QS Rankings 2022: Australia shines for sustainability

The University of New South Wales and Sydney University have been named as Australia's most sustainable universities, tying for fifth place in the latest global higher education rankings. Australia had 36 per cent of its universities appear in the top 100 of the 2022 QS World University Sustainability Rankings, outnumbering the United States and the UK. The new index made its debut on October 26 and ranks institutions' progress in tackling some of the world's greatest environmental and social challenges. UNSW, which became the first Australian university to be fully powered by renewable electricity in 2020, scored the highest for its environmental impact. Vice-chancellor professor Attila Brungs said the rankings win "reflects the university’s mission of driving towards a just, sustainable world." "These rankings reinforce our commitment to issues that are important to the UNSW community and strengthen our resolve towards advancing a just society," Brungs said. The University of Sydney was Australia's best performer in the social impact category, taking a near perfect score of 99.8 out of 100 in the equality indicator. USYD made headlines earlier this year after vice-chancellor professor Mark Scott appointed five women into senior executive leadership positions. The university has also been selected to host THE World Academic Summit in 2023, which will explore strategies to improve gender equity and diversity in tertiary education. "We welcomed the opportunity to participate in these inaugural rankings to demonstrate accountability and transparency in our broad and global commitment to sustainability," Scott said. "This commitment includes enriching lives through research and education, and creating resilient places and a responsible environmental footprint.” Other Australian institutions ranked globally for sustainability include the University of Adelaide at 36, Melbourne University at 51, RMIT at 53, Griffith University at 66, and UTS at 69. The Australian National University and Queensland University of Technology came behind at 72 and 79. The University of California Berkeley secured the top spot as the world's most sustainable university. Canada's University of Toronto and University of British Columbia followed in second and third place, respectively. Leigh Kamolins, director of analytics and evaluation at QS, said the new rankings give hundreds of thousands of students a benchmark "to see and compare where meaningful [social and environmental] progress is being made”. “We understand that universities have multiple roles to play and we want to provide a way of evaluating progress across teaching, research and engagement," she said. "Progress will look different for different institutions in different regions, but this will allow all universities to track and plan what role they can play.”