2024 Award Winner: University of Leeds
Blueprint: co-created, people-driven, and bespoke sustainability plans
For a large institution embedding sustainability is a daunting task. The University of Leeds’ solution is a flagship staff engagement programme called Blueprint.
Launched in 2018, Blueprint helps teams to develop bespoke five-year plans that embed sustainability within their operations. Led by the Sustainability Service, Blueprint supports teams to identify and achieve their own sustainability goals, incorporating objectives within their sphere of influence whilst also contributing to university-wide goals, such as achieving Net Zero by 2030.
Blueprint's unique model supports the diversity of departments at Leeds, placing flexibility at the forefront. Bespoke plans are co-created with staff through scoping meetings and ideation workshops. This enables them to draw out what matters most and what is achievable. Teams are given on-going support, sharing knowledge, insight, and ensuring alignment to institutional sustainability goals.
This approach cultivates a strong sense of ownership, empowering teams to create innovative solutions, and ultimately leading to successful outcomes.
Blueprints contain a range of objectives spanning engagement, environmental and social impact. Examples include increasing sustainability literacy amongst staff and students, reducing energy usage, remodelling waste systems, improving wellbeing, and engaging with community and third sector partners. All Blueprints promote collaboration between teams and across campus to share best practice.
At the start of 2025, there are twenty live Blueprints from a diverse range of Schools and Services. These cover University-wide services such as Cleaning, Catering, Libraries, and Educational Engagement alongside Faculty and School-level teams including Leeds University Business School (LUBS), Biological Sciences (FBS) and Dentistry. Seven more plans are in development.
The range of initiatives delivered are extensive. The LUBS business travel policy encourages adoption of slow travel and is influencing institutional policy creation, contributing to a pilot study. LUBS also created Climate Action Training, open to all staff and students.
The School of Performance and Cultural Industries completed a sustainable procurement review, using their findings to reduce the impact of their performances. Computer Science mapped sustainability in their curriculum, supporting the University’s Sustainable Curriculum programme and identifying routes to embed sustainability into teaching.
The new FBS Blueprint includes a target to achieve Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) accreditation for 100% of their research and teaching labs and is planning to embed sustainability into every job description.
The School of Food Science and Nutrition have 100% gas-free labs and are also aiming for School-wide LEAF accreditation.
Residential Services are one of the longest running teams. They created volunteer days for students, increased charity donations, reduced waste, and funded student projects to create biodiversity action plans and circularity projects across halls of residence.
The success of Blueprint is evident, with the programme embedded across the University. Blueprint’s flexible, people-driven approach means it is suitable for all departments, no matter their size or operational focus. The programme aims to facilitate development of a plan for every department within the University, resulting in a collaborative and supportive network of motivated and passionate teams across the entire institution.
Learn more: Blueprint | Sustainability Service | University of Leeds
2024 Award Winner: University of Pennsylvania
A Solar-Powered University
Universities have a critical role to play as leaders in sustainability, but they can’t do it alone. With a recent power purchase agreement (PPA), the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) contracted with AES Corporation to build two solar farms which will meet the equivalent of approximately 70% of the electrical demand of both Penn and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in the greater Philadelphia area, reducing Penn’s carbon footprint by 26%.
Penn committed to carbon neutrality by 2042 by signing the President’s Climate Commitment in 2009; the PPA thus marks a major milestone toward this neutrality goal, as laid out in the University’s Climate & Sustainability Action Plan 4.0.
Penn's PPA is innovative in a number of ways, starting with the size: the PPA initiated the largest solar project in the state of Pennsylvania. The project consists of two solar arrays that sit on 1,600 acres in two counties in central Pennsylvania, including more than 485,000 panels with a capacity of 220 megawatts.
As part of the agreement, AES is funding renewable energy research by Penn students and faculty with $50,000 for each of the first five years of the solar arrays’ operation. This research support has so far funded projects that include assessing carbon sequestration in solar farms, studying climate resilience and ecosystem restoration at a demonstration farm, and developing a global climate justice project-based learning hub. Additional funded projects are just getting off the ground that will propel a study of stormwater management on the solar fields and a survey of community acceptance of large-scale solar projects.
