Sustainable Campus Propels Lancaster into Global Top Five for ‘Life on Land’ Ranking
With sustainable local produce on the menu and a campus buzzing with biodiversity, Lancaster University is in the global top five in one of the measures in a newly-released Times Higher Education (THE) league table.
With more than 1,963 participating institutions, the THE University Impact Rankings for 2024 are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a range of indicators the league table provides a comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching.
Lancaster has ranked highly in a series of measures including:
5th in the world for ‘Life on Land’ (UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 15), which recognises our strong biodiversity on campus, flora and fauna monitoring and conservation, and the university’s food policy with a focus on local and sustainably-farmed produce.
45th in the world for ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ (SDG 16) for providing academic expert advice to local and national Government, our academic freedom policy and publicly-available financial information.
50th in the world for ‘Responsible Consumption’ (SDG 12), thanks to our publicly-available sustainability report and efforts to ensure a low amount of waste sent to landfill.
101-200th in the world for ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ (SDG 17) for the production of an SDG report each year and the overall impact of our research as an institution.
With highly impactful work addressing a range of sustainable development goal areas from coral reefs and clean energy to tackling modern slave trade and sustainable cities, the University also ranked highly for research impact and volume.
Overall, Lancaster is in the world top 200 out of all participating universities.
Professor Simon Guy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Global, Digital, International, Sustainability, said: “As a leading research-intensive University we are mindful of our responsibility to have a positive impact around the world, to ensure our research and teaching does not come at a cost to the planet but instead brings solutions. There is always more work to be done but whether we are taking decisions about food on our plates, the grounds of our campus or working in partnership with people across the globe, sustainability is at the heart of our decision making.”