The People & Planet Green League
The People & Planet Green League is a ranking of United Kingdom universities based on their sustainable practice. It is compiled by the student campaign group People & Planet.
The Green League 2007 was published in the Times Higher Education Supplement[1] on the 8 June 2007, to coincide with World Environment Day, and won a WWF British Environment and Media Award for Best Campaign.[2]
The Green League 2008, with a partially revised methodology, was published on the 3 July 2008, again in the Times Higher Education Supplement,[3] and revealed significant improvements in sustainability, "galvanised by last year's inaugural league table".[4]
The Green League 2009 was released on 18 June 2009 in the Times Higher Education Supplement.
The Green League 2010 was released on 10 June in the Times Higher Education Supplement,[5] sponsored by Unit4 Business Software. Some institutions challenged their scores, and the definitive version is available on the People & Planet website. It revealed improvements, but People & Planet state "whilst some universities are on track to cut emissions by 34% over the next 10 years, the Green League also shows a severe lack of ambition and urgency across the sector more broadly".
The Green League 2011 is set to be released on the 7th June 2011 both on the People & Planet website and the organisations media partner, The Guardian.
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[edit] Methodology
The initial methodology (For Green League 2007) behind the ranking in the Green League was primarily based around the four demands of People and Planet's Go Green campaign,[6] which attempts to make universities more environmentally friendly, but included in addition data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from EMStats (Estates Management Statistics, submitted by each institution to the government) on recycling, percentage renewable energy, and carbon emissions per student. Whether the university had Fairtrade status was also included on a low weighting, as another indicator of a progressive institution.
For Green League 2008 the additions were made to the Methodology to further gauge a Universities environmental management and performance. The following was included when calculating the rankings:
- the possession of an Ethical Investment policy
- Water consumption per head
- The improvement in renewable energy, recycling, and carbon emissions from the previous year's Green League
Furthur changes to the methodology were made to Green League 2009 in recognition of the importance of carbon management. To demonstrate this importance it awarded points for:
- Institutions having carbon management plans
- How ambitious the percentage carbon reduction target
- Whether the carbon baseline of the plan includes: a) Procurement, b) Staff and student business trips e.g. flights to conferences and field trips, c) Staff and students commuting to university on a daily basis and d) Carbon emissions associated with the travel between students’ homes and the university at the start and end of term (including international students).
In 2009 it also expanded to measure the "Environmental Impact of Students’ Union or Students’ Association" connected to the University.
This ever changing methodology demonstrates how People & Planet Green League is both adaptable to different environmental concerns and also to criticisms received on the marking criteria used.
[edit] Green League 2007
Universities were given a First, 2.1, 2.2, Third or Fail rating. The league showed a large range of standards across the higher education sector.[7] Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Plymouth, and the University of Hertfordshire were the top three, whilst the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (part of the University of London), the Royal College of Art, Royal Veterinary College (part of the University of London) came lowest out of the 105 universities ranked. Fifteen universities did not provide enough information to be ranked, and so were classed in the section "Did not sit exam".
[edit] Response
The Green League 2007 received a large amount of critical acclaim following it's publishing. This acclaim accumulated in the WWF awarding The People & Planet Green League with a British Environment and Media Award for Best campaign. The WWF said of The Green League 2007 that: "It succeeded in dragging environmental issues from the fringes and making them a central concern for many Vice Chancellors."[8]
The Green League has also received praise from various other individuals and environmental organisations. Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said:
“The Green League throws a spotlight onto the work being done in universities to cut emissions, and I hope it will encourage universities and students to redouble their efforts in the fight against climate change. It is the students in universities today who will be carrying on the work to build the low-carbon Britain of tomorrow, and it is vital that universities and Government set a good example."[9]
[edit] Criticisms
The methodology has been criticised for not fully incorporating all factors that can contribute to an institution's sustainability; for instance schemes soon to be implemented.
The ranking also did not incorporate the amount of Environmental Research and Teaching, which while not directly contributing to any reduction in the university's carbon footprint, does serve to educate the next generation, and may reveal a new way to increase sustainability. However, a high level of environment research does not seem to correlate with a sustainable university (for instance, Aberystwyth University, which runs a number of courses on Environmental Management,[10] but gained only 97th position in the Green League). The University of Greenwich is another institution which believed that the criteria for marking was too limited, and following several criticms[11] Green League acknowledged that it needed to expand its indicators, which is has done so in the following years.
Another criticism is that much of the information is reliant on the institutions faithfulness; People and Planet did not have the resources to mount an independent audit.
These criticisms have largely been addressed by People and Planet, and this can be seen in the amendments which have been made in the measuring criteria which now includes many new areas of assessment which do address other areas of a universities environment.
[edit] Green League 2008
The Green League 2008, included The Green League's recent changes to their assessment criteria and marking methodology. The results of this placed the University of Gloucestershire as the greenest University in the UK and the University of Huddersfield as the university making the biggest leap in the table from 71st in 2007 to a current position of 8th.[3]
[edit] Green League 2009
The weighting of existing criteria has also changed to allocate more points for institutions improvements, rather than their absolute environmental performance. This is to level the playing field between institutions that vary greatly in how resource intensive their research subjects are.
In the Green League 2009 Nottingham Trent University were placed as the greenest University in the UK, climbing 18 places from last year.
[edit] Green League 2010
More universities than ever before participated in the Green League 2010, with 137 eligible for inclusion and of these 133 had provided enough information to be entered.
On 10 June 2010, the Green League awarded degree-style classifications based on environmental management and performance. The institutions were assessed on their performance in the following areas:
- Environmental Policies.
- Environmental Staffing.
- Environmental Auditing.
- Ethical Investment.
- Carbon Management.
- Sustainable Food and Fair Trade.
- Student and Staff Engagement.
As well as the Universities policies, their performance was also accessed based upon their:
- Energy Sources.
- Waste.
- Carbon Emissions.
- Water.
The universities which scored highest were awarded a First Class Award, then a Higher Second, a Lower Second, a Third, and a Fail. There was also a section for universities which 'Did not sit the exam', and these were universities which did not supply their information and thus were not ranked.
The greenest university in the UK that year was ranked as the University of Plymouth, which had increased five places since 2009.
[edit] Green League 2011
The Green League 2011 is currently being marked, and Universities are required to have submitted their data by Monday 14 March. The results will be released, in conjunction with The Guardian on the 7th of June 2011.
[edit] References
- ^ "Leeds Met tops first UK green rankings". Times Higher Education Supplement. 2007-06-08. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=209217.
- ^ "2007 British Environment and Media Award Winners: Best Campaign". http://bemas.wwf.org.uk/winners2007.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ a b "The Green League 2008". People & Planet. http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreen/greenleague2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ ["Green shoots" http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=402566] Times Higher Education Supplement, 3 July 2008
- ^ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=411971
- ^ "Going Green Report: The Four Key Factors". People & Planet. http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreen/report.4factors.php. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ "The Green League 2007". http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreen/greenleague2007/table.
- ^ http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/about_us/all_about_wwf/bema_winners_2007.cfm
- ^ http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague
- ^ "Biology Degrees at Aberystwyth University". http://www.aber.ac.uk/biology/prospective/manenvi05a.html#Environmental_Impact_Assessment.
- ^ "Winners and losers of the university green league". The Independent (London). 21 June 2007. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/winners-and-losers-of-the-university-green-league-453918.html.
