Abstract Sustainable and climate-resilient public infrastructure has become a highly policy-relevant pursuit, especially in the education sector, where schools represent an important educational environment and community asset. In South Africa, national regulations specify environmental standards for public school facilities; however, their implementation is uneven and reflects institutional fragmentation and capacity constraints. Drawing on an in-depth case study of KwaZulu-Natal, this paper explores the governance dynamics affecting the delivery of sustainable school infrastructure through overlapping mandates that undermine effective planning, procurement, and maintenance between the Department of Education and the Department of Public Works. The research design combines document analysis with stakeholder interviews and infrastructure performance assessments to identify a range of key institutional barriers, including fragmented accountability, extended procurement cycles, and limited technical competencies. Infrastructure backlogs and a sustainability performance gap ensue, where buildings fail to meet environmental targets once built. A novel system-based framework is introduced that links sustainability outcomes with institutional design and delivery processes. This framework identifies clear governance roles, integrated lifecycle planning, and performance-based monitoring that provide a strategic route toward embedding green building practices within the public sector. This contribution uniquely furthers theory and practice by articulating how institutional reform can enable the climate resilience of infrastructure within education.
NKOSI et al. (2026) studied this question.