University of Warwick ranks ninth for sustainable consumption and production

The University of Warwick has been ranked the ninth-best university in the world for sustainable consumption and production. This is according to the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023.

The rankings assess sustainability based on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are 17 SDGs which include: eradicating poverty and hunger, gender equality, and climate action.

This year, the rankings assessed 674 universities worldwide.

The University of Warwick ranked ninth place in SDG12, which addresses responsible consumption and production. This includes efficient use of resources and cutting waste and pollution to create a circular economy.

We passionately believe in the importance of being a force for good and positive change locally, nationally and globally … there’s more to do and we will need to keep on improving and challenging ourselves further

–Vice Chancellor Stuart Croft

The university also scored in the top 5% for promoting inclusive societies (SDG16) and ranked in the top 10% for tackling inequalities (SDG10). Overall, Warwick ranked in the top 15% for all SDGs.

The UK scored highly on the whole for the SDG12 ranking, with seven out of the top 10 universities being in the UK.

The University of Manchester was the best ranked UK university on all criteria, scoring second-place behind Western Sydney University in Australia.

This was the first year the University of Warwick had entered the Impact Rankings. Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Stuart Croft said: “We passionately believe in the importance of being a force for good and positive change locally, nationally and globally.

“The UN Sustainable Development Goals are fundamental to our long-term vision and are embedded into every aspect of our operations.

“However, we know there’s more to do and we will need to keep on improving and challenging ourselves further.”

The university’s ‘Way to Sustainable’ strategy outlines how they aim to improve sustainability. This includes reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Since 2021, the university has already taken some environmentally conscious measures. In 2021/2022, Warwick generated 50% of its own power, while 100% of the university’s energy buys comes from green sources as of 2021.