Manchester Metropolitan University has been named the greenest university in the UK – just six years after being classed as a ‘fail’ in the People and Planet Green League Table.
This year’s ranking is a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the university, which was rated 91st out of 102 institutions in the first ever table back in 2007.
The league, compiled by student campaign group People and Planet, is an independent ranking of UK universities by environmental and ethical performance and practice.
Professor John Brooks, Vice-Chancellor of MMU, said: “The whole university community will be thrilled with this recognition from People & Planet.
“Sustainability has been the main driver for the £350 million rationalisation of our campuses, as we can and must meet the imperatives of the present without compromising the needs of the future.”
The annual survey audits both systems and performance, with MMU scoring maximum marks in environmental policy, environmental staff, carbon management staff, student engagement sustainability in its curriculum and waste management
Universities are awarded a ‘First’, ‘2:1’, ‘2:2’ or a ‘Third’, depending on their performance in each area, and those who score very poorly are not awarded, and are deemed to have failed.
The 2013 table sees MMU receive a First Class award for the third year running.
MMU has a target to cut carbon emissions by 35% by 2016 and it is one of the few institutions with specific policies to reduce indirect emissions from staff and student travel and how the goods and services it buys are made.
It has also invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in solar arrays and green roofs at its All Saints campus on Oxford Road. A further £110,000 is being invested in solar energy at the Crewe campus.
All university buildings are strictly monitored by an energy rating scheme, while the University’s new £75million Business School and Student Hub incorporates new ‘green’ technologies such as rainwater recycling, borehole cooling and heating, while the new Birley Fields campus will be zero-rated in waste, water and heating.
“We firmly believe that a strong ethos of sustainability not only strengthens the University’s appeal to students but improves the experience in so many different ways,” Prof Brooks added.
“In partnership with our students, we are working to create a sustainable university which goes beyond being carbon neutral and actually has a positive environmental impact.”
Meanwhile, Salford University has also shot up the table, from 51st last year to 17th this year, which means it has received its first Green League First Class award.
The University of Manchester sits down in 96th place, a 37-place drop from last year.
Picture courtesy of firing up the quattro, with thanks.
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