People & Planet’s award winning Green League 2008 is introduced by WWF-UK’s Director of Campaigns, David Norman:
“The Green League 2008 shows dramatic improvements in the sector with 71% of universities cutting their carbon emissions and a 25% increase in full-time environmental staff. With many UK universities leading the research on the environmental threats facing our planet, it’s common sense that they also lead in environmental performance.
Universities still have a long way to go to become exemplars of best practice though - the Green League 2008 shows that their impact on the environment is still high.
This reconfirms consumption levels in the UK; if everyone in the world used resources and released emissions as we do in the UK we would need three planets to support us.
A third of our personal ecological footprint can be reduced through individual actions. However, to reach a One Planet Future, institutions, governments and businesses need to create a sustainable infrastructure and provide green choices. If they do not, no matter how hard we try as individuals, we will not reduce our ecological footprint to sustainable levels.
The impacts of this over consumption are increasingly dominating the news agenda as more ecological boundaries are being stretched; from climate change and fisheries to fresh water and forests.
WWF’s latest analysis on the state of the planet shows that while globally humans now consume about 25% more natural resources than the planet can replace the health of the world’s biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter in the last 35 years. Species and natural habitats have a direct impact on all our lives through their provision of vital resources such as food, clean water and medicines, and protection from natural disasters.
It is therefore critical that Universities take on the findings of the Green League and reduce their impact allowing us to move to a one planet future.”
Green League enquiries
Media enquiries: please see media information for press releases, quotes and contacts.
If you have any queries about specific results in the Green League please first check the methodology section.
If you still have a query, please email us. Please do NOT ring People & Planet’s support office unless your enquiry is urgent - we have a small number of staff and therefore cannot cope with a large number of calls. We will reply to your email but it might take us a few days to get through the large number of enquiries we anticipate receiving after the Green League is published.