Date added: 2021-12-17
Gdańsk University of Technology the “greenest” university in Poland
UI GreenMetric World University Rankings examines the university's involvement in issues related to the natural environment (including infrastructure, caring for climate and environment, transport, water and electricity consumption and waste management). An important issue for the organizer is also the wide educational offer and research activities undertaken in the field of broadly understood environmental protection. This year also projects undertaken by universities in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic were taken into account. Ranking makers want to get a picture of how a university responds to or deals with sustainability issues through policies, actions and communication.
Out of 956 universities examined, Gdańsk Tech took 134th place, advancing from 231st place (out of 912 universities) compared to last year's edition of the ranking. The list includes the University of Gdańsk for the first time, ranking 635 in the world and fourth among Polish universities.
Gdańsk University of Technology achieved such a high position thanks to the significant activity of the university in the area of implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals set out in the resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on 25 September 2015. The university is also a signatory of the University Social Responsibility Declaration and an active subject of actions to shape social attitudes conducive to the implementation of the declaration's demands.
Moreover, this year Gdańsk University of Technology published a report on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the first time, which was a list of university activities in individual areas of Sustainable Development. The data for this report was collected at the end of the 2020/2021 academic year and concerns selected projects and initiatives currently underway (including partially implemented ones).
The activities described in the report have been identified under four general areas:
- research,
- public involvement and partnership,
- education and student activity,
- internal operation of the University.
You can read the report on the university's dedicated website.
About the ranking:
The ranking has been published since 2010, when the list included only 95 universities in 35 countries - now it includes almost 1000 universities. Such a quantitative leap in the ranking shows the growing importance of ecology, responsibility for the environment and green innovations, which are part of development strategies research and teaching at universities around the world. In this year's ranking, Gdańsk University of Technology was the first university in Poland that was most involved in issues related to the natural environment.
On the podium of this year's ranking were: Wageningen UR (The Netherlands), University of Nottingham (Great Britain) and De Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (The Netherlands