The University has been criticised for its performance in a sustainability league table compiled by People & Planet, a student activist network.

That ranking saw Cambridge drop 38 places in the table, to 110th out of 149. The University scored 37.2% overall, a score derived from a weighted average of various sustainability, environmental, and ethical metrics.

This included a score of 0% in the environmental auditing category, 12.5% in carbon reduction – and only 14% in the ethical careers category.

These results saw Cambridge placed in the second-lowest division of the league, with its performance graded Third Class. The only lower category was ‘Failed’.

Cambridge ranked second lowest out of all Russell Group universities, with only Glasgow doing worse. Oxford came 64th, and scraped a 2.i. The University of Bedfordshire topped the table, with a score of 80.7% overall, and full marks for environmental auditing and water reduction.

Professor Jason Scott-Warren, a fellow of Gonville & Caius College and a member of the University Council said: “While the University would doubtless want to question the details of this broad-brush assessment, our actions on sustainability have tended to be a case of far too little, far too late.”

He continued: “The underlying assumption is that business can continue much as usual in a climate emergency, a delusion that will sooner or later come back to bite us.”

Cambridge Climate Justice, a student activist group, also criticised the University’s performance. They contrasted the University’s research into sustainability with its practice as a university, saying: “While Cambridge academics research the devastating effects of climate change, the university’s sustainable policies continue to lag behind national standards.”

They also drew attention to the University’s poor performance on league table’s ethical careers criterion, and criticised the presence of arms and fossil fuel companies at careers fairs hosted by the Careers Service.

CCJ said: “It is simply not right for a University which has such potential to create change for the better to squander it by giving these companies the platform to recruit students.”

The sustainability league table is produced annually by People & Planet. It uses data which is self-reported by universities on their websites, as data published by the Higher Educational Statistics Agency.

The University of Cambridge was contacted for comment.

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