Riga Technical University (RTU) was ranked 135 in the GreenMetric World University Ranking on Sustainability in 2016. Compared with 2015, RTU has climbed 35 places and is the only Latvian higher education institution ranked so highly. The GreenMetric rating ranks higher education institutions from all over the world on the basis of their commitment to reducing harmful impact on the environment.
The rating highly evaluated the energy efficient infrastructure of RTU — in this category RTU was ranked 5 among all higher education institutions participating in the ranking. In the category of greenest campuses, RTU campus in Ķīpsala was ranked 56 among the world’s higher education institutions. The rating also highly evaluated the use of environmentally friendly vehicles by RTU, the implementation of study programs in environmental sciences, and participation of RTU scientists in energy efficiency projects.
RTU Rector Academician Leonīds Ribickis states, «RTU has been ranked among the greenest universities in the world, as in the process of developing RTU campus not only modern and well-equipped facilities have been provided for the study process and research, but also energy consumption and maintenance costs have been reduced. With regard to research, RTU has internationally recognized achievements in the field of renewable energy. Students actively participate in environmental activities and contribute to the development of landscaped environment. RTU sustainable development and rise in the ranking was not contributed by only one factor, but a set of factors».
Director of RTU Quality Management and Record Management Department Juris Iļjins points out that rise in the ranking means that RTU infrastructure and endeavors to reduce impact on the environment have been internationally evaluated, «Our energy efficiency policy, i.e., creating as much as possible energy-efficient infrastructure of RTU and using renewable energy resources for operation of the university have been evaluated – in this respect we are the fifth best university in the world.»
GreenMetric Ranking was established in 2010 and with every year the number of universities participating is increasing – in 2016, 516 universities from 74 countries were evaluated but in 2015 – 407 universities from 65 countries. In 2016, the first three universities in the ranking were University of California, Davis (the US), University of Nottingham (the UK) and Wageningen University and Research Centre (the Netherlands).
RTU has been participating in the ranking since 2012. On the GreenMetric Ranking RTU is followed by such higher education institutions as Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Aalto University, University of California –Riverside, University of Lodz, and Tampere University of Technology. Higher education institutions from Latvia that also participated in the ranking – Daugavpils University, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and University of Latvia.
More information — GreenMetric webpage.
