Green League 2008 Results Out

BRITISH UNIVERSITIES CUT THE CARBON
PEOPLE & PLANET PUBLISH THE GREEN LEAGUE 2008

Today, Thursday 3 July, the award winning Green League was published by People & Planet, the UK's leading student campaign network. The Green League 2008 shows a remarkable improvement in environmental management and performance in the UK's Higher Education sector over the past year.

Gloucestershire, Plymouth and University of the West of England top the league. Click here to see the full table.

The change in the sector has been driven by thousands of students who have been campaigning for greener campuses. The Green League 2007 brought sustainability to the forefront of Vice Chancellor's minds and, one year later, the 2008 Green League is a clear indicator that there have been tangible changes within the sector. However, there is still a long way to go to minimise the sector's climate impacts. People & Planet call upon universities to improve their accuracy, transparency and reliability of monitoring and build upon this initial shift to drive up environmental standards.

The Green League, which last year won best campaign in the British Environment and Media Awards, is the only league table showing the environmental performance of Britain's universities. Published in Times Higher Education and sponsored by WWF, People & Planet's Green League 2008 ranks all British universities - awarding them a First, 2:1, 2:2, Third, or Fail - based on nine environmental criteria, both policy and performance related. It incorporates data obtained through the freedom of information act, including the percentage of waste recycled and CO2 emissions for each individual institution. The table also shows the change in each university's ranking between
2007 and 2008.

In addition to highlighting the performance of individual universities, the Green League provides an overview of the Higher Education sector and exposes the need for a comprehensive carbon reduction strategy to drive down carbon emissions year-on-year. People & Planet are calling for leadership and drive from the government combined with full support from all sector stakeholders. People & Planet would like to see the HE sector act as a role model for the public sector - providing evidence that a transformation to a low carbon economy is a realistic ambition.

"The dramatic improvements in the league after only one year should be celebrated. With many UK universities leading the research on the environmental threats facing our planet, it's common sense that they also lead in environmental performance. These advances are a welcome response to the urgency of tackling the threats to people and nature." David Norman, WWF-UK Director of Campaigns.

"There is still a deep frustration within the sector from many of the students at large," says Iain Patton, executive director of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC). "Change is a slow business. I've been pushing at this for 11 or 12 years. We have had lots of false dawns before. I have to be cautious."

Patton agrees that universities could assume a pioneering role. "We could be leaders of the field and, for God's sake, why shouldn't we be? We're talking education here, we're not churning out industrial processes.

"Further and higher education have a great opportunity to lead on sustainability," he adds. "We have researchers and academics, we understand more and more about how our planet is working, about how people are impacting on each other and the planet. So we have a great opportunity to explore new ways of living and trading."

But Patton argues that there is a cultural problem within higher education. "There is still conservatism; there is still a reluctance to lead. We're not great risk-takers."

Click here to see the Times Higher Article

Click here to see case studies from the leading universities