Jumping ten spots from the previous ranking, RTU now sits 45th globally in the green policy and sustainability ranking «GreenMetric World University Rankings 2023». RTU stands alone, both in Latvia and the Baltics, as no other university in the region are positioned among the 200 greenest universities in the world.
In the «GreenMetric» rating, the world's universities are ranked according to their commitment to reduce the harmful impact on the environment. The compliance of the university's actions with green principles is evaluated in six criteria - common infrastructure, energy efficiency and climate change mitigating activities, waste management, efficient use of water resources, transport infrastructure, and environmental education and science.
RTU posted the highest results in environmental education and science, transport infrastructure and the implementation of energy efficiency and climate change mitigating activities.
RTU pays special attention to the issues of environment, climate neutralization and sustainability – in fact, they are included in RTU's strategy, for sustainability is one of the university’s core values – related to the balance of ecological, social, and economic development, to be achieved proportionately with available resources. The university has made an ambitious strategic decision to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, with RTU producing very little or no carbon emissions.
As a university dedicated to science and research, RTU pays special attention to energy efficiency and environmental issues. The RTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Environmental Sciences «Environmental Engineering» program has been evaluated as excellent by an international expert group during the accreditation process, thereby confirming its competitiveness on a local and international scale. In addition, the research interests of RTU scientists include climate neutrality; for example, issues related to energy efficiency, biodegradable, ecological materials, smart energy, biological water treatment technologies, building insulation, and other current sustainability issues.
The green technologies created by RTU scientists are also used in the infrastructure of the RTU Ķīpsala student campus. For several years, RTU has implemented «Green Ķīpsala» concept, which provides for the testing of technological solutions developed by RTU scientists in Ķīpsala. The concept also implements sustainable resource management, such as, switching to the use of electric transport, sorting waste, and better sharing environmental issue topics with RTU employees and students.
The RTU student campus in Ķīpsala continues to get more green - in 2022, in celebration of RTU's 160th anniversary, students and employees planted 160 trees in Ķīpsala.
RTU was not the only Latvian university to earn recognition in the «GreenMetric 2023» ratings system. They are joined by the University of Liepāja, who was ranked 294th. Two college institutions from Lithuania also entered the ranking - Vytautas Magnus University (445th place) and Mykolas Romeris University (547th place) – along with two universities from Estonia - Estonian University of Life Sciences (593rd place) and Estonian Academy of Arts (1019th place).
As for the most sustainable university in the world, Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands took first place honors. The UK’s Nottingham Trent University is 2nd, while the Trier University of Applied Sciences in Germany is 3rd. In total, 1183 universities from 84 countries were evaluated in the ranking.
