New Report: Universities are 28% dirtier than other businesses
An important new report, 'Universities that Count', has assessed universities from across England on their environmental and corporate responsibility performance and reveals how they rate against UK businesses.
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The report - a joint project by Business in the Community, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and Leeds Metropolitan University - looked at 25 Universities in England, to test how appropriate the Business in the Community Environment Index would be for the Higher Education (HE) sector.
It concludes that standardised environmental measuring is important for HE institutions, and that the benchmarking tools developed by Business In The Community (BITC) should be used. And it shows that the HE sector scores lower than a whole host of others on the index, including the utilities, consumer services, telecommunications, industrial, and financial sectors. The HE sector scores an average of only 55% - compared to the business average of 83%.
As ‘Universities that Count’ diplomatically puts it, “the HE sector is in the early stages of strategic environmental management.”
Even the best Universities it looked at are below the top 50 businesses the Index has measured - including companies such as BAA, Barclays, BT, Tesco, Rolls-Royce, British American Tobacco and Unilever.
There is much still to do to make UK universities go green. Find out how you can take action to help your university Go Green.