New youth sustainability festival
records impressive turnout
in Mayfield Park

A first-of-its-kind sustainability festival launched for young people across Manchester last week in Mayfield Park, drawing an impressive turnout, with over 100 local students signing up to get involved and inspired with the green transition.

Designed and delivered by Landsec and Ahead Partnership, in collaboration with a number of businesses operating within sustainability and the built environment, The Greener Futures Youth Festival united leading employers and environmental champions to give young people a new chance to explore the opportunities, roles and skills on offer within sustainability.

The festival welcomed over 100 students from schools across the city, including Deans Trust Ardwick, CHS South, Eden Boys School and the Co-Op Academy North Manchester, who came to Mayfield Park 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 Greater Manchester, to network with, and learn from, leading businesses within the sector – exploring 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 Awaze, Caddick, Circular Refining, Greengage, Keep It Human, Kier Group, Landsec, Manchester Airport, Nature North, Opera PM, Suez, Troup Bywaters + Anders, Turley, Want Not Waste, and Wienerberger.

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 Manchester’s ongoing green transition. With Manchester City Council affirming its ambitious goals to become a zero-carbon city by 2038, the festival’s ambition is to ensure that all young people have the opportunity, and the tools, to play a part in this transition.

This will further help to realise ambitions laid out within the MBacc – helping young people build important skills for the future of work, while raising consideration of growing sectors such as the green economy.

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.

Jennie Coville, Head of Sustainability at Landsec, said:

“We have been incredibly impressed by the commitment shown from those involved in the sector to secure opportunities for the next generation – and the incredibly positive response from our young participants on the day.

“The overall benefits that we will see through this programme are multi-faceted – offering significant career development and opportunities to local young people from a range of different backgrounds, while ultimately equipping ourselves with a more appropriately skilled, enthusiastic and inclusive talent pool to meet the future needs of the green transition –spanning across various sectors.

“Within development, and in other industries alike, we’re seeing the growing importance of sustainability and ESG. That’s why it’s so important that we engage young people at a critical point in their schooling – to highlight the diverse range of opportunities and green jobs which are available to them.

“At Landsec, we plan to make a continued effort to give all young people the opportunity to find their place within this journey, and better our future workforce, and environment alike.”

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 green careers more accessible and inclusive – while securing a more diverse and appropriately skilled talent pipeline to meet its future needs.

Georgina Johnson, Programme Manager at Ahead Partnership, added:

“Feedback shows that there is a growing interest among young people in fighting climate change, and this festival will help to give young people the right insights and experience to capitalise on this interest. The programme has helped its participants to understand and build the skills required to develop meaningful careers within the green transition in a number of priority sectors, such as the built environment, manufacturing, financial services and digital and technology.

“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 Manchester’s youth, 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.”

The Greener Futures Youth Festival is one of a number of initiatives being delivered by Ahead Partnership in Manchester, with its flagship Girl Tech event set to launch in the city for the first time in early June.

To find out more about Growing Talent Greener Futures, please visit: https://www.aheadpartnership.org.uk/programmes/growing-talent-greener-futures/

To find out more about Ahead Partnership, please visit: https://www.aheadpartnership.org.uk/