Environment (Wales) Act 2016 Part 1 - Section 62024/25

Introduction and context

The Education Workforce Council (EWC) is the independent, professional regulator for the education workforce in Wales. Established by the Education (Wales) Act 2014, we regulate education practitioners in 13 different registration categories spanning schools, further education (FE), youth work, and adult/work-based learning. Our Register of Education Practitioners is the most wide-ranging register of education professionals in the world, with over 91,000 practitioners registered.

The EWC recognises that biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in Wales are under increasing pressure from a range of environmental influences. Although our core regulatory functions do not relate directly to biodiversity, land management, or nature recovery, we understand that our organisational behaviours, policies, and procurement decisions can contribute meaningfully to environmental goals and support the sustainable management of natural resources (SMNR). Biodiversity considerations are therefore embedded within our business planning processes and inform our day-to-day organisational operations.

The Environment (Wales) Act 2016 requires the EWC to report on what we, as an organisation, have done to comply with the section 6 biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty every third year. Within the legislation the EWC falls within minimum reporting category group 1, and is therefore required to report on National Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP) Objectives 1, 4, and 6. This report provides an overview of our progress in relation to these three NRAP objectives, and reaffirms our commitment to embedding the Section 6 duty across all relevant areas of our work.

Highlights, key outcomes and issues

Since 2022, we have achieved meaningful progress across several areas.
As part of our role as a professional regulator, EWC has supported increased awareness of environmental issues among registrants. In February 2025, we published an episode of our ‘Sgwrsio’ podcast on education and the environment, sharing research and practice-based insights to support climate and environmental literacy and promote outdoor and nature-focused learning across Wales.

Virtual meetings are encouraged as standard practice to reduce travel and associated carbon emissions. This includes the majority of our Fitness to Practise hearings, with 48 of 53 hearings held virtually during 2024-25, and 39 of the 41 hearings held so far in 2025-26 also being virtual (as at 31 December 2025).

We have worked to ensure that we are compliant with the Waste Separation Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2023, and actively support Welsh Government’s Towards Zero Waste policy by reducing, reusing, and recycling resources wherever possible. We also go beyond compliance through providing staff with facilities to recycle soft plastics, and food.

In October 2025, EWC partnered with Cardiff Council to offer staff a volunteering opportunity at the Howardian Local Nature Reserve as part of its wellbeing programme. Colleagues supported local biodiversity through practical conservation activities, including vegetation management, pathway clearance, habitat creation, and litter picking.

NRAP objective 1: Engage and support participation and understanding to embed biodiversity throughout decision making at all levels

Our Strategic Plan (2025–28) sets out our intention to minimise our environmental impact and embrace sustainable practices across all areas of activity. This commitment is reinforced within our annual operational plans, with environmental sustainability integrated into relevant sub-objectives.

Although opportunities for direct biodiversity action are limited, the measures EWC takes are embedded within the day-to-day work of the Corporate Services function, ensuring that environmental responsibility forms part of routine operational decisions.

Through our internal communications, we have worked to raise awareness and understanding of biodiversity among staff, helping to support environmentally informed choices across the organisation. This has included sharing information encouraging recycling, and posting content on our staff intranet, offering practical tips to encourage sustainable habits and reduce waste.

Relevant training is offered as part of the all-staff training programme, with an Environmental Awareness module available through our external training provider (iHasco). This can be accessed by staff at any time upon request and staff participation is actively encouraged.

As a professional regulator, the EWC has also worked to broaden professional understanding of environmental issues amongst our registrants. In February 2025, we released an episode of our Podcast (Sgwrsio) on the topic of education and the environment, exploring effective approaches to climate and environmental literacy. Available for free to our 91,000 registrants, the episode highlighted practical ways educators in Wales can integrate outdoor and nature-focused learning.

NRAP objective 4: Tackle key pressures on species and habitats

The EWC attempts to mitigate climate change, reduce energy consumption, and increase decarbonisation by:

• occupying sustainably located office space near Cardiff city centre, providing convenient access to public transport links
• adopting hybrid working arrangements that reduce commuting emissions
• using movement-sensitive lighting, to help ensure electricity is only used when needed
• sending external communications via email, reducing paper consumption
• using public transport whenever possible, helping to minimise greenhouse gas emissions by choosing lower-impact transport options
• providing a space for secure cycle storage outside the office building, and shower and changing facilities, for use by the numerous staff who cycle to work on a regular basis

Virtual meetings are encouraged as standard practice to reduce travel, and support low-carbon operations. This includes the overwhelming majority of our Fitness to Practise (FtP) hearings (involving registrants from across Wales), which would otherwise generate significant travel-related carbon emissions. During 2024-25, 48 of 53 FtP hearings were held virtually, and this trend is set to continue in 2025-26.

