We Scored Every UK University on Climate. Here's What We Found.
We assessed all 147 UK universities on public evidence only, no questionnaire, no fee. 66 met our evidence bar and were published with full scores. The other 81 show that they are under review, or that they had no 2023/24 HESA return, instead of a number.
Every university says it's sustainable. Three different league tables crown three different "greenest universities in the UK." The rankings rely on what institutions submit about themselves, and in some, universities choose which questions they're judged on.
SINK scores from public evidence only. Nobody fills in a questionnaire. Nobody pays. Every score shows its sources, and anyone can challenge it.
We assessed all 147 UK universities. When we published on 4 October 2026, 66 met our evidence bar and were published with full scores. The rest appear in the same table, marked under review or as having no 2023/24 HESA return, instead of a number, because an absence you can read is worth more than a score you can't trust. Today 66 are scored.
Here is what the data shows.
The sector at a glance
| Universities assessed | 147 of 147 |
| Scored and published today | 66 |
| Unscored (under review, or no HESA return) | 81 |
| Highest score today | 60: Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Median published score | 51 |
How the published universities break down today:
| Band | Universities |
|---|---|
| Leading practice (60–74) | 1 |
| Making progress (46–59) | 56 |
| Below expectations (31–45) | 6 |
| Significant gaps (16–30) | 3 |
The headline finding is the cluster. Measured the same way, on the same evidence, most UK universities land within a few points of each other: the median today is 51, and the best score is 60: Manchester Metropolitan University. The dramatic spreads in the familiar league tables come mostly from policy paperwork (strategies, pledges, committee structures) rather than physical performance. When we published, the median university was making progress, and only one crossed into leading practice, only just.
The second finding is harder on the sector: more than half of it cannot currently be scored to an independent evidence standard at all. That is a finding about UK higher education.
Manchester Metropolitan led the table
When we published, Manchester Metropolitan was the only university in Leading practice, and it didn't get there with pledges. It scores 60/100 today. MMU's estate runs at 131.9 kWh per square metre, among the leanest in the country, against measured emissions of 7,721 tonnes, with 53% of operational waste recycled, all of it in its statutory returns and audited data rather than a glossy strategy document. It has cut emissions 65% since 2005. The established rankings also rate MMU highly. On this one, the physics agrees.
Twelve universities didn't file. We say so instead of guessing.
Every UK university is asked to file an estates return to HESA, energy, emissions, water, waste, measured and standardised. Twelve filed nothing for 2023/24. Some appear at the bottom of other league tables as if they had performed badly. The truth is simpler and worse: nobody knows, because they didn't file.
Not filing doesn't itself block a SINK score, but it costs one. Five of the twelve still cleared our evidence bar and were scored with a penalty for the missing emissions figure: University of Greater Manchester, formerly the University of Bolton (22), Ravensbourne (25), Hull (29), Harper Adams (31) and the Royal Northern College of Music (33). The other seven fell below the bar entirely and sit with the unscored. The absence is the result.
Hull shows what the gap between pledge and physics looks like up close. The university promised carbon neutrality by 2027, one of the most ambitious targets in the sector. In 2024, its own vice-chancellor publicly admitted the target was impossible to achieve: the flagship solar farm is paused, with no grid connection available until 2034, and its 2023/24 estates return never arrived. A ranking built on commitments would have rewarded Hull for years. The measurements stopped.
Why one university "recycles 95.5%"
Queen's University Belfast's waste return shows 95.5% recycling, the kind of number that makes a press release. Look closer: 92% of its waste that year was construction rubble from an estates project, nearly all of it recycled. Strip out the demolition and the operational figure is 52%. We rank operational waste, publish both figures on the page, and wrote the rule into the methodology, because a rebuild year shouldn't buy a headline.
Research estates run hot
Russell Group universities are about 69% more carbon-intensive per square metre than post-1992 universities, and use about 53% more energy. Laboratories and 24/7 research buildings are physically expensive: Imperial runs at 365 kWh/m², and the Institute of Cancer Research, a pure research institute, has the most intensive estate in the country. That is a finding about buildings, not a claim that cancer research is bad. But a rating that ignores it isn't measuring anything.
