Ethan Saks | Contributor
Featured Image: Among over 250 universities, York placed fourteenth for climate action. | Courtesy of Pixabay
York has been ranked within the top 20 universities for climate action by the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings. The ranking includes over 250 universities worldwide, with over 58 counties represented. York was ranked fourteenth.
Canada represented a large portion of the top rankings, with the University of British Columbia placing first, Laval University placing fourth, University of Waterloo placing fifth, York placing fourteenth, and the University of Calgary placing twenty-first.
The rankings compare the environmental impact of universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and generate an overall score based on a number of different environmental factors.
York has made it a goal to positively impact the environment. According to the university’s website, there are sixty official sustainability campaigns that focus on improving their impact on the environment.
At York, there are about 97,000 trees across the university campuses, referring to the large number as an “urban forest.” The university claims that the trees consistently remove almost 12 metric tonnes of air pollutants each year.
Research coming from the university also improves the institution’s ranking. Faculty from the Lassonde School of Engineering discovered a new method of producing clean hydrogen fuel at a reduced cost while increasing profitability.
Mohammad Kanaan, a third-year human resource management student, says that these efforts go relatively unnoticed by the student body.
“York always posts things about their environmental initiatives on the televisions across campus, so I always knew that they cared, but never realized how large of an impact they actually made. It’s nice to know they are making an effort to support sustainability. It makes me proud to know that I put my money towards that.”
All sixty sustainability impacts can be found on York’s website.
Some academic institutions are taking drastic actions to reduce their carbon footprint. Goldsmiths, University of London, for example, will stop serving beef products in an attempt to improve their own sustainability.
Student clubs like Regenesis encourage environmental initiatives such as enforcing recyclable food packaging at certain campuses, and planting over 97,000 trees across all York campuses is more than enough to make a difference.
Lorena Bastion, a recent graduate from the theatre studies program, says that she always understood how important these initiatives are.
“When I first came to York, I was introduced to the plastic water bottle ban. I learned how detrimental non-recycled plastic is to our environment and how crucial waste reduction and recycling is for the preservation of the earth. I know the university has a zero-waste plan where they encourage the recycling of solid waste and organics. But if I were to be honest, I was not aware of York’s ranking.”
York’s efforts are a step in the right direction. But multiple Canadian universities topping the impact rankings is not enough. As environmental issues continue to make their way into mainstream media, York’s sustainability initiatives will hopefully serve as opportunities for other Canadian universities to improve their own environmental impact.
