UK’s greenest universities

Nottingham Trent University, one of just seven universities in the UK to score points for working towards the Soil Association's Food for Life Catering Mark, takes the top spot this year in The People & Planet Green League 2011, which has just been released. The League assessed 142 universities against 13 criteria designed to measure their environmental and ethical commitments and performance compared with other universities. The Sustainable Food criteria - now in its second year - revealed clear improvements across the board and represented one of the biggest areas of progress across the sector. The full results are available here.

For the first time, universities could gain points in the Green League Sustainable Food category for achieving the Soil Association’s Food for Life Catering Mark. All seven universities which have gained or committed to apply for the Catering Mark achieved a First or 2.1 in this year’s Green League. Twelve out of the top 20 universities in this year's ranking have strong publicly-available sustainable food policies, whilst four out of the top ten universities scored full points for the Sustainable Food criteria overall. They were the universities of Gloucestershire, Worcester, Greenwich & Hertfordshire.
 

Key findings from the Sustainable Food criteria this year were:
 

34 % of sector (49 universities) now have publicly-available Sustainable Food policies
54 % increase in universities making use of seasonal produce regularly (compared to 2010)
51 % increase in universities using no fish from MCS red list
52 % of universities providing growing space for students and staff
47.5 % of universities are using 100 % free-range eggs in their catering
 

Soil Association