Hosted at KPMG’s Leeds office, the festival welcomed young people from schools across the city, including Lawnswood, Dixons Unity Academy, Cockburn School, Bruntcliffe Academy and Woodkirk Academy, to take part in a full day of hands-on activity and interactive learning.
Providing an original, co-designed programme, tailored to boost engagement with priority areas within the wider sustainability sector, the festival featured a series of employer-led workshops, a green showcase featuring sustainable tech and ideas, and a creative design sprint, giving students an opportunity to reimagine different low-carbon communities of the future.
The event has provided a new opportunity for young people from across Leeds, to network with, and learn from, leading businesses within the sector, as well as to explore the many meaningful career paths and opportunities on offer within the field, right on their doorsteps.
Volunteers taking part in the festival included representatives from Landsec, KPMG, Another Way, Aureos, Buttress, Climate Ambassadors, Equans, J N Bentley, LEW Electrical Distributors, Northern Powergrid, The Sirus Group, Transdev, Utilita, Vital Energi, WSP and Zest.
The city is set to see significant impact from the festival, having provided local young people with the key insights and support to find their role in Leeds’ ongoing green transition. With Leeds City Council affirming its ambitious goals to become a zero-carbon city by 2030, the festival’s ambition is to ensure that all young people have the opportunity, and the tools, to play a part in this transition.
For future workers and prospective employees – the sustainability sector is abundant with opportunity. According to reports from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the net zero sector expanded three times faster than the overall UK economy in 2025, encompassing 22,000 businesses; employing nearly a million people, with average wages higher than the national average.
Those involved in the festival have helped to deliver knowledge of these benefits to all its young participants – many of whom come from backgrounds and communities that are currently underrepresented within the emerging sustainability sector.
The event closely follows the 2025 ReGeneration Earth conference, launched in Leeds this month. As part of the conference, Ahead Partnership lead a consultation between attendees and young people aged 14-18, providing the younger participants with the opportunity to voice their thoughts on how we can create a greener future, and providing businesses with insight into young people’s expectations and ambitions for the future of work.
The festival formed part of Ahead Partnership’s Growing Talent Greener Futures programme – a multi-year initiative designed to equip young people with the right skills and knowledge to better access emerging opportunities within the sustainability sector.
Co-designed and delivered with leading employers in the sector, the programme seeks to make careers that support a greener future more accessible and inclusive, while securing a diverse and appropriately skilled talent pipeline to meet its future needs.
Georgina Johnson, Programme Manager at Ahead Partnership, added:
“Our research shows that young people are genuinely interested in climate change and want to play a role in protecting the planet. However, many feel overwhelmed or unsure of how to get involved and best make an impact. This festival is designed to tackle that by showing young people what businesses are doing to help the region and country meet its climate goals, and by highlighting that young people can pursue careers that reflect their values.
“The green transition will have a significant impact on many sectors and the work within them – not only sustainability. By collaborating with a diverse collective of employers and volunteers who work across a range of industries, young people have the unique opportunity to get inspired about the variation within this type of work with those who can attest to its value.
“Seeing the enthusiasm generated by this activity, we are incredibly optimistic about the longer-term impact of this work for Leeds’ young people , for local employers and for the region alike – and look forward to continuing to collaborate with businesses to help to deliver sustainable development, inclusive economic growth and greater prosperity across the region.”