The work provides experiential learning opportunities for students, research support for faculty, and offers AES and landowners an opportunity to learn more about best practices for running a large-scale solar facility. With more interest in turning to renewable energy sources to transition away from fossil fuels, such research will inform a holistic understanding of impacts on ecosystems, charting a path forward to accelerate clean energy projects.
2024 Honourable Mention: The University of Sydney
Integrated Scope 3 and Nature Footprint Across the Supply Chain
Legislation is increasingly requiring organizations account for their climate- and other sustainability impacts, in line with new global standards such as those of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Universities are attempting to meet these requirements but many find it difficult and piecemeal. The University of Sydney has carried out a footprint calculating its scope-3 emissions and nature impacts holistically, incorporating the entire supply chain, using input-output (IO) analysis, which is governed by United Nations standards.
The pilot footprint was led by PhD candidate with the Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA) group in the School of Physics Vivienne Reiner. The supply-chain analysis builds on a carbon footprint of the University and adds water- and land-use indicators from the GLORIA database that ISA initially built for the United Nations and which underpins the UN’s open-access Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspot Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT).
“To my knowledge, this is the first time that a university has applied IO analysis to the broad categories of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, while measuring in an integrated way against biodiversity-related indicators,” Ms Reiner said.
Alignment with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is required by the ISSB’s Climate-related Disclosures IFRS S2. Scope-3 and sustainability reporting was a topic of numerous presentations at the 2024 ISCN Conference, including the University of Sydney session on integrated and comprehensive climate and nature reporting that also enables supply-chain analysis to a high degree of resolution.
Through considering different indicators and measuring impact intensities attached to one underlying economic database, the University of Sydney is tackling the climate and biodiversity crises holistically, to avoid unintended consequences. To trace supply-chain effects, IO analysis is based on input-output tables from countries’ statistical agencies as well as international trade data such as from UNComtrade. For this pilot, in addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the University selected land use and bluewater consumption indicators, but in future may add other biodiversity-related indicators such as particulate matter, air pollution and sulpher and nitrogen emissions.
The analysis offers the opportunity for a step-change in the University’s approach to sustainability, by identifying hotspots throughout the value chain for prioritisation, rather than simply focusing on direct impacts on campus and ‘talking to suppliers’ 1-2 layers back. Like peeling back the layers of an onion, the analysis shows how far back in the supply chain one must look, in addition to identifying the most impactful supply chains.
Phase II not completed at the time of these Awards, is a novel extension of this IO analysis downstream, satisfying the GHG Protocol’s requirements for upstream and downstream emissions calculations, in a comprehensive manner.
2024 Award Winner: Freie Universität Berlin
The Blooming Campus - a university initiative connects people for more biodiversity
The initiative began as a protest action against the regular mowing of the meadows in front of the Institute of Biology and has grown into a project that brings together a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside the university. Actions for more biodiversity, but also research, teaching and public relations, as well as community gardening and ecological monitoring play an important role. As a living lab, the project also includes research on health promotion through biodiverse working and study environments as well as promoting acceptance through art. Within five years, the initiative has not only grown in terms of members and topics, but has also become increasingly institutionalised. With a dedicated position for biodiversity management and a biodiversity strategy, the project is to be permanently established in the university's structures.
10 hectares of green spaces, which were previously mowed up to 9 times a year, are now mowed at staggered intervals and only once or twice a year. Various nesting aids for wild bees, songbirds and a kestrel nesting box equipped with a camera have been installed. A community garden has been created that combines various actions to promote biodiversity in a small area, such as dead wood, ponds and compost, which provide habitats for multiple organisms. Together with the other sustainability initiatives, the garden is also used as a gathering and learning place.
The initiative's researchers are investigating the areas according to insect and plant diversity, soil quality, and human wellbeing - an initial study has already been published and others are in progress. The research data is collected in cooperation with volunteers, students on courses and the university administration. The diverse projects also find their way into teaching - for example, the first interdisciplinary course on campus nature was held in the summer semester of 2024. Bachelor and master thesis have been written on the Blooming Campus in fields such as ethnography, educational science and biology. Bringing together the diversity of all organisms, but also people, our skills and areas of knowledge is the innovative strength of the initiative.
