Do academy trusts have to report under SECR?

Large ones do. Academy trusts are charitable companies, so SECR applies if a trust meets two of 250 employees, £36 million turnover or an £18 million balance sheet, and uses more than 40,000 kWh a year. The disclosure goes in the trustees' report, and DfE encourages large trusts to publish it on their website as well.

Is a climate action plan the same as a Carbon Reduction Plan?

No. The DfE climate action plan covers decarbonisation, adaptation, biodiversity and climate education, and has no fixed format. A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan is a set-format document reporting measured emissions and a net zero commitment, asked for in procurement. The emissions figures you measure can feed both.

Should we include pupils' journeys to school?

They are not one of the Scope 3 categories PPN 006 requires, and they are not staff commuting. Many schools measure them anyway for their climate action plan, from a travel survey, and report them as a separate line.

We have a biomass boiler. How is it reported?

Use the DESNZ bioenergy factor for the fuel you burn, such as wood pellets or chips. The small methane and nitrous oxide emissions go in Scope 1; the carbon dioxide from the wood is reported separately as biogenic, outside the scopes.

Carbon reporting for schools, colleges and training providers

Training providers and colleges bidding for UK government contracts above £5 million a year need a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, and large academy trusts and independent schools set up as companies must report energy and carbon under SECR. For most schools and colleges, heating is the biggest source, followed by electricity, minibuses, commuting and waste.

Updated 3 October 2026 by the Carbon Recycling team. Figures use the official UK government conversion factors and are checked against the current gov.uk guidance.

Education providers come to carbon reporting from different directions. Training providers and colleges meet it in tenders. Academy trusts and larger independent schools meet it in their annual accounts. And DfE's sustainability and climate change strategy expects every education setting in England to have a sustainability lead and a climate action plan. Measuring your emissions properly once serves all three.

Who asks for it

Provider	What is usually asked
Training and employability providers bidding for government contracts above £5m a year	A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan as a condition of bidding
Colleges and providers bidding for NHS training contracts	A Carbon Reduction Plan above £5m a year, or a Net Zero Commitment below
Large academy trusts	SECR energy and carbon disclosure in the trustees' report
Independent schools that are charitable companies and meet the size tests	SECR disclosure in the directors' or trustees' report
All schools, trusts, colleges and nurseries in England	A climate action plan and a named sustainability lead, under the DfE strategy

SECR applies to companies and LLPs. If your college is a further education corporation rather than a company, check with your auditors what your accounts direction asks for.

Where education emissions come from

Source	Scope	What to collect
Gas, oil or biomass for heating, hot water and swimming pools	Scope 1	Bills in kWh, or oil and pellet deliveries
Kitchen gas, if catering is run in-house	Scope 1	Usually on the main gas bill
School minibuses and grounds vehicles	Scope 1	Fuel cards or receipts in litres
Refrigerant leaks from air conditioning, server rooms and kitchen fridges	Scope 1	Service records: gas type and kilograms topped up
Electricity for classrooms, IT, sports halls and boarding houses	Scope 2	Bills in kWh for every site and meter
General, food and recycling waste	Scope 3, category 5	Waste contractor reports
Staff travel for trips, training and between sites in a trust	Scope 3, category 6	Mileage claims and booking records
Staff commuting	Scope 3, category 7	A staff travel survey
Deliveries you pay a carrier for	Scope 3, category 4	Usually small; estimate from supplier data

Which government conversion factors apply

Use the DESNZ Fuels factors for gas, heating oil and LPG, Bioenergy for wood pellets or chips, UK electricity for your bills, Passenger vehicles or Delivery vehicles for minibuses, Refrigerant & other for leaks, and Waste disposal for waste. Travel uses the Business travel tabs, and coach hire for trips can be estimated with the bus and coach factors.

Boundary questions and common mistakes

Academic year versus financial year. Academy trusts report for years ending 31 August. Use the same twelve months for your energy data, and use the same period every year.
Outsourced catering and cleaning. Energy used in your kitchens is on your bills, so it is yours. The contractor's own vans and staff travel are theirs.
Shared and let buildings. Sports halls and rooms let to community groups out of hours are still your energy if you pay the bills.
Trust-wide totals only. Record data by school. A trust-wide total hides which buildings need work and makes each school's climate action plan harder to write.
Training providers without premises. If you deliver at employers' sites or in hired rooms, the venue's energy is not yours. Your footprint is your offices, tutors' travel between learners and commuting.

Reductions that work in schools and colleges

Heating controls and timings that match the timetable and holidays;
LED lighting with sensors in classrooms, corridors and sports halls;
roof and cavity insulation, and replacing old boilers with heat pumps when they fail;
solar panels on roofs, which also make a good teaching resource;
switching IT and catering equipment off out of hours;
separate food waste collection and a cycle-to-work scheme for staff.

How Carbon Recycling handles it

Add each school or campus as a site, set your reporting year to start in September if you need it, and import bills, fuel and waste data from a spreadsheet. Carbon Recycling produces the SECR disclosure for the trustees' report and, for providers that tender, a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, from the same figures. Site totals give each school the numbers for its climate action plan.

Check whether your trust or school needs SECR with the SECR checker, convert your heating and electricity with the kWh to CO2e calculator, download the free Carbon Reduction Plan template, or see prices.