The People & Planet University League was first published in 2007 and on the 6 December 2022 its 13th edition was released.
Over the years its assessment criteria have become an influential framework which has been used to guide the promotion of sustainability across the higher education sector. When surveyed in January 2022, 69% of sustainability managers said the People & Planet University League had a direct impact on institutional policymaking.
This People & Planet student network has led the sector towards many pioneering policies, such as divestment from the fossil fuel industry – launched in 2014 and now celebrating 100 institutions divested – and the move towards ending recruitment links with the fossil fuel industry, which has quickly gained momentum andshares some high-profile supporters.
However, the assessment criterion that was considered most headline-worthy in the Guardian and the Independent was the higher education sector’s failure to meet its own carbon reduction emissions target by a large margin – just 41% of the sector managed to reduce scope 1 and 2[1] emissions by 43% by 2020/21 from a 2005/06 baseline.