The Blooming Campus Initiative cooperates with the district and the city of Berlin as well as with other local institutions. It includes the University in a network of Berlin’s nature conservationists, a Germany wide network of university biodiversity initiatives, and international networks such as ISCN and NPU. Scaling up biodiversity projects is especially important from the perspective of animals – our borders between backyards or institutions can harm them by fragmentation of their habitat. In cities, habitat loss and fragmentation are common factors of global change. Supporting and connecting biodiversity projects is therefore an important part of the initiative’s work. Especially after winning the Berlin price of Nature Conservation, the Blooming Campus initiative gained a lot of attention and is asked for advice regularly. For further spreading of knowledge and ideas, public relations projects for children and adults have been developed.
2024 Best Practices Report Award Winners
The quality of the 2024 Best Practices Report submissions was notable, so an international jury was created to decide on three award winners and three honourable mentions as a special ISCN award category this year.
Our sincere thanks go to our jury.
- Katie Mee (The University of Melbourne)
- Nicole Rosow (IE University)
- Davis Bookhart (Northeastern University)
Award Winners
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Campus Trees to Reduce Embodied Carbon in New Construction
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Crowdsourcing Building Porosity Data Collection to Support Flood Mapping and Resiliency Planning
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Ecological Corridors at the University of Campinas
Honourable Mention
The University of Edinburgh
Creating Woodland for Everyone: The University of Edinburgh’s Journey in Land Management
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Empowering Scientific Literacy for Sustainability: A Collaborative Model Between Universities, School, NGOs, and IGOs
McGill University
McGill Biodiversity Plan 2030
Discover more inspiring initiatives and innovative projects featured in the 2024 ISCN Best Practices Report!
Download Report (16MB PDF)
2023 Award Winner: Nanyang Technological University
NTU’s Whole Systems Approach to Sustainable Campus Infrastructure
In recent years, the importance of sustainability has become increasingly evident, and universities around the world have started to take action to reduce their carbon footprint. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to sustainability through its innovative and ambitious construction projects. The university has pioneered the use of Mass Engineered Timber (MET) as a sustainable building material, producing two of Asia’s largest MET buildings, both of which have received widespread recognition for their environmentally friendly design.
The Academic Building South (ABS) is the most recent addition to NTU’s sustainable infrastructure, which is now Asia’s largest MET building, and the most ambitious sustainable construction project undertaken by NTU to date. The ABS, built in 2022, is a six-story, 40,000 square-meter facility that provides an innovative learning space for over 4,500 students. The building features 25 smart classrooms equipped with energy-efficient features, offering world-class spaces for flexible and collaborative learning. The building also utilizes Passive Displacement Ventilation (PDV) technology, which offers superior cooling efficiency that eliminates the need for traditional cooling fans and reduces energy consumption.
The construction of the ABS was inspired by NTU’s first MET building known was The Wave. The Wave is a three-story high sports hall that became the first large-scale building made of MET in Southeast Asia when it was constructed back in 2017. The hall’s wave-like roof, which spans 72 meters, houses three full-sized basketball courts without any internal columns. The building’s design offers superior heat insulation, and its PDV technology provides a highly efficient cooling system that not only saves energy, but also eliminates wind draft from conventional cooling fans, making it an excellent ground for sports such as badminton.
NTU’s sustainable construction projects have had a significant impact on the university’s whole-institution sustainability efforts. In fact, 97% of the buildings in NTU are “Green Mark” certified (equivalent to LEED), and the university has reduced its energy consumption by 30% from its 2011 baseline. NTU has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to sustainability, as evidenced by its bold Sustainability Manifesto that details the university’s sustainability targets and steps towards the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.
Next Category: Partnerships for Progress
2023 Award Winner: Concordia University
Concordia University’s Cultural Change for a Sustainable Campus Community
Given the complexity of the climate crisis, the need for youth leadership and a shift towards a community approach to overcome sustainability challenges has become increasingly evident. Concordia University in Canada has demonstrated a notable commitment to sustainability through its Sustainability Ambassadors Program (SAP) that promotes sustainability and drives positive change on campus through student engagement and leadership.
