In 2010, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Universities UK set a collective and ambitious target of a 43 per cent carbon reduction by 2020, against a 2005 baseline, for higher education providers in England
However, as the Guardian noted, this year’s People and Planet university league table shows that nearly 60 per cent of universities have been unsuccessful in meeting these carbon reduction targets – including the universities that ranked highly in the People and Plant league table.
Universities are under increasing pressure from within and outside the sector to not only reduce their carbon footprint but to demonstrate broader sustainability action – often against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
While we have seen progress in bringing sustainability to the top of the agenda across the sector, maintaining this is a difficult challenge. Clearly there are other important competing pressures, both internally such as increasing employability and transnational education opportunities for students, and externally with the cost-of-living crisis, reduced government funding, uncertainty following Brexit, and the urgent need for digital transformation following the pandemic. These are all huge challenges for any institution.