Fifty-nine universities can't currently be checked by anyone
Our rules require at least three independent parties behind a score. For 59 institutions, mostly smaller and specialist ones, that evidence simply does not exist: beyond their own websites and their statutory return, almost nothing about their sustainability has been independently written, audited or checked. We don't publish scores for them. Each one's status is in the table below, and a row can change: institutions move to "Scored" as evidence improves, returns resume, or defects are fixed.
A rating has to be able to say no. Today 81 universities in this table have no score: they are under review, or had no 2023/24 HESA return.
How we scored them
Ten questions, public evidence only, methodology v2.5.10, the same published framework as our FTSE 100 assessment. One rule changed for this sector, publicly, before scoring: where a record cites the statutory estates data universities must file to HESA, measured, standardised, published by a body they don't control, our source-concentration cap relaxes from 70% to 85%. Ten of the 66 published scores relied on it; three institutions that cited HESA but filed no return were refused it, because a citation isn't coverage. The full rule and the arithmetic are in the changelog.
The full table: all 147
| # | University | Score | Band / status | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester Metropolitan University | 60 | Leading practice | |
| 2 | Lancaster University | 58 | Making progress | |
| 3 | Liverpool John Moores University | 57 | Making progress | |
| 4= | London School of Economics And Political Science | 56 | Making progress | |
| 4= | Robert Gordon University | 56 | Making progress | |
| 4= | Swansea University | 56 | Making progress | |
| 4= | York St John University | 56 | Making progress | |
| 8= | Aberystwyth University | 55 | Making progress | |
| 8= | De Montfort University | 55 | Making progress | |
| 8= | University of Edinburgh | 55 | Making progress | |
| 11= | Birmingham City University | 54 | Making progress | |
| 11= | Cranfield University | 54 | Making progress | |
| 11= | University of Bristol | 54 | Making progress | |
| 11= | University of Strathclyde | 54 | Making progress | |
| 11= | University of Sunderland | 54 | Making progress | |
| 16= | Anglia Ruskin University | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | Cardiff Metropolitan University | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | Cardiff University | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | Loughborough University | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of Brighton | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of Cambridge | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of Exeter | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of Sheffield | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of South Wales | 53 | Making progress | |
| 16= | University of St Andrews | 53 | Making progress | |
| 26= | Aston University | 52 | Making progress | |
| 26= | City St George's University London | 52 | Making progress | |
| 26= | Edinburgh Napier University | 52 | Making progress | |
| 26= | University of The Arts London | 52 | Making progress | |
| 26= | University of Warwick | 52 | Making progress | |
| 31= | Canterbury Christ Church University | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | Glasgow Caledonian University | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | Nottingham Trent University | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | Teesside University | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | University of Chichester | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | University of East Anglia | 51 | Making progress | |
| 31= | University of Portsmouth | 51 | Making progress | |
| 38= | Imperial College London | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | King's College London | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | Leeds Beckett University | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | The Institute of Cancer Research | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | University of Aberdeen | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | University of Derby | 50 | Making progress | |
| 38= | University of Manchester | 50 | Making progress | |
| 45= | Birkbeck, University of London | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | Coventry University | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | Falmouth University | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | University of Bath | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | University of Lancashire | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | University of Surrey | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | University of The West of Scotland | 49 | Making progress | |
| 45= | University of York | 49 | Making progress | |
| 53= | Heriot-Watt University | 48 | Making progress | |
| 53= | St Mary's University, Twickenham | 48 | Making progress | |
| 53= | University of Stirling | 48 | Making progress | |
| 56= | Glasgow School of Art | 46 | Making progress | |
| 56= | Leeds Arts University | 46 | Making progress | |
| 58 | University of Chester | 44 | Below expectations | |
| 59 | Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance | 43 | Below expectations | |
| 60 | University of Cumbria | 42 | Below expectations | |
| 61 | Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music And Dance | 41 | Below expectations | |
| 62 | Royal Northern College of Music | 33 | Below expectations | |
| 63 | Harper Adams University | 31 | Below expectations | |