The SAP is an innovative and immersive eight-month program that offers students a unique opportunity to develop their sustainability leadership skills while actively supporting sustainability initiatives on campus. In collaboration with the Office of Sustainability and various key actors within the university, the program provides students with interdisciplinary leadership training and experiential learning opportunities to design and implement projects that inspire sustainable action among their peers. Sustainability Ambassadors are encouraged to collaborate with existing campus groups, ensuring that their projects take a multi-stakeholder, holistic, and interdisciplinary approach that incorporates both oral and institutional memory to implement solutions.
The program accepts students from all degree types, areas of study, course load statuses, and credit completion levels, ensuring that a diverse group of individuals with a shared passion for sustainability can contribute to the program's success. By focusing on empathy and compassionate communication, the SAP fosters autonomous leadership in sustainable advocacy, preparing students to respond actively to the pressing climate crisis.
Through the program, students volunteer weekly within existing campus initiatives, working with organizations such as the center for creative reuse, the Hospitality department's Fairtrade initiatives, a precious plastics project for recycling plastic, a campus-community bike shop, and campus gardens. Last academic year, Sustainability Ambassadors contributed a remarkable 1,090 hours of volunteering, dedicating their time to learning and educating others about sustainability and supporting these initiatives. This year, volunteer hours are projected to reach an impressive 2,380 hours, highlighting the program's increasing impact.
The success of the Sustainability Ambassadors Program lies in its strong engagement with stakeholders and the campus community. The program continually collaborates with campus experts, building relationships across various groups and initiatives to collectively approach sustainability concerns. Partnerships with key campus groups, Concordia units, and student fee-levy groups ensure an integrative approach to understanding and solving sustainability issues. These partnerships provide students with networking opportunities and demonstrate how holistic solutions can be achieved through collaboration.
Next category: Honorary Member
2023 Award Winner: Osaka University
Osaka University’s Partnership Towards a Shared, Sustainable Campus
As climate impacts continue to be felt around the world, the need for multidisciplinary collaboration is becoming increasingly evident. Osaka University in Japan has demonstrated a observable commitment to sustainability through its community involvement and innovative collaboration model that led to the completion of the Minoh Campus Relocation Project. The university followed a unique partnership with local governments, private companies, landowners, and local residents that resulted in the development of a highly sustainable and shared campus. The project involved relocating the university’s Minoh Campus from the suburbs and building a new campus in front of a subway station that included a research and lecture building, and a dormitory by Osaka University, as well as a municipal library, a lifelong learning facility, a hall, and a plaza connecting the campus by Minoh City.
The new Minoh Campus has been awarded a Gold certification for LEED in neighborhood development (LEED-ND), making it the first LEED-ND certified campus in Japan. The campus is highly rated in the categories of “Smart Location and Linkage” and “Neighborhood Pattern and Design”, and the research and lecture buildings have also received the Gold certification for LEED in new construction (LEED-NC).
The shared municipal library and lifelong learning facilities have reduced the amount of resources needed to operate the campus. In fact, the total energy consumption of the new campus is 48% lower than that of the old campus. The project also involved the installation of cutting-edge air conditioning equipment, building energy management systems, and implementing various sensors that make the campus a “living laboratory” demonstration site for energy efficiency studies.
The project resulted in a synergistic effect between academia, culture, and arts, with shared facilities reducing the amount of resources and energy used by the community. The shared nature of the facilities also strengthened project based learning (PBL) classes for students that includes the participation from local residents dealing with specific problems related to the city.
The Minoh Campus Relocation Project engaged members of the campus community, as well as external partners and stakeholders, such as Minoh City, Osaka Semba Fashion Co-operative Association (OSFCA, Landowner), Daikin Industries, and the Minoh Semba Town-planning Council that enhanced the dialogue and understanding of major issues in the area, as well as increased the engagement of local residents.
