TU/e scores highest of the four participating Dutch universities. A total of 360 universities from 62 countries completed the questionnaire set by Universitas Indonesia (UI). In the GreenMetric Ranking, which started in 2010, the organizers aim to highlight universities that actively tackle their CO emissions and combat climate change. The ranking takes into account the size of the university, as well as the location and the amount of green cover on the campus. The ranking includes a number of categories and weighting factors: setting and infrastructure (15%), energy and climate change (21%), waste management (18%), water usage (10%), transportation (18%) and education (18%).

The rise of TU/e in the ranking results from the integrated sustainability policy followed by the university in recent years. For example the campus has been made more compact thanks to the Campus 2020 accommodation plan. New buildings such as MetaForum and Flux meet high sustainability standards. Flux (Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics departments), which will be opened in April, is even energy-neutral. And the development of the Green Walkway project also scores highly. TU/e also receives high scores for research into sustainable technologies and attention for these in education.

Last year TU/e took second place in ‘SustainaBul’, the national sustainability ranking for higher education. TU/e Executive Board president Jan Mengelers is please with this higher place in the ranking. “It’s good to see that our investments are showing results. We’ve decided to follow this strategy to make the campus and the university greener, more sustainable and a better place to live and work. We’re doing this through our building program, our reorganization plans and our education, as well as through policy decisions. So it’s a good thing – for example by taking part in rankings of this kind – to confirm that we’re heading in the right direction.”

Source: TU/e Press Team