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Environmental Sustainability

  • Updated

This lens assesses the institution’s strategy and operations towards an environmentally sustainable future. It looks at whether or not an institution has committed to environmental impact alleviation and whether it has demonstrated that commitment. Data from alumni, operations and policies, staff perceptions and reporting & governance are aggregated to form the final score.

Weights of metrics for Environmental Sustainability:

Code Metric Metric Weight
ES1 Alumni Impact for Innovation 5%
ES2 Member of an officially recognised sustainable group 1%
ES3 Climate change commitment (staff perception) 2%
ES4 Publicly available strategy or policy on sustainable procurement and investment 1%
ES5 Student Society focused on Environmental Sustainability 1%
ES6 Net Zero Commitment 1%
ES7 Emissions Efficiency 1%
ES8 Renewables Generated Onsite 1%
ES9 Progress Towards Target 1%
ES10 Policy on Climate Strategy 1%

 

ES1 Alumni Impact for Environmental Sustainability - Corporate / Private Sector 

Alumni Impact is a well-known metric used in QS Global MBA and Business Masters Rankings, as well as a featured component of the Employment Outcomes indicator in QS World University Rankings. This particular metric looks at the impact of its graduates in the private and commercial sector. Compare with Metric EE2 which looks at the impact of an institution's graduates in the public and third sectors. 

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES1.1 Scaled score on Alumni Impact, filtered only for relevant awards and lists that focus on the impact a university's graduates in the private and commercial sector. Lists such as  Forbes "30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs", "Stockholm Water Prize" by Stockholm Water Foundation, FT's 'Climate Leaders 2022' are used in this metric.  Same scoring method as described in the main Alumni Impact article.

 

The intent of the Alumni Impact metric list is to provide some indication of how successful the university has been in producing graduates who go on to make a notable and global difference in their field. 

 

ES2 Member of an officially recognised sustainable group

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES2.1 A member of any of the global groups listed below, founded explicitly for the purpose of promoting environmental sustainability. 

0 or 100.

 

Membership of more than 1 group does not increase the points awarded. 

We include any member of an officially recognised alliance with worldwide membership consisting of primarily higher education institutions, founded for the purpose of promoting environmental sustainability and/or wider societal impact, as explicitly indicated in the mission statement and/or founding charter of the organisation.

We check whether institutions are members of the following groups committed to climate change in the sector, taking into account the above:

ES3 Climate Change Commitment (Staff Perceptions)

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES3.1

In our academic survey, we ask participants to rate their agreement with the statement:

My university prioritizes minimizing its climate change impact in its day-to-day operations.

Responses are collected on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

An average score is calculated for each institution, ranging from 1 to 5. To ensure accurate assessments, scores are adjusted using a sliding scale when the number of responses is insufficient. Institutions with a negligible response rate are assigned a minimum score based on their country/territory.

Later on the figures are z-scored and scaled between 0 and 100. 

 

 

ES4 Publicly available strategy on sustainable procurement and investment

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES4.1 A publicly available policy or explanation on how the university considers sustainability in its procurements processes 0 or 50
ES4.2 A publicly available policy or explanation on how the university considers sustainability in its investments 0 or 50

 

ES5 Student Society focused on Environmental Sustainability

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES5.1

A student society which is formed and operated by students for students, with a focus on the environment, green issues, conservation and/or climate issues. 

0 or 100

 

 

 

ES6 Net Zero Commitment

If an institution has a Net-Zero target they will get a score based off the year. We will also accept submissions where the institution has publicly committed to this on their own websites.

Sub metric Information Sought Scoring
ES6.1

A net zero year target, publicly committed by institution (including Race to Zero Commitment). 