We are proud to comply with the Waste Separation Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2023, and seek to reduce, reuse, and recycle resources where possible, through recycling waste appropriately, replacing disposable plastic cups with glassware, donating unwanted office equipment to charitable causes, using recycled products, and encouraging minimal stationery consumption.

We have been actively supporting Welsh Government’s Towards Zero Waste policy - meeting workplace waste-separation requirements by providing clearly marked recycling bins, and ensuring waste is properly sorted throughout the office. Building on this, since June 2025 a small food caddy bin has been installed in the kitchen for the disposal of food waste and teabags, and the number of bins around the office was significantly reduced in order to encourage recycling.

Since summer 2025, an additional bin has also been installed in the staff kitchen for the disposal of soft plastics. These are kindly taken to be recycled by one of our staff members, as there is currently no Local Authority provision for the recycling of these materials.

EWC prioritises ethical supply chains when sourcing office goods and services, including cleaning supplies. EWC suppliers are required to use sustainable management practices and environmentally friendly products as part of our procurement processes.

When purchasing new PCs and laptops, we participate in the Lenovo CO₂ Offset scheme. This estimates carbon emissions across the average lifecycle of each device and enables us to offset these emissions by purchasing carbon credits. The credits support verified climate action projects, including those accredited under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Gold Standard®, Climate Action Reserve, and United Nations programmes, which are designed to reduce CO₂ emissions released into the atmosphere.

We have reduced the number of printers across our offices, partly in order to lower energy consumption and reduce the environmental footprint associated with running and maintaining multiple devices. Having fewer printers also promotes more mindful printing practices, which reduces paper and toner use, helping to conserve resources and limit the indirect impacts of production and waste on ecosystems.

In October 2025 the EWC teamed up with Cardiff Council as part of our wellbeing programme to offer staff the opportunity to part in volunteering activities at the Howardian Local Nature Reserve. Colleagues who attended helped clear and cut back overgrown areas to make pathways more accessible. The cuttings were then used to build a dead hedge, creating a valuable habitat for insects and other wildlife. The team also got involved in a variety of other conservation tasks, including vegetation management, raking reed beds, and litter picking. These activities helped support local biodiversity while also promoting team cohesion and wellbeing through allowing colleagues to spend time together in natural surroundings, get active and make a positive difference to the local environment.

NRAP objective 6: Put in place a framework of governance and support for delivery

The EWC has a clear framework of policies, objectives, performance indicators, and monitoring arrangements that support our environmental commitments;

• progress against the Operational Plan is monitored through quarterly review reports that are shared with Council members, ensuring transparency and accountability
• report progress in relation to objectives relevant to environmental sustainability within our Annual Report and Accounts each year, providing an organisational overview of performance and improvement
• the EWC Corporate Services Manager is responsible for implementing biodiversity actions and identifying opportunities for further measures
• the Director of Finance and Corporate Services reviews and monitors compliance with the Section 6 Biodiversity Duty on an annual basis
• staff participation in biodiversity-related activities is encouraged and supported through the EWC Volunteering Policy

Review of s6 duty

The EWC’s Strategic Plan 2025–28, together with the supporting operational plans produced on an annual basis, provides a clear framework for embedding the Section 6 biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty within organisational priorities. While EWC’s core regulatory functions do not directly involve land management, the duty has strengthened our focus on environmental sustainability across corporate services, procurement, staff engagement, and operational decision-making.

The Section 6 duty has also reinforced our organisational understanding of the role that an office-based organisation can play in supporting biodiversity through its behaviours, policies, and partnerships. This is reflected in actions to reduce waste and improve recycling, decarbonisation achieved through hybrid working and virtual hearings, the application of ethical and sustainable procurement principles, staff awareness-raising activities, and participation in biodiversity-related volunteering initiatives, as outlined elsewhere in this report.

Notwithstanding this progress, we acknowledge the need for continued improvement to embed biodiversity considerations more consistently across organisational decision-making, and to strengthen how environmental impacts, both positive and negative, are measured and reported.
We will also remind staff of the training available to them on environmental awareness, and encourage their participation in this.

We will continue to identify additional actions that the EWC can take, informed by best practice elsewhere, while enhancing our understanding of (and ability to evidence) our impacts on biodiversity, recognising the role this plays in shaping organisational culture and supporting longer-term environmental sustainability.