The University of Barcelona improves 53 positions in the international ranking UI GreenMetric
The University of Barcelona climbs 53 positions up in the international ranking UI GreenMetric, which assesses and compares the universitiesʼ environmental managing policies worldwide and the efforts made to improve sustainability. Out of the 500 universities assessed this year, the University of Barcelona holds the 59th, and gets to the 33rd in some of the ranking categories.
The University of Barcelona climbs 53 positions up in the international ranking UI GreenMetric, which assesses and compares the universitiesʼ environmental managing policies worldwide and the efforts made to improve sustainability. Out of the 500 universities assessed this year, the University of Barcelona holds the 59th, and gets to the 33rd in some of the ranking categories.
UI GreenMetric, a ranking published annually by the University of Indonesia since 2010, is organized in six categories: Energy and Climate Change (representing a 21% of the score), Waste (18%), Transportation (18%), Setting and Infrastructure (15%), Water (10%) and Education (18%). Out of all the categories, waste management (waste treatment and recycling activities, reducing use of paper and plastic) is where the University of Barcelona has advanced the most, holding the 33rd position in the ranking. The UB has a good position in transport policies (limiting the number of motor vehicles in campus, use of bicycle and public transport) holding the 43rd position and an important improvement in the use of water, a category in which the UB has gone from 123nd to 76th position. In this yearʼs UI GreenMetric edition, 516 universities have participated (109 more than last year), from 74 countries (9 more than in 2015). The University of California Davis (USA), University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), and Waganigen University and Research (Netherlands) hold the first three positions. Urban, with campuses in different areas of the city and surrounding areas, the University of Barcelona is the top 5th Spanish university in this ranking, following the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, University of Alcala, University of Valencia, and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
The University of Barcelona Sustainability Plan was approved of by the University Senate on July 12, 2012, and since then, the annual monitoring report is published. In July 2016 the Governing Council accepted the substitution of the Declaration of the UB Environment Policy, valid since 2000, for the new Sustainability Policy, which includes agreements on the Sustainability Plan, reinforces the will to integrate it into teaching and innovation and research activities and plans to go further than the strict fulfillment of the current regulation, so that our University takes responsibility for the minimization of the environmental impact of the buildings and its activities.