Results announced for the People & Planet University League 2015, (formerly called the Green League), reveal a large proportion of universities that have made commitments to serving MSC certified sustainable seafood are in the top third of the results. Seven of the 22 have achieved 1st Class Awards; highlighting the credibility of the Marine Stewardship Council as a trusted sustainability standard in foodservice catering.
City University was the highest ranked MSC certified university achieving 5th place in this year’s league, gaining a first class degree, and also scored the second highest mark overall for the sustainable food category, an impressive 90%.
Many of the MSC certified universities that won first class awards this year achieved high marks for sustainable food, with Salford, Bedfordshire, Greenwich, Brighton and City University all scoring in excess of 75%.
People & Planet’s University League is the only comprehensive and independent league table of UK universities ranked by environmental and ethical performance. It is compiled annually by the UK’s largest student campaigning network, People & Planet.
Drive to display sustainability credentials
Of the 151 UK universities in this year’s league table, 22 of them have made full commitments to sourcing MSC seafood and 7 of those have achieved top ratings and awarded First Class Degrees. The results again show that universities are becoming more competitive in their drive to demonstrate their sustainability credentials and overall green ethics, aspects of university life that increasing numbers of students care about.
This year’s University League ranked 151 UK universities – awarding them a First Class degree, 2:1, 2:2, Third, or Fail – according to 13 criteria including: environmental policy, audit and human resources, and their performance in areas such as carbon reduction, waste and water recycling, student engagement, curriculum for sustainable development, energy efficiency, sustainable food and workers’ rights. The ranking combines data obtained directly from universities through the Freedom of Information Act with raw estates data obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
Sustainable food actions
This year the scoring methodology increased the points awarded under the sustainable food section; the new scoring system increases the weighting as a percentage of total points of sustainable food to 4.50%, from 4.29% in 2013. Within ‘sustainable food’ there are specific aspects; sustainable food policy (20% maximum points) and sustainable food actions (15% maximum points).
For scoring under these ‘sustainable food actions’; the universities need to achieve three or more of the six specified sustainable food actions. People &Planet made MSC certification one of these specific actions for the league this year, increasing the importance attached to MSC certification as a trusted marker for sustainable food actions and not simply the purchasing of MSC certified seafood.
Universities with MSC certification through contract catering arrangements were accepted with confirmation through Sustain and / or the MSC.
George Clark, from the MSC says: ‘We congratulate those MSC universities for leading the way in trusted and traceable sustainable seafood. These MSC universities demonstrate what universities are serving their students and that sustainability matters increasingly to students and visitors. The new scoring method for sustainable food this year adds further weighting towards the MSC; we hope this move will encourage further universities to make a commitment and adopt MSC’s trusted and traceable sustainable seafood programme.’
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