Leeds Arts University rises up the Sustainability rankings

People & Planet’s League ranks UK universities by environmental and ethical performance. It is compiled annually by the student campaigning network, People & Planet. The performance of universities against this criteria is assessed by People & Planet in the summer and the latest league table was published at the end of December 2024.

The sustainability performance is measured across 14 sections of a comprehensive range of criteria, from environmental impacts, staff and student engagement and managing carbon through to ethical investment, sustainable food, and education for sustainable development.

Over the past year, there has been concerted effort across Leeds Arts University to engage with People & Planet's methodology. This was to ensure that we are both showcasing areas where we are already established and making good progress, and using the process to undertake gap analysis and identify areas for improvement.

Activity that has supported our latest result includes:

• Reporting to the Higher Education Statistics Agency Estates Management Record (HESA EMR) which accounts for c. 45% of the available score.

• Taking a strategic approach to sustainability via our Sustainability Framework, overseen by the Sustainability Committee which includes staff and student representation and is chaired by the Vice Chancellor.

• Developing and promoting student opportunities including our Annual Student Sustainability Award and participating in the Student Sustainability Research Conference.

• Demonstrating our objective to achieve a net zero estate by 2035 as outlined in our Estate Sustainability Plan.

• Working collaboratively across the University with academic staff, Students’ Union, Careers team and external partners to deliver briefs, projects and events.

• A rolling programme of staff and student sustainability inductions to build knowledge and awareness.

We have long recognised the importance of sustainability to our students, staff, wider communities and institutional success. To support this goal, a Sustainability Framework was launched in 2015, to identify and guide how the University community should engage with and advance its sustainability practices. Leeds Arts University aligns its sustainability activity to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, also known as ‘the Global Goals’). We are a signatory of the SDG Accord and report annually on our progress.

We are committed to establishing the highest possible standards of sustainability across all of our core activities. We will continue to identify opportunities to develop and embed sustainability into our culture and processes, and work with others to adopt best practice to develop our sustainability activity further.