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Green League 2010 - Press
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PRESS RELEASE
Transition universities top Green League 2010, but “progress from most far too slow”
See full results of People & Planet’s Green League 2010
People & Planet’s Green League 2010 (1) is unveiled today by the UK’s leading student campaign network(2). The Green League is the only league table ranking all UK universities by environmental performance. It is based on 11 environmental policy and performance-related criteria including carbon emissions per head, waste recycling rates and new criteria measuring the sector’s efforts to engage students and staff in cutting carbon emissions.
The University of Plymouth takes top spot this year, with strong scores in both the environmental policy and performance sections. Also in the top 5 are the universities of Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Central Lancashire, Aston and Nottingham Trent.
For the first time ever, the Green League 2010 compared the scope and ambition of universities’ carbon reduction plans against sector-wide climate targets introduced earlier this year by HEFCE, Universities UK and GuildHE(3). Whilst some universities are on track to cut emissions by 34% over the next 10 years, the majority (107 universities) have short-term targets equivalent to less than 3.5% annual cuts. This shows a severe lack of ambition and urgency across the majority of the sector, despite the fact that capital funding will soon be linked to emissions cuts.
Louise Hazan, People & Planet’s climate campaigner, said:
“We expected this year’s Green League to show the sector making a clear transition towards low-carbon operations - students have been demanding this for years. Despite clear improvements across the board on policy and student engagement, we found that the sector as a whole is emitting 25% more carbon now than it did 5 years ago. That’s obviously incredibly worrying with regards to climate change”
Whilst more universities than ever are embarking on a low-carbon transition, this year’s Green League reveals many are adding as much as a third to their staff and students’ carbon footprints through a lack of effective environmental management and leadership(4). Emissions come from fossil-fuel based energy, inefficient buildings, and lack of recycling facilities and green transport options.
Iain Patton, chief exec of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges, agrees that student engagement is key:
“If you make every university graduate 10 per cent more sustainable, however you measure it, that’s more impact than if you switch off all the lights in every university for a year”
People & Planet’s Director, Ian Leggett, adds:
“People & Planet congratulates all those universities which achieved First Class awards in this year’s Green League. Their success is a tribute to sustained leadership and comprehensive efforts to achieve the necessary transition to a low-carbon higher education sector. But we can’t leave it to a small number of leading institutions: all universities must play their part and take urgent and ambitious environmental action now. This year’s Green League shows us that too many in the sector are not responding to the challenge.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further analysis, interviews or publication rights to the full Green League 2010 table, please contact Louise Hazan on 01865 245678 or louise.hazan@peopleandplanet.org
(1) People & Planet’s Green League 2010 ranks 133 UK universities – awarding them a First, 2:1, 2:2, Third, or Fail – according to environmental policy, management and actual performance in areas such as carbon reduction, waste recycling, energy efficiency, transport emissions, sustainable procurement and water consumption. See full methodology http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague/methodology-2010.
It combines data obtained directly from universities through the Freedom of Information Act with Estates Management Statistics data obtained from funding body HEFCE. The table also shows the change in each university’s ranking between 2009 and 2010. The full table is published today in the Times Higher Education magazine and is available in full at: http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague
(2)People & Planet is the largest UK student network campaigning to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. Our network consists of student groups at over 70% of Britain’s universities and 10% of Sixth Forms. For more info visit http://peopleandplanet.org
The Green League is produced as part of People & Planet’s Going Greener campaign which aims to transform the environmental performance of the UK education sector. Inspired by the Transition Towns movement, the campaign brings together staff and students to create transition universities by developing and implementing their own projects in response to climate change and peak oil. For more information, visit: http://peopleandplanet.org/goinggreener
(3) HE sector-wide targets introduced by Hefce, UniversitiesUK and GuildHE’s, which apply only to English universities, are 34% or 48% by 2020 from 1990 or 2005 baselines respectively. This is equivalent to a 9.6% annual reduction on 2005 levels within the next 5 years. Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish unis are expecting similar and possibly even tougher sector-wide targets to be finalised and applied soon.
(4) Based on an average UK footprint of around 15 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The lowest carbon emissions per head in the Green League 2010 were less than half a tonne, whilst the highest were almost 10 times that (4449kg).
