University of Eastern Finland maintained its good placement in GreenMetric – an international sustainability ranking for universities. This year University of Eastern Finland achieved the 34th place while last year the placement was 33rd. At the same time, a record number of 956 universities participated in the ranking. This is 44 universities more than in the previous year.
University of Eastern Finland participated in the ranking for the 6th time. UI GreenMetric Ranking compares universities on the basis of how well they take environmental responsibility and sustainable development into consideration in their activities. Evaluation is carried out in several categories, including setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, and education. For the evaluation of the different categories, universities are required to clearly indicate the measures they have taken and demonstrate how these are continuously developed.
University of Eastern Finland was ranked 2nd out of participating Finnish universities. In the category of energy and climate change University of Eastern Finland achieved the 3rd highest points in the entire ranking. Last year UEF ranked 6th in that category.
Full points were received from waste management and water categories. Additionally, the total points improved slightly: this year UEF received 83,25 % of all possible points while last year the share was 80,75 %. Read more about the UI GreenMetrick 2021 ranking.
Carbon neutral university by the end of 2025
Becoming carbon neutral by 2025 is one of the objectives of the University of Eastern Finland’s Strategy Action Plan for 2021–2030.
In 2020 the university set up several groups of experts to carry out the carbon footprint calculation and come up with ways to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The groups comprised experts from the university and representatives from the university’s partners. The work was carried out in five groups, each respectively focusing on facilities, procurements, travel, campus restaurants and laboratories.
According to the University of Eastern Finland’s latest carbon footprint calculation for 2020 the greatest climate impacts were caused by heating of facilities as well as procurement of laboratory equipment and supplies. On the other hand, emissions from travel reduced significantly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020 the carbon footprint of University of Eastern Finland was about 12 000 t CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent tons).
For further information, please contact:
Maiju Eskelinen, Sustainable Development Specialist, University of Eastern Finland, maiju.eskelinen@uef.fi, tel. +358 50 338 0827
