HAMK again ranked well in the international sustainability ranking of higher education institutions
Häme University of Applied Sciences was ranked 19th among more than a thousand participants in the international GreenMetric ranking, which measures the sustainability of higher education institutions’ operations and operating environment. HAMK has already participated in the ranking five times, which has provided HAMK with essential information on the effectiveness of its sustainability measures.
The GreenMetric World University Rankings again attracted a large number of participants from around the world, with an increase of almost 100 compared to last year. There were now 1183 participating universities.
HAMK participated for the fifth time. Our overall score improved by 100 compared to last year, although our ranking dropped by two notches. The score improved in particular in the section on energy use and climate change response. The energy saving measures implemented in 2022 contributed to a reduction in both heat and electricity use. Full marks were achieved in both waste and water treatment.
The benchmarking exercise looked at 2022 sustainability measures in six areas: campus infrastructure, energy use and climate change response, waste management, water use, transport, and education and research. Some of the new questions in the Scoreboard were specifically related to the development of waste management, student activities and the international impact of the university.
By participating in the ranking, HAMK has accumulated comparative data over a long period of time, which facilitates the monitoring of sustainability targets.
“Green Metric monitoring provides us with essential information on the effectiveness of our sustainability measures. This is also a good basis for the sustainability reporting to be developed next year, which will further expand and make visible our long-term work,” says Leena Mäkinen, Sustainability Coordinator at HAMK.
There was a slight decline in the results in the area of education and research. Here too, the sustainability dimension has been strengthened and broadened in many areas. There is room for improvement on some issues in the collection of data for the ranking.
In addition to participation in the ranking, HAMK has a working group on sustainability that meets regularly. It brings together experts from across the organisation to discuss, develop and implement sustainability measures based on HAMK’s sustainability programme.
This year’s front runners are Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Nottingham Trent in the UK and Umwelt – campus Birkenfeld in Germany. In addition to HAMK, the University of Eastern Finland was ranked 39th in Finland. HAMK was ranked 14th in 2020, 35th in 2019 and 87th in 2018.
The GreenMetric Rankings has been running since 2010 and is run by the UI GreenMetric University network, an initiative of the University of Indonesia.
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