51Âþ», Leicester (51Âþ»), is celebrating a significant milestone after being ranked as the second most environmentally friendly university in the country.
Announced today in The Guardian, 51Âþ» was awarded a first-class degree for the 13th consecutive year in the annual in recognition of its environmental and ethical performance.
The university has been repeatedly awarded the first-class status since 2011 and this time around the university was ranked second overall out of the 149 institutions rated, and first in the East Midlands.
Karl Letten, Sustainability Manager at 51Âþ», said: “The University League assesses institutions across the whole spectrum of sustainability issues and to be placed so highly is a fantastic result.
“We have been working very hard to embed sustainability issues across everything that we do at 51Âþ», from what we teach to how we manage our campus.
“To score so highly across so many of the assessment criteria is a great reflection of the amazing work that 51Âþ» staff and students are doing across the whole university and a great demonstration of the University’s commitment to sustainability.”
The People and Planet’s University League is the largest student environmental campaign group in the UK and the only comprehensive independent league table to rank universities according to their environmental and ethical work.
Universities were judged against 14 different categories which are in two main areas ‘performance and policy’ which covers everything from education and environmental policy to recycling waste and carbon management.
They were then ranked according to their scores in each area and classified using degree-style awards.
Professor Simon Oldroyd, PVC for Sustainability said: “What a brilliant result for 51Âþ» in this year’s UK People and Planet Sustainability League.
“I’m very proud of all the work we do as staff and students to embed sustainability and the SDGs, a cross-cutting theme in our Empowering University strategy, across the University.
“It’s great to see our People and Planet scores reflecting our longstanding commitment to sustainability and our shared future. There’s still work to be done so we’ll continue to innovate and to champion sustainability in all its forms through our status as a UN SDG hub.”
Key areas the university scored highly in include; Staff and Student Engagement (100%), Environmental Policy (100%), Environmental Staff (100%).
51Âþ» made the biggest improvement in Ethical Investment (51% increase to 74%) through the introduction of an ethical investment policy to make sure the university doesn’t invest in fossil fuel companies.
The university has a long list of measures in place to make the university more sustainable, some of the most recent achievements, which have led to this result include:
- Carbon Literacy Educator organisation
- Leadership team completing Carbon Literacy training
- Achieving Hedgehog Friendly Campus status
- Achieving the Responsible Futures award for embedding sustainability into our teaching and learning
- Winning Green Gown Awards for our approach to sustainable fashion and our approach to climate change
- The only UK university to be a global hub for one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals- SDG16
- Reduced our carbon emissions from energy use by over 60%
- Achieved recycling rates of over 90%
- Ran the Daria Project with Leicester City Council to help staff and students learn how to ride a bike
- Provide support to staff and students who choose low carbon forms of travel
- Provide free travel for students and staff on Hospital Hopper bus service
- Introduced a carbon levy for individuals who take an overseas flight as part of 51Âþ» Global
- Provided staff and students with space to grow their own fruit and vegetables on campus
- Created a wildflower area on campus.
- Provided sustainability training for new teachers
Posted on Friday 20 December 2024