Next category: Cultural Change for Sustainability
2023 Award Winner: VinUniversity (Honorary Member Award)
VinUniversity’s Innovative and Equitable Approach to Healthcare
The VinUni-Illinois Smart Health Initiative is a collaborative project between VinUniversity (VinUni) in Vietnam and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the United States. This groundbreaking initiative aims to address major challenges in global public health and make progress towards sustainable development goals. It focuses on developing and providing widely accessible health monitoring and improvement technologies for people all over the world.
The initiative has provided funding for ten collaborative research projects involving faculty from both VinUni and UIUC. These projects conduct high-impact research on biomedical sensing, informatics, and their applications in smart healthcare. Since 2021, a total of 13.5 million USD has been invested in biosensing and digital health technologies to ensure that everyone, regardless of their income level or geographic location, has access to the latest healthcare technologies, particularly for early detection and prevention.
The initiative has developed low-cost innovative health technologies, improved public healthcare systems, and built sustainable interdisciplinary research collaborations between VinUni and other international partners. It has funded selected projects focusing on smart healthcare and biomedical research, trained postgraduate and undergraduate scholars, published numerous papers, created patents, and facilitated technology transfers that serve millions of people worldwide.
Engagement of stakeholders and the community has been a central aspect of the initiative. With more than 25 faculty members from VinUni and UIUC, as well as 50 research students, the project has attracted talented individuals who are dedicated to developing state-of-the-art sensing and digital technologies for accessible health monitoring. The initiative provides research funding and resources, international exchange and training experiences, and aims to build a better world for everyone.
The VinUni-Illinois Smart Health Initiative is driven by a unique innovative approach that provides project with great scalable potential. The initiative focuses on developing low-cost, high-technology smart healthcare solutions that can be accessible at scale, providing smart monitoring, screening, and diagnostics for millions of people worldwide. Its unique vision addresses the most challenging burdens in public health and sustainable development. The initiative's technology, such as VAIPE, has already reached millions of users in Vietnam, demonstrating its potential for broader impact at regional, national, and international levels.
Next category: Whole Systems Approach
2022 Award winners: HKUST
This series features our 2022 Award winners. This month, we hear from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
What does it mean to you to win the award?
For over a decade the ISCN has been a valuable resource and melting pot for campuses across different geographic and cultural zones to share ideas and make outstanding connections. To win this award is both an honor to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as well as a confirmation of our campus as a meaningful member of this society of sustainable campus leaders. We are pleased that the judges recognized our unique campus as a living lab approach, where we combine “Sustainable” with “Smart” elements for funded projects. In addition, our approach recognizes the inherent gap between the theory of academic researchers and the practical hands-on skills of campus professional operations staff. The “Sustainable Smart Campus as a living lab” (SSC) model serves as the bridge between the two groups so the learning and experience gained is a two-way street. We hope that by showcasing our approach to supporting sustainable and smart proof-of-concept projects, the award will open further doors for collaboration with other institutions around the world.
What’s next for the “Sustainable Smart Campus as a living lab” project?
The SSC has now been incorporated into our university’s new strategic plan 2021-208, so we have great confidence that this model will remain one of the top priorities of the HKUST for years to come. Going forward, support will be allocated through priority themes to ensure we are always encouraging our university community to be active contributors to our sustainability goals. For example, coming out of the pandemic, we recognize that many students are struggling with stress and depression. With this in mind, one of our priority themes for funding and support is for projects that address well-being and wellness. While we will continue to focus on broad "Grand Challenges" (e.g., net-zero GHG emissions, biodiversity, zero waste to the landfill) the targeted priority themes will allow us to adjust the program yearly to ensure we are meeting the needs of the campus community.
Do you have any advice for others starting on the living lab pathway?
Do not underestimate the positive impact of the living lab pathway. Our program has opened the door for us to create exceptional collaboration between the research teams and our professional operations staff to tackle the campus challenges together. Through the program, we instil a culture of learning from failure and self-initiated changes which is a core value that allowed us to engage faculty and staff from different backgrounds to form interdisciplinary project teams and realize the opportunities to put ideas into action. As time goes by, we found that some faculty have a common ground of interest and their own expertise could leverage each other to create impactful projects reaching the same goal. The living lab concept is not only a platform for systemic funding and support, but a true spirit that lives within us to bring research and innovation to life.
