This section of the website - on charity sustainability - directly links to a lot of the 2025 Charity Governance Code. This page maps the Code's key themes to relevant content across this site.
The updated Charity Governance Code, published in late 2025, addresses many sustainability issues. Environmental responsibility, climate risk, procurement, investment, buildings and digital governance are all integrated into the Code's eight core principles.
The content in this section was developed over more than a decade to support non-profit organisations thinking about these issues. Much of it is directly relevant to the Code's expectations. The links below are organised by theme, following the Code's main areas of focus.
Environmental responsibility and ethics
The Code places environmental sustainability within its "Ethics and Culture" principle — meaning boards are expected to treat sustainability as a question of values, not just operations.
Relevant content:
- New push for charities to disinvest from fossil fuels — The Code explicitly asks trustees to consider whether their investments align with the charity's values. This piece covers the NCVO's Fuelling Positive Change campaign and the 2022 High Court ruling that confirmed trustees' discretion to make ethically-guided investment decisions.
- Hospice charity announces sustainability commitment — An example of how one charity has approached sustainability across its retail operations, with 24 specific commitments covering procurement, utilities, transport and waste.
- Churches make progress towards net zero buildings — How the Church of England is tracking and reducing the carbon footprint of its building estate, with lessons relevant to other large property-holding organisations.
- Salvation Army shops bag sustainability award — An example of sustainability practice embedded in charity retail operations.
Managing resources and risks: buildings and climate
The Code's Managing "Resources and Risks" principle requires trustees to safeguard assets and assess long-term sustainability. For charities with property, the climate dimension adds to the need for strategic thinking.
Relevant content:
- Responding to climate impacts: keeping buildings cool — Many charity buildings are poorly equipped to cope with increasingly frequent periods of extreme heat. This page sets out twelve practical steps for managing heat, with guidance on longer-term adaptation.
- Charities face up to storm damage after Ciara and Dennis — A brief look at the immediate and longer-term impacts of severe weather on charity premises, with some practical guidance on response and recovery.
- How to clear up after flooding — Step-by-step guidance on flood recovery.
- Hospital chiefs warn of climate impacts on ageing buildings — A look at how climate risk intersects with the challenge of maintaining and adapting older building stock.
- The vital role of good maintenance in promoting building sustainability — Why maintenance planning is a sustainability issue as well as an operational one.
- Historic England reveals 2022 list of buildings at risk — Relevant to charities managing heritage assets, highlighting the particular challenges of historic buildings.
Energy and funding
Reducing energy costs and improving energy resilience are among the most practical responses to the Code's expectations on resource management. Several funding streams have been available to support this work.
Relevant content:
- New fund for charity energy resilience — The £5 million Energy Resilience Fund, designed to help charities install energy-saving and energy-generation measures.
- £40m in new funding for energy projects — The Ofgem Energy Redress Scheme, open to charities and community energy groups across England, Scotland and Wales.
- National Lottery Community Fund aims to make community buildings more sustainable — A look at how the Fund is shifting to supporting sustainability, and its initial programme for community buildings in Northern Ireland.
- Arts Council capital investment funding focuses on environmental responsibility — How the Arts Council has integrated environmental responsibility into its capital investment programme, requiring funded organisations to develop environmental action plans.
- Installing solar panels on historic charity buildings — An overview of the planning and consent considerations involved in adding solar generation to listed or heritage buildings.
Supply chains and procurement
The Code expects boards to consider the environmental impact of procurement decisions and supply chains. This is now a governance responsibility, not just an operational one.
Relevant content:
- Ethical procurement and purchasing — A guide to developing and implementing an ethical procurement policy, covering environmental standards, supplier communication, monitoring and the ISO 20400 sustainable procurement standard.
Financial resilience and risk management
The Code's "Managing Resources and Risks" principle addresses financial resilience. The Charity Commission's risk assessment report, published in the same period, reinforces the same message.
Relevant content:
- Charity Commission warns organisations on financial resilience risk — The Charity Commission's first-ever sector risk assessment identifies financial resilience as the primary risk facing charities.
- Business continuity management for charities — A practical guide to developing a BCM framework: assessing risks, planning responses, and building organisational resilience.
- How to do a risk assessment — A look at the HSE's five-step framework for workplace risk assessment, adapted for charity contexts.
- Relocating a charity: key considerations — When property decisions become strategic, the Code's expectations on asset stewardship are definitely relevant.
Governance and regulation: the wider context
Relevant content:
- New Protect Duty could impact charities — A preview of regulatory changes affecting charities' responsibilities for public safety — part of the broader governance and compliance landscape.
- Charities to get more flexibility when disposing of land — Changes to charity law affecting property decisions, relevant to trustees managing significant assets.
- Community Ownership Fund opens new round — Funding for community groups acquiring or improving assets — directly relevant to the Code's emphasis on long-term asset stewardship.
The full text of the 2025 Charity Governance Code can be downloaded from charitygovernancecode.org. For an analytical overview of what the Code means in practice, see The 2025 Charity Governance Code: what it means for sustainability.