UCL's People & Planet University League 2015 score

20 January 2015

UCL has moved up the rankings of the People & Planet University League, jumping from 61st to 29th place out of 151 UK universities.

Compiled by student campaigning organisation People & Planet, the University League is an independent ranking of UK universities on their environmental and ethical performance.

This year, UCL scored maximum points for sustainability strategy, staffing levels and engaging the university community. High scores were also achieved in environmental management and auditing, and in efforts to tackle key impacts, such as recycling, travel and sustainable construction.

Richard Jackson, Director of Sustainability, commended contributions made across the university to this improved score:

Our success this year has been the result of working together across UCL's community on a whole range of themes. And while we’ve made progress, we know we can go further. Whether it’s embedding the principles of sustainability into UCL's major building programme, working to include sustainability in teaching and research, empowering and encouraging staff and students to make sustainability part of their daily routine, or student and staff volunteering, we all have a part to play in creating a more sustainable UCL

Measures that helped UCL to achieve this score include:

An improved approach to recycling: UCL has introduced new bins, clearer signage and an improved recycling strategy.
More sustainable building and refurbishment projects: projects like the improvements to 31 Tavistock Square include energy efficiency measures, intelligent lighting and sustainable timber. This is a product of UCL’s stringent new Sustainable Design Specification, which pushes for best practice in all future university projects.
Making environmental improvements more participatory: through the Green Impact programme, staff and students work together to improve the impact of their departments. Last year, 44 teams took part, covering around 60% of the university. And across UCL, there have also been cycling events, Green Resolutions, the Big Easter Switch Off and Degrees of Change (to name a few).
Supporting academic projects that use the estate as a ‘living lab’: the Sustainability Team has worked with a wide range of students and academics to help them use UCL’s estate as a test best for their research. This includes the Living Lab Wifi Project, supporting a module of the BASc and work with the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change to better understand recycling behaviours.

To see the full league table, just visit the People & Planet website.
To stay up-to-date with the work of the Sustainability Team, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.