What a Shocker!

People & Planet have released The Green League 2007, a first-ever league table for universities based on their environmental performance - and UWA has come in an embarassing 97th of 105 UK universities surveyed. In true academic spirit the table has been split up into grade classifications - so coming in 97th counts as a 'Fail'.

Top of the pile is Leeds Met, scoring 48 out of 50 points; the highest Welsh university is Glamorgan University coming in at 4th nationally. UWA is joint 97th with UW Lampeter, the bottom-two universities in Wales. How green are Welsh universities? The overall distribution mirrors the UK average - one first, two 2:1s, two 2:2s, two passes and two fails.

The table was is broken down over a number of criteria - and a section on methodology details these - focusing on management issues (a publicly available environmental policy, full-time staff dedicated to environmental management, comprehensive environmental auditing, a green travel plan and Fairtrade University status), and performance issues (% of energy from renewable sources, & of waste recycled and carbon emissions per head). See the table for the specific breakdown of how UWA has fared across these criteria.

Fair? I think so. My year has undoubtedly exposed me to the detail and substance behind the headlines and progress is certainly be undertaken. These processes (an environmental strategy, reducing carbon emissions) have, however, really only begun this year and will take some time to kick in and next year's ranking is likely to be higher. But they are a reminder of just how far progress still has to go, particularly in relative terms, and the interest that the Green League will provoke across the HE sector means that UWA will have to walk faster simply to keep up.