In June, the UK's forty greenest universities were presented with a 'first class degree certificate' at Parliament, by Green MP Caroline Lucas and environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt.
People & Planet, who publish the annual universities Green League (a ranking based on environmental and ethical performance), argue that: "The 46 universities that top the People & Planet Green League (just 15 universities achieved first class status in 2007) demonstrate clearly how going green can save money, improve their graduates' prospects and support the UK's transition to a low carbon economy.
Sadly, their progress is in stark contrast to the Government's flagging commitment to be the 'greenest government ever'. Our 'greenest universities ever' can teach the Government a thing or two about moving away from business-as-usual and preparing for the green economy of the future."
The top 10 schools were as followed:
University of Greenwich
University of Plymouth
University of Brighton
University of Gloucestershire
Nottingham Trent University (pictured above)
University of Central Lancashire
Bournemouth University
Bath Spa University
University of Bradford
Manchester Metropolitan University
The Going Greener campaign is inspired by the Transition Towns movement and brings staff and students together to develop and implement their own response to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security. Students and staff are working together on localised, practical projects designed to dramatically reduce energy-usage and climate impact. The Going Greener campaign is creating a network of Transition Universities which are working to become resilient, low-carbon & more community-led in addressing their environmental & social impacts.
For further information see People & Planet Green League 2012.
If you are a student or lecturer at one the UK's universities and would like to know more about permaculture, we are offering some FREE recent back issues of Permaculture magazine. All we need is one name, a university postal address and an idea of how many students are interested. For more details contact: [email protected]
