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Wageningen University & Research ranks third in most sustainable universities worldwide
Wageningen University & Research is the third greenest university in the world, as declared on Friday by the seventh annual GreenMetric ranking from the University of Indonesia. Wageningen held the 32nd position last year, and emerged No. 3 in the 2016 GreenMetric ranking. University of California Davis (USA) ranks first, Nottingham University (UK) holds position No. 2.
The GreenMetric Ranking is an assessment of (this year) 516 colleges and universities in 74 countries. Participating colleges and universities were rated on ‘environmental setting, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, and education.’
Wageningen has a particular high score on ‘education’. This criterium is based on the thought that a university has an important role in creating the new generation’s concern with sustainability. The ranking looked at such factors as published research on sustainability and number of courses related to sustainability.
In the last five years WUR already scored high in national rankings on sustainability. In the 2016 edition of the Transparency Benchmark WUR retained her position as the most transparant university on social responsibility and sustainability in annual reporting. In 2016 WUR won SustainaBul, the Dutch ranking organized by students, for the fourth time in a row.
Other Dutch universities with a high position in this year’s ranking are University of Groningen (No. 15) and Delft University of Technology (No. 19).