York ranked third in the world for sustainability efforts

Raymond Kwan
Senior Staff
York University has placed third out of 94 universities around the world in a recent survey on sustainable campuses done by the University of Indonesia.
The GreenMetric World University Rank- ing graded the schools against various criteria, including availability of green space, energy consumption, transportation and waste and water management.
The purpose of the ranking was to draw attention to the issue of global warming and climate change.
According the GreenMetric website, “by drawing the attention of university leaders and stake holders, more attention will be given to combating global climate change, energy and water conservation, waste recycling, and green transportation.”
The data was collected through an online survey filled out by the schools, which were then given a numerical grade in order to allow the schools to be ranked.
The GreenMetric World University Ranking was established after UI hosted the International Conference on World University
Rankings 2009. It concluded that current grading criteria did not give enough credit to institutions attempting to “make an effort” to go green.
The conference also said that results should be given in numerical instead of letter grades in order to allow schools to be ranked properly.
York ranks just behind the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, who placed first and second respectively.
Out of the other Canadian schools that participated, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta and Acadia University placed 21st, 22nd and 59th, respectively.
Students on sustainability
“In terms of [York’s] initiatives, I’m not too informed, but what I do see are recycling bins in every single corner. This shows York is very into the environment.”
Ardo Omer, First-year Criminology
“I’m pretty shocked actually, I didn’t know that.. I guess they just have to improve awareness.”
Kesha Hylton-Lyons, Third-year Graphic Design
“I think that it’s really good that we have those new water refilling stations in some of the buildings. I think it would be kind of cool to come up with a sustainability lab.”
Meredith Thompson, Fourth-year Graphic Design