2016 Press Releases
UCC’s Green Campus among best in world
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University College Cork has been ranked fourth in the world in a list of the world's most sustainable universities, achieving the highest result in Ireland.
Universitas Indonesia (UI) released its UI GreenMetric Rankings of World Universities 2015, having measured the commitment made by over 400 universities across the globe in developing an ‘environmentally-friendly’ infrastructure.
UCC ranked higher than other universities in Ireland, including DCU (58th), the University of Limerick (16th), UCD (111th) and NUI Maynooth (93rd).
“We are pleased to retain such a high ranking in these metrics. We have been in the top four since 2011 despite increasing competition each year. Our Green Campus Forum continues to work on all aspects of Sustainability under our ‘Student-led, Research informed and Practice-focused’ principles,” commented Mark Poland, Director of Buildings and Estates.
“We are constantly striving to reduce our environmental impact through reduced energy use, waste management and sustainable commuting. The engagement of all members of the University community including students, staff, suppliers and our subsidiary companies is important. The Mardyke Arena recently achieved energy, environmental and safety ISO accreditation and we are working closely with Kylemore on local vegetable production for our restaurants.”
Poland added: “We are well on our way to achieving our energy targets of a 33% reduction by 2020. We hope to accelerate our programme of energy improvement projects through our new overall capital programme.”
University of Nottingham was named the world’s best green campus, followed by the University of Connecticut and the University of California, Davis in third place.
UCC remains fully committed to being a world leader in the green sustainability area, according to Professor John O’Halloran, Vice President for Teaching and Learning and Co-Chair of the University Green Forum.
“Last week we launched a United Nations GEMS Water Centre to support sustainable water in Africa and across the globe and today we launched a new campus-wide module on sustainability, which is available to all students, staff and members of the public,” O’Halloran said.
“We have further ambitious plans including the launch our new Sustainability Strategy and our second carbon calculation report will be launched in the next few weeks. We will continue to stretch our ambitions and actions to enable our students and staff to act locally and impact globally through our education, research and practice,” he added.
wow - congratulations @GreenCampusUCC @UCC!!! @GreenCampusIE https://t.co/gl1wfWsX8U
— GreenSchoolsIreland (@GreenSchoolsIre)
January 26, 2016
Based on research and surveys conducted by the UI GreenMetric team, led by Professor Riri Fitri Sari, 407 universities from 65 countries participated and use the performance indicators as their measurement tools of achievement in providing a condusive learning environment.
The measurement is related to the environmental setting, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, and education. This year, UI has added a Carbon Footprint evaluation, to encourage universities to look into this issue.
The ranking has five indicators: Setting & Infrastucture (15%), Energy and Climate Change (21%), Waste Management (18%), Water Management (10%), eco-friendly transportation facility (18%) and Education (18%).