New City College honoured yet again for its environmental initiatives

New City College is delighted to have been announced as a finalist in not one, but two Green Gown Award categories.

The Green Gown Awards are prestigious sustainability awards run by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education. The awards celebrate sustainability excellence in the further and higher education sectors.

This announcement follows New City College winning finalist status for Sustainable Development in the AoC Beacon Awards back in November 2023. The Beacon Awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK colleges and NCC was just one of 3 colleges nationally to have received the accolade in the ‘green’ category.

Now, in 2024, the Green Gown Awards have recognised NCC yet again by naming the college’s Green Investment Board as a finalist in the Money for Good category. In the past few years, the Board has prioritised, directed and overseen investment worth £9.4m into sustainability initiatives at the college. This investment is helping to transform sites and buildings within the NCC estate and direct operations towards more sustainable practices.

Gerry McDonald, Group Principal and CEO said: “Environmental sustainability is a priority for us. We knew when we started our work on sustainability that any real change would require significant financial investment. We have been fortunate to have been successful with several grant funding applications to part-fund this. The Green Investment Board has proven to be an effective vehicle to drive investment decisions.”

And in a second category – the Next Generation Learning and Skills category – New City College’s Green Skills programme has also been recognised as a finalist. The foundation for the Green Skills offer was established through partnership projects funded by the Strategic Development Fund and the Local Skills Improvement Fund.

New City College has been leading this work for Central London Forward, a sub-regional network of colleges, adult education institutions, employers and local authorities. New courses have been created, thousands of hours of training provided to staff and hundreds of employers consulted as part of this work.

Calley Page, NCC’s Deputy Group Director Apprenticeships and Partnerships, said: “It has been impressive to see how fast the green skills training offer has evolved over the past few years. We now have facilities and courses to deliver training in low carbon technologies and will soon launch courses in the retrofit sector. The new course offer has been created with employer requirements in mind and we look forward to building this delivery further.”

The winners of the Green Gown awards will be announced on November 13.