2023 Sustainability Leadership Scorecard Annual Report

We are pleased to launch the 2023 Sustainability Leadership Scorecard Annual Report, released today by EAUC and AUDE. This shares insights into the current statistics and recent developments of the Sustainability Leadership Scorecard (SLS), examines what these results suggest about the sector’s strategic approach to sustainability, and makes recommendations that support a shift towards more inclusive strategic sustainability action in the sector.

The report emphasises the need for a whole-institution approach, as an impactful mechanism for ensuring solutions support all job levels, specialist areas and faculties, and should be delivered alongside proactive networking on sustainability learning.

Key findings include:

64% increase in overall engagement with the tool, which includes both universities and colleges.
Positive impact upon the UN SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), and 13 (Climate Action).
The breadth of responsibilities for leadership and strategic teams around sustainability is evident across the sector, but this must begin to prioritise developing more robust support for learning, teaching, and research, to prevent this priority area falling behind.
Since its introduction 2022, the new Platinum ranking has been achieved by several universities and colleges already.
The flexibility of the SLS is inviting to users: there is a relatively even distribution among the framework areas completed by institutions, with the average number of participants per framework 66 (89% of total institutions).

So, join us in celebrating the strides being made towards a more sustainable future in higher and further education. You can download the report from the end of is page. What is more, UK universities and colleges can access the SLS for themselves, for free, to make a start in their sustainability journey.

AUDE are a strategic partner of EAUC and co-deliver the Sustainability Leadership Scorecard. More details are available on the SLS homepage.