The Greenest Student Homes
Based on 2021 data
If you’re looking to improve not only your career choices but also your environmental treatment, looking at which universities and homes are greener is going to be important. There are multiple sites on the web that try to decide which university is the greenest based on several different factors and it can be hard to decide which is most important and which guide to follow. Well worry not, because here I’ve gone through some of the ones online and collated the end results and deciding factors here for you.
In this article, I’ve made the tenuous assumption that the greener the university, the greener its student accommodation will be, and have used this as a basis to work out which university in the country has the greenest accommodation.
Using three different rankings: People and Planet , Save the Student , and Top Universities , I’ve made an averaged ranking of the top greenest universities:
1-Gloucestershire Ranked first in two out of three rankings, Gloucestershire scored 90% on People and Planet for Environmental policy, 65% on sustainability staff, and 100% on carbon reduction whilst scoring in the top 10 on Save The Student since they started ranking, achieving first in 2008 and 2019.
2-Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan scored second in all three rankings, earning it the same place on mine. The uni scored 90% or above in Environmental policy, sustainability staff, Auditing and EMS, Carbon management, and Education in the People and Planet ranking and 79.9% in the Save The Student ranking based off of policy, strategy, food, education, energy sources, carbon and water reduction.
3-Nottingham and Nottingham Trent
Referred to both together and separately, Nottingham Trent scored 79.9% in Save The Student and together were in the top five in the UI Greenmetric World University Ranking according to Top Universities.
4-Northumbria Achieving scores of 90% on Environmental Policy and Carbon management from People and Planet, Northumbria also ranked fourth on Save the Student with a score of 66.6%. However it was not even included in the Top University top 9 score board.
5-City, University of London Whilst ranking last on Top University, City, University of London came 5th on the other two rank sites achieving 66.4% from Save The Student. It achieved 90% or over in Environmental Policy, Auditing and EMS and Engagement from People and Planet but scored lower in Carbon Management and Ethical Investment.
6-Worcester With each ranking system having a different university crowned for 6th, I’ve gone with Worcester who ranked 5th on the People and Planet with 100% scores for Auditing and EMS, Carbon management and Energy sources. They scored lower in Workers rights, Ethical investment and Carbon reduction. They did also win 5th place on the Save the Student ranking with a score of 66.4% tied with City, University of London but were not on the Top University rank at all. Their lower score for carbon reduction from People and Planet is why I dropped them to 6th for this ranking.
7-Coventry Coventry came 7th on the People and Planet ranking with scores of 100% for Environmental policy and Auditing and EMS, but 0% for ethical investment, 20% for sustainable food and only 55% for carbon management.
8-Bedfordshire Bedfordshire kept its place at 8th that it earns from People and Planet and Save the Student, despite not being included in the Top University ranking. It scored 100% for Environmental Policy and water reduction as well as Energy sources and auditing but only 65.3% in the Save The Student rank.
9-Aston University Aston ranked 9th with 63% from Save the student and with People and Planet with scores of 100% from Environmental Policy and 90% for carbon management. They had low scores of 10% for ethical investment and 20% for workers rights which dropped them to 9th.
10-Swansea Despite scoring joint 9th by People and Planet with scores of 90% and above for Environmental Policy, Sustainability staff, Auditing and EMS, Carbon management and Energy sources, Swansea scored 0% for Carbon reduction, 15% for ethical investment and 63% from Save the Student, earning it 10th place in my ranking, dropping it from its 5th place with Top University.
So there you have it: a collated ranking taking into account the scores across three different tables. Other universities worth noting that appeared were Keele at 6th for Top University, Plymouth at 8th with Top University and Bristol who scored first with Top University.
REFERENCES:
https://peopleandplanet.org/university-league
https://www.savethestudent.org/extra-guides/university-sustainability-environment-league-table.html
https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/10-greenest-universities-uk