| 64 | University of Hull | 29 | Significant gaps | |
| 65 | Ravensbourne University London | 25 | Significant gaps | |
| 66 | University of Greater Manchester | 22 | Significant gaps | |
| Abertay University | – | Under review | ||
| Arts University Bournemouth | – | Under review | ||
| Bangor University | – | Under review | ||
| Bath Spa University | – | Under review | ||
| Birmingham Newman University | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| Bournemouth University | – | Under review | ||
| Brunel University London | – | Under review | ||
| Buckinghamshire New University | – | Under review | ||
| Durham University | – | Under review | ||
| Edge Hill University | – | Under review | ||
| Goldsmiths, University of London | – | Under review | ||
| Keele University | – | Under review | ||
| Kingston University | – | Under review | ||
| Leeds Trinity University | – | Under review | ||
| Lincoln Bishop University | – | Under review | ||
| Liverpool Hope University | – | Under review | ||
| Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine | – | Under review | ||
| London Business School | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| London Metropolitan University | – | Under review | ||
| London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | – | Under review | ||
| London South Bank University | – | Under review | ||
| Middlesex University | – | Under review | ||
| Newcastle University | – | Under review | ||
| Norwich University of the Arts | – | Under review | ||
| Oxford Brookes University | – | Under review | ||
| Queen Margaret University | – | Under review | ||
| Queen Mary University of London | – | Under review | ||
| Queen's University Belfast | – | Under review | ||
| Roehampton University | – | Under review | ||
| Royal Academy of Music | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| Royal Agricultural University | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| Royal College of Art | – | Under review | ||
| Royal College of Music, London | – | Under review | ||
| Royal Holloway, University of London | – | Under review | ||
| Royal Veterinary College | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| Sheffield Hallam University | – | Under review | ||
| SOAS, University of London | – | Under review | ||
| Solent University | – | Under review | ||
| Staffordshire University | – | Under review | ||
| The Open University | – | Under review | ||
| The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama | – | Under review | ||
| Ulster University | – | Under review | ||
| University College Birmingham | – | Under review | ||
| University College London | – | Under review | ||
| University for the Creative Arts | – | Under review | ||
| University of Bedfordshire | – | Under review | ||
| University of Birmingham | – | Under review | ||
| University of Bradford | – | Under review | ||
| University of Dundee | – | Under review | ||
| University of East London | – | Under review | ||
| University of Essex | – | Under review | ||
| University of Glasgow | – | Under review | ||
| University of Gloucestershire | – | Under review | ||
| University of Greenwich | – | Under review | ||
| University of Hertfordshire | – | Under review | ||
| University of Huddersfield | – | Under review | ||
| University of Kent | – | Under review | ||
| University of Leeds | – | Under review | ||
| University of Leicester | – | Under review | ||
| University of Lincoln | – | Under review | ||
| University of Liverpool | – | Under review | ||
| University of Northampton | – | Under review | ||
| University of Northumbria at Newcastle | – | Under review | ||
| University of Nottingham | – | Under review | ||
| University of Oxford | – | Under review | ||
| University of Plymouth | – | Under review | ||
| University of Reading | – | Under review | ||
| University of Salford | – | Under review | ||
| University of Southampton | – | Under review | ||
| University of St Mark and St John | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| University of Suffolk | – | Under review | ||
| University of Sussex | – | Under review | ||
| University of the Highlands and Islands | – | No 2023/24 HESA return | no 2023/24 HESA Estates Management Record return | |
| University of The West of England, Bristol | – | Under review | ||
| University of Wales Trinity Saint David | – | Under review | ||
| University of West London | – | Under review | ||
| University of Westminster | – | Under review | ||
| University of Winchester | – | Under review | ||
| University of Wolverhampton | – | Under review | ||
| University of Worcester | – | Under review | ||
| Wrexham University | – | Under review |
147 institutions · 66 scored and linked today · 81 under review or with no 2023/24 HESA return. Scores are live. Energy and emissions data from the HESA Estates Management Record 2023/24 (CC-BY 4.0). First assessed on methodology v2.5.10.
Every UK university is in this table. If yours has no score, the reason is in the row.
Search the universities → sinkproject.com/sector/higher-education-universities
The methodology and changelog → /methodology
Download the full 147-row dataset → /data/blog-embed-147.csv
FAQ
Why doesn't my university have a score?
Its row in the table says: either fewer than three independent parties have checkable evidence about it, or its record carries a defect we won't publish around, or it filed no estates return and fell below our evidence bar. We publish absences, not guesses.
Who pays SINK?
SINK is paid for tools and data. Scores are free, and no payment affects one. Anyone can send us new evidence, free.
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