UWL ranked 1st class for sustainability

5 December 2022

The University of West London (UWL) has been given a 1st class award (17th place overall, climbing from 57th in 2021, putting them in the top 20 of universities) by the People & Planet student campaigning network in their University League 2022/2023 for environmental efforts including carbon reduction and food sustainability. This means the University is in the top 10 of modern*** universities for these categories.

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.

We’re delighted to be recognised in this way for our work to embed a culture of sustainability across the University and become a net-zero carbon campus by 2030," said Claire Willitts, Director of Property Services at UWL. "The University aims to become a leader in environmental and sustainability management by preventing pollution, complying with environmental legislation, and striving to improve our sustainability performance."

UWL has a Sustainability Team who work to bring staff and students together to tackle issues surrounding climate change and the environment. Their achievements to date include being awarded EcoCampus Platinum in 2020 and reducing carbon emissions by 60% in 2020, based on a 2005 baseline.

Previously, in 2021 the University completed a £5 million government-funded project which included one of the world’s largest combined installations of ground source heat pumps and solar photovoltaic thermal panels. It was a large-scale, ambitious and technically sophisticated project to decarbonise the campus and is a major step towards the University’s goal to become net zero carbon by 2030. UWL was highly commended for the Decarbonisation Project of the Year 2021 by the Energy Manager’s Association for this work, and the technologies installed have also been the subject of a number of recent awards in industry news.

Sustainability - teams and strategy

UWL is working hard to embed a culture of sustainability across our University and become a net-zero carbon campus by 2030.

Several small plants in pots at a birds eye view.

Ariel shot of green and yellow fields. Through the white fluffy clouds, you can see wind turbines dotted over the fields.

It has been an exceptional year overall for awards at UWL with the University being ranked No.1 in the UK for student satisfaction*, student voice and academic support** in the National Student Survey (NSS) 2022. It was also named 'University of the Year for Teaching Quality' and 'University of the Year for Student Experience' in the prestigious The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023. The University received its highest ever ranking in the national league tables reaching No.23 in the latest influential Guardian University Guide.

* Average all questions, National Student Survey 2022

** Excluding specialists, National Student Survey 2022

***A modern university is a university established in or after 1992