Omsk SAU forged ahead in Green Metric international ecological rankings

In 2021, our university rose by almost 100 positions in Green Metric world university ranking which measures the contribution of universities to sustainable development and ecology on campus. Among the 54 participating Russian HEIs, Omsk State Agrarian University is in 22nd place. A total of 956 colleges and universities from 80 countries participated in the ranking. From 641st place we had in 2020, we have risen to 547th this year.

Developed in 2010 by the University of Indonesia, Green Metric became the first international rating evaluating the environmental friendliness of universities. According to the methodology, universities, as major influencers in society, should make efforts to make their campuses and adjacent urban spaces cleaner, more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Their contribution to achieving it is assessed according to six interrelated groups of criteria:

Setting and Infrastructure
Energy and Climate Change
Wastes
Water
Transport
Education and Research

Each group is evaluated separately, and the university is awarded points. In 2021, Omsk State Agrarian University scored 5,225 points (against 4,325 last year), which allowed it to move forward to the middle of the list of almost a thousand participants and bypass a number of universities in the USA and Western Europe. The most highly rated aspects of Omsk SAU activities were waste management (1050 points), the transportation system on campus (1125 points) and ongoing research in the field of sustainable development and ecology (1350 points).

This year innovations in the methodology are criteria describing university life during the pandemic. Availability of protective equipment in academic buildings and dormitories, presence of medical facilities and facilities for handicapped people were assessed. Omsk SAU showed itself decently in this aspect, scoring 975 points.

Green Metric is not based on bare statistics. Most criteria require uploading evidence such as photographs, fragments of documents or news notes from open sources, which makes it impossible to cheat when providing data. Undoubtedly, the opening of a Carbon Proving Ground, the start of work on a mega-grant for the construction of a world-class laboratory in the field of wheat evaluation and other achievements in the field of sustainable agriculture and ecology made by scientists of our university influenced the improvement of Omsk SAU positions in 2021.

Working with international rankings is a complex task, and the International Relations Department thanks all the university services that helped to collect information once again.