Our university improved its results by 25 places in this year’s University of Indonesia GreenMetric ranking, marking the launch of the Sustainability Flagship Program.
Eötvös Loránd University’s Sustainability Flagship Program, announced for the new rector’s term, has set the goal that sustainability will become a fundamental value of the university’s operations and culture in the future. This will permeate all of ELTE’s core activities, operations, community building, as well as institution-level sustainability practices that are data-driven and measurable.
The university builds on stable foundations, as the sustainability mindset has already been present in its operations in recent years. An important proof of this is ELTE's presence and results in international university rankings focused on sustainability.
The UI GreenMetric was first announced in 2010, when 95 institutions competed; this year, however, 1745 universities from 105 countries participated. Despite strong international competition, ELTE achieved 400th place this year, improving by 25 places compared to last year. This means ELTE ranks fourth among Hungarian universities, with a total of 13 Hungarian institutions measured on the list.
The UI GreenMetric university sustainability questionnaire covers six topics: location and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste and water management, transportation, and education. These topics contribute differently to the overall result, with water management carrying the least weight, and energy and climate change carrying the most.
ELTE performed especially well in education/research (research, formal and informal education, scientific articles, grants), water management, energy, and infrastructure, and also holds its ground in waste management (Together for Environmental Awareness program) and transportation. Out of the six areas, the institution is in the top five hundred in five, and in education and research, it is among the top three hundred worldwide.
This year, a new assessment was introduced to examine how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are implemented in university operations; thus, the sustainability aspects linked to each subtopic were also evaluated. Between 7 and 17 UN SDGs apply to each subtopic, depending on its relevance.
At the top of the overall sustainability ranking is Wageningen University (Netherlands), followed by University College Cork, and in third place, Nottingham Trent University. Among the top ten are two German, one Italian, one English, one Irish, two Dutch, two American, and one Brazilian university.