The University of York has slipped further down the ‘People and Planet’ green league, casting further doubt on its environmental credentials.
The University came 126th out of the 145 universities ranked, down from 83rd in 2011. York scored 25 green points out of the 70 available.
The annual table grades universities on criteria as varied as ethical investment, carbon management and student and staff engagement.
York scored only 1 of the available 10 points for Carbon reduction, with emissions increasing by 0.67% since 2005. Similarly, the University only managed to achieve one of the possible six points for renewable energy, with none of its purchased electricity coming from renewable sources and no on-site energy generated from Low or Zero-Carbon energy sources.
The results come despite the new University green initiatives, reported by Vision last month, including the installation of two CHP plants and biomass plants which hope to cut 7,380 tonnes of carbon emissions.
David Duncan, University registrar and secretary, and recently appointed co-champion of sustainability, told Vision, “This league table does not reflect the real progress York has made in areas such as traffic reduction, recycling and awareness raising. However, we recognise we have much more to do to promote and advance environmental sustainability.”
“In addition to major projects such as the introduction of environmentally friendly heat and power plant, we are analysing these results carefully and identifying specific action points for the next two years. We would like to work closely with the York People and Planet Society in implementing these.”
YUSU President Tim Ellis said that he didn’t feel the University took green issues seriously enough. “I’ve have already brought up our huge drop in the People and Planet League table with the University Registrar and the Vice-Chancellor and I hope we can see a real renewed effort from the University to make environmental sustainability a focus for the year ahead.”