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About
About The Green Campus Programme in UCC
In March 2020, University College Cork celebrated 10 years since becoming the first University in the world to be awarded a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education. Green Campus involves a seven-step programme and a cycle of continual improvement. Campuses are fully reassessed, by a panel of external experts, every 3 years. UCC has successfully renewed it’s Green Flag five times.
The Green Campus Programme in UCC has evolved significantly since its inception. Strong commitment and support from the highest levels in the university has contributed to embedding sustainability across our operations, teaching, research and outreach. The student-led Green Campus Committee, chaired by the Student’s Union Deputy President, meets regularly to discuss ideas and campaigns to improve our campus. These meetings feed into biannual meetings of the Green Campus Forum, which takes its membership from across all functions within the University. The forum ensures continuity and strategic oversight throughout the academic cycle.
In 2016, UCC launched its Sustainability Strategy, which is framed around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and, in 2018, began to publish Annual Sustainability Reports.
Times Higher Education World Impact Ranking
Congratulations to the staff, students, alumni and UCC community world-wide who work in a real way on a daily basis to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. UCC ranked an impressive 67 of 1963 universities in the most recent edition of the global impact ranking published by Times Higher Education on 12 June 2024. This is an evidence-based ranking which examines the impact the university is having, through the prism of the UN’s SDGs.
In overall terms UCC scored 90.7 out of 100, back marginally on the 90.8 scored last year and back 9 places overall. This is in the context of an additional 350+ universities making the final published ranking this year.
As well as our overall score and rank, we have also performed remarkably well across the individual UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with UCC ranking in the Top 30 in the world across 5 of the 17 SDGs.
UCC's best performing SDGs based on rank (including actual score out of 100) are as follows:
| SDG | Rank |
|---|---|
| SDG 2 - Zero Hunger | 20 |
| SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities | 30 |
| SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production | 26 |
| SDG 14 - Life below water | 29 |
| SDG16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions | 16 |
UCC leads the Irish universities across the SDGs, being first place in Ireland across 5 of them - SDG2, 11, 14, 15 & 16. UCC features in the Top 30 across the SDGs more than any other Irish university.
This ranking is particularly noteworthy in that not only does it look at data and metrics, it also examines the impact the university is having on society and the world around us on everything from the economy to the environment and social equity.
Times Higher Education assess the impact of the university across the university's teaching, research, student stewardship and community and public engagement so it is great to be recognised as a world leader in this regard, via this independent and rigorous annual assessment.
UCC's profile in the Times Higher Education World Impact Ranking
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 21 | 32 | 8 | 62 | 58 | 67 |
THE World Impact Ranking Methodology »
UI Green Metric
UCC is ranked an impressive 6th in the world for sustainability according to the latest independent assessment from UI Green Metric which published on 5th Dec 2023, from the Sustainability Conference coinciding with COP 28.
The UI Green Metric Ranking measures the advancement of sustainability across 1,183 universities in 85 countries world-wide in the areas of Infrastructure and setting, waste, water, transportation, energy and climate change as well as education and research. UCC continues to be recognised as a world leader in this area and improved (from 7th last year) to 6th in the world this year. In doing so UCC retained its place within the top 10 in the world for the past seven years of this ranking.
UCC has been the Top Irish University for Sustainability since the inception of this ranking in 2010.
UCC's profile in the UI Green Metric (Sustainability Ranking)
| Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
In 2018, UCC was the first university outside of North America to be awarded a Gold Star from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. For further information please follow this link STARS.
Sustainability and Climate Action Plan 2023 - 2028
The Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (2023-2028) builds on the successes of UCC’s Sustainability Strategy (2016) and sets out how UCC will continue to embed sustainability goals and targets across all aspects of the University’s educational, research, ancillary operations, infrastructural developments and interactions with the community.
Green forum
The Green Campus Forum draws its members from across the college community and includes staff and student representatives, and key personnel with responsibilities in relation to the sustainability strategy.
Chaired by President John O’Halloran and Mark Poland (Director of Buildings and Estates), the forum meets regularly to drive forward the Green Campus project and sustainability within UCC.