If their target year is:

  • Before 2022: score 100
  • Between now and 2025: score 90
  • Between 2026 - 2030: score 80
  • Between 2031 - 2035: score 70
  • Between 2036 - 2040: score 60
  • Between 2041- 2045: score 50
  • Between 2046 - 2050: score 40
  • Between 2051- 2055: score 30
  • Between 2056 - 2060: score 20
  • After 2060 or year not given: score 10

 

 

ES7  Emissions Efficiency

We have chosen to assess the efficiency of a university's carbon emissions against their size, as measured by Gross Internal Area (GIA). There are of course other approaches to this, but GIA was felt to be the least biased towards income or type of institution, although no method will perfectly normalize for variation.

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES7.1

Total Scope 1 + Scope 2 Emissions in tonnes (tCO2e) for the last full reporting year. 

 

This should follow the GHG's protocols corporates standard for Scope 1 and 2. Your institution should be following their guidelines in order to submit this accurately. If you do not record your emissions in this way, please do not guess - leave it blank with an explanatory note. 

 

  • Scope 1 emissions— This covers the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions that the university makes directly — for example while running its boilers and vehicles.
  • Scope 2 emissions — These are the emissions the university makes indirectly – like when the electricity or energy it buys for heating and cooling buildings, is being produced on its behalf.

Please do not submit guesswork

A ratio of the Total Scope 1 and 2 emissions to the GIA is calculated and scaled from 0 to 100.

 
ES7.2

Gross Internal Area (GIA). 

To be provided in meters squared (m2).

This refers to all buildings used by the institution.

This refers to the whole enclosed area of a building within the external walls taking each floor into account. 

GIA will typically include:

  • areas occupied by internal walls (whether structural or not) and partitions
  • service accommodation such as WCs, showers, changing rooms and the like
  • columns, piers, whether free standing or projecting inwards from an external wall, chimney breasts, lift wells, stairwells etc
  • lift rooms, plant rooms, tank rooms, fuel stores, whether or not above roof level
  • open-sided covered areas (should be stated separately)

GIA will typically exclude:

  • open balconies
  • open fire escapes
  • open-sided covered ways
  • open vehicle parking areas, terraces and the like
  • minor canopies
  • any area with ceiling height of less than 1.5m (except under stairways)
  • any area under the control of service or other external authorities

Please do not submit guesswork

 

ES8 Renewables Generated Onsite

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES8.1

This indicator refers to the total annual energy (kWh equivalent) generated through renewable energy sources for the whole estate.

Typically this may include energy derived from:

  • biomass-fueled boilers,
  • solar electric panels (photovoltaics),
  • solar thermal panels (solar water heating),
  • wind turbines,
  • ground source heat pumps,
  • other.

The consumed energy may not only be consumed by the university, but may also be sold on or stored. 

If your institution does not have an accurate record of this, please do not submit guesswork. QS will devise country or regional minimums where this data is not submitted. 

 

 Annual values in kWh will be rescaled to a score between 0 and 100.

 

 

ES9 Progress towards Target

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES9.1

Baseline measurement year (baseline year).

This should be the year, no earlier than 2005, which you consider your baseline year to measure progress against your net zero commitment. By baseline year we mean the point in history where you started to track emissions to GHG standards (or closest equivalent) and their progress/changes. Your default baseline year will be the first year (no earlier than 2005) for which you have a full 12 month record of tracking scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Expected emissions in the current year is defined as a linear interpolation between reported emissions (ES9.1) in the baseline year (ES9.2) and zero-emissions committed in the target year (ES6.1).

Then the progress towards net-zero target is estimated as a relative difference between the expected and the reported emissions in the current year (ES7.1) is normalised then scaled from 0 to 100 (the lower the reported value the better).

 

Note. This method was not applicable to institutions who started tracking their progress only recently (less than 3 years ago) and currently have less than 5% progress towards net-zero.
ES9.2

Total Scope 1 + Scope 2 Emissions in tons (tCO2e) for the baseline year. Similar to ES7.1 definition.

 

 

ES10 Strategy policy / document on climate change 

Sub metric Description Scoring
ES10.1 Does the institution have a published policy that refers to a strategy to mitigate its climate impact, the measures it is taking to be environmentally considerate, and its future targets.

0 or 100.

 

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