The University of Bologna secures its first position in Italy in the GreenMetric ranking for the fifth year in a row

The 2021 edition of the Green Metric ranking features the University of Bologna in first position in Italy for the fifth year in a row and 12th worldwide with 956 universities participating in the competition (they were 912 last year).

The GreenMetric ranking was launched by Universitas Indonesia in 2010 and is meant as a way of getting universities from all over the world to commit to the environmental effort. The ranking takes into account universities’ green actions and policies, with particular focus on climate change, water and energy waste, recycling, and transport sustainability.

Unibo’s approach to sustainable transport passed with flying colours the international ranking - already last year the University of Bologna stood out in this field. The University received an outstanding evaluation also for its waste management system; furthermore, its evaluations have improved within the indicators rating infrastructure management, water usage and commitment to sustainability in the fields of teaching, research and students’ unions.

“We are extremely happy with this result that sees the University of Bologna at the top in Italy and among the first universities worldwide”, says Giacomo Bergamini, the Rector’s Delegate for Sustainability of the University of Bologna. “However, we are aware that this is only a starting point: our goal is to keep up the good work, double our effort and address the multifaceted issue of sustainability with new actions and projects”.

Universities joining the survey are increasing year by year: they went from 912 last year to 956 in 2021 with 33 Italian universities. Out of the 33 Italian universities featuring in the Green Metric ranking, five are in the world’s top 50. Besides the University of Bologna, we find Politecnico di Torino, LUISS University, Università degli Studi di Torino and Università degli Studi dell'Aquila. Since 2017, the Alma Mater has been representing Italian Universities in the GreenMetric board, and therefore coordinates and collects proposals for improvement of the ranking parameters.