This methodology follows the GHG Reporting Protocol and uses the 2025 Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting. The conversion factors are updated annually and are generally released each year in June. Colleges should use the 2025 conversion factors for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.

9.1 Illustrative example of calculations

We have utilised the conversion factor for kgCO2e (kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) as the most comprehensive and reliable measure for this sector, as it provides a more accurate reflection of the overall environmental impact of greenhouse gases compared to CO2 per unit alone.

Energy source	Consumption	Scope	Emissions calculation
Gas – total kWh (kilowatt-hours) used for the year, taken from gas bills for each site	165,439 kWh (gross CV (calorific value))	Scope 1	165,439 kWh x 0.18296 (2025 fuels, natural gas conversion factor, gross CV to kg CO2e) = 30,269 kgCO2e = 30.27 tCO2e
Electricity – total kWh used for the year, taken from the electricity bills for each site	47,639 kWh	Scope 2	47,639 kWh x  0.17700 (2025 UK electricity conversion factor to kgCO2e) = 8,432 kgCO2e = 8.43 tCO2e
Transport - Mini-bus 1: 6,400 miles in the year; Mini-bus 2: 8,500 miles in the year	14,900 miles x  1.19939 (2025 SECR kWh passenger and delivery vehicles, vans class 2, diesel – used in lieu of passenger vehicles conversion) =  17,871 kWh	Scope 1	14,900 miles = 23,979 km. 23,979 km x  0.19260 (2025 managed assets vehicles, vans class 2, – used in lieu of passenger vehicles conversion) = 4,618 kgCO2e = 4.62 tCO2e
Transport – total mileage for petrol reimbursed from staff claims = 960 miles	960 miles x  1.13256 (2025 SECR kWh passenger and delivery vehicles, average car conversion factor to kWh, petrol) = 1,087 kWh	Scope 3	960 miles = 1,545 km. 1,545 km x 0.16272 (2025 managed assets vehicles, average car conversion factor to kgCO2e, petrol) = 251 kgCO2e = 0.25 tCO2e
Total	232,036 kWh		43.57 tCO2e
Intensity ratio - Emissions data (tCO2e) compared with an appropriate business activity (staff numbers)			43.57 tCO2e ÷ 324 members of staff = 0.13 tCO2e per staff member

Where colleges have collated data on the litres of fuel consumed, the ‘fuels’ conversion factor may be applied, which provides more accurate emissions results. Fuel consumption data in litres can be converted to kWh using the ‘fuel properties’ tab. This is the preferred and more accurate data to use.

10. Disclosure of minimum information to be included on the college’s website based on the above example

Where colleges made SECR disclosures on their websites in the previous year, this data should also be reported for comparison purposes.

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy use data for the period 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025 – UK	Current reporting year 2024 to 2025	Comparison reporting year 2023 to 2024
Energy consumption used to calculate emissions (kWh)	232,036	222,439
Energy consumption break down (kWh) (optional):
Gas	165,439	156,837
Electricity	47,639	46,328
Transport fuel	18,958	19,274
Scope 1 emissions in metric tonnes CO2e
Gas consumption	30.27	28.69
Owned transport – mini-buses	4.62	4.58
Total scope 1	34.89	33.27
Scope 2 emissions in metric tonnes CO2e
Purchased electricity	8.43	9.59
Scope 3 emissions in metric tonnes CO2e
Business travel in employee owned vehicles	0.25	0.24
Total gross emissions in metric tonnes CO2e	43.57	43.10
Intensity ratio
Tonnes CO2e per member of staff	0.13	0.13

10.1 Quantification and Reporting Methodology

We have followed the 2019 HM Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines. We have also used the GHG Reporting Protocol – Corporate Standard and have used the 2025 UK Government’s Conversion Factors for Company Reporting.

10.2 Intensity measurement

The chosen intensity measurement ratio is total gross emissions in metric tonnes CO2e per staff member, the recommended ratio for the sector.

10.3 Measures taken to improve energy efficiency

Replacing an obsolete boiler with a more energy efficient model; installing smart meters across all sites to improve monitoring of usage; increased video conference technology for staff meetings to reduce the need for travel between sites.