Building sustainable reputation to drive change
"At QS, we know that it's hard to improve what you don't measure.
By putting the right metrics on the biggest stage, we can foster meaningful engagement and drive change together, shaping the future of education for the better."
Ben Sowter
Senior Vice President, QS Quacquarelli Symonds
The power of analytics is driving real action on sustainability in higher education
Despite the infancy of many datasets in the field of sustainability in higher education, measuring and benchmarking sustainable performance is achievable amidst these limitations and is a vital step to building tangible sustainability outputs to support the UN’s SDGs, and in turn boost overall global reputation.
Through rankings and ratings systems, and analytics trackers, universities can measure performance across a broad range of criteria – including environmental and social sustainability, to have greater impact in driving change and supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025 assess institutions across nine ESG lenses, each of which align with the SDGs.
QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025 – lenses to UN SDGs
World-leading centres of excellence for sustainability
The ‘big four’ study destinations – the UK, Australia, the US and Canada – lead as the world’s top destinations for sustainable higher education, with the highest number of institutions ranked in the world top 100. The sustainable impact of universities in the US has grown year-on-year, with an increase of institutions in the world top 100, up from 12 to 15.
Locations with the highest number of institutions in the world top 100 for sustainability
(QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2024-2025)
World’s best: University of Toronto
Ranked number one in the world for two consecutive years, the University of Toronto leads in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025 and excels in all three key performance categories. The University has made significant strides with several major sustainability initiatives in recent years, including a shared goal to become climate positive by 2050.
Operationally, Toronto unveiled Canada’s largest urban geo-exchange system in 2024, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15,000 tonnes per year and the Environmental and Related Technologies Hub (EaRTH) – a partnership with four other universities and colleges – is expanding the clean tech sector in Greater Toronto and developing a net-zero vertical farm.
Faculty are collaborating on sustainability research across multiple disciplines and in more than 120 research units, and teaching in over 2,000 sustainability-focused undergraduate courses and more than 115 graduate programmes with sustainability-related content.
Meric Gertler, President of the University of Toronto, states that the University community is profoundly committed to the advancement of sustainability as one of the most urgent challenges of our time.
In an interview with QS, Gertler said: “A huge number students and faculty come to the University already deeply committed to sustainability. To support and amplify this talent and passion among our students and to prepare them for a lifetime of leadership in the field, we’ve established what we call the Sustainability Pathways Program. The goal is to provide all undergraduates opportunities to incorporate sustainability learning, inside and outside the classroom, regardless of their degree programme.”
Where excellence in reputation and sustainability meet
Data reveals that there is a positive correlation between a university’s sustainability outputs and their academic reputation. In the QS World University Rankings 2025, universities with strong scores in the Academic Reputation metric tend to perform well in the Sustainability metric (with a correlation score of 0.72).
(QS World University Rankings 2025)
The University of Manchester in the UK is a strong example of where excellence in reputation and sustainability meet. The University is the world’s third most sustainable university and number one in Europe. It also ranks in the world’s top three percent for Academic Reputation (QS World University Rankings 2025).
The University of Manchester’s Living Lab supports students and staff to affect change by working with external organisations to meet the UN’s SDGs. The University also launched a recent partnership with a renewable energy company to develop a solar farm which will meet 65% of the university’s energy.
Julia Durkan, Head of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Manchester, spoke to QS about how academic reputation and sustainability go hand in hand at the university. She said: “We’ve integrated sustainability within the core goals of the university, so social responsibility sits alongside teaching and learning, and research and innovation. It’s embedded at the heart of what we do. We’re all on our own journey and we have to discover where our strengths lie and work around that to improve performance, collaborating with other institutions where we can have greater impact.”
Belgium shines for environmental impact
With the highest average scores in the Environmental Impact category, Belgium is a world-leading destination for environmental sustainability. Ghent University ranks joint 30th in the world for sustainability, and 10th in the world in the Environmental Research lens, with a high score of 99.2/100.
Average Environmental Impact Score - top 10 locations with 10+ institutions
Faculty at Ghent University research environmental impact across various disciplines and themes including energy and water, circular economy, mobility and biodiversity. The enormous computing power that the development and use of AI takes is high on the agenda of environmental research at Ghent University, with faculty providing resources and support in reducing this impact, while finding effective ways to utilise AI in the advancement of renewable energy. If we dig further into Ghent University’s research impact, the institution performs highly in the Affordable and clean energy and Climate action research areas.
The Republic of Korea is the highest performing country in Asia when it comes to environmental impact. Korea University in Seoul ranks highly across all three lenses within the Environmental Impact category. KU is active in nurturing student changemakers to lead sustainable change through directly participating in the local community to understand local issues, find sustainable solutions, and put them into practice.
Netherlands takes the lead in social impact
With the highest average scores in the Social Impact category, the Netherlands is world-leading in its social impact. Delft University of Technology ranks joint 15th in the world for sustainability, with a high score of 99.4/100 in the Employability & Opportunities lens.
Average Social Impact Score - top 10 locations with 10+ institutions
The oldest and largest technical university in the Netherlands, Delft University of Technology, has a simple mission: “Impact for a better society.” Being more sustainable is one big way universities can have a positive impact, and Delft is making a difference. By providing an inclusive environment and developing basic principles and skills for equity, diversity and inclusion, TU Delft enables students to drive positive change in their communities through encouraging inclusive leadership that contributes to social coherence in the society of the future.
Canada performs particularly well in the Health & Wellbeing lens, with the University of British Columbia scoring 97.8/100. Research at the Life Sciences Institute is making global impacts on human health and the wellbeing of our planet through discovering the fundamental biological mechanisms underlying health and disease — and to propel this knowledge towards translation into new therapies. As the largest institute of its kind in Canada, the Life Sciences Institute is positioned to take a lead in achieving better health outcomes nationally and globally.
Australia showcases best practice in good governance
Eight universities in Australia rank in the world top 50 for the Good Governance category. Griffith University, ranked 12th in the category, showcases best practice in strong leadership, transparent and evidence-based decision making, democratic and open justice and the willingness to transfer power out of central government to local centres.
Average Governance Score - top 10 locations with 10+ institutions
(QS Sustainability Student Survey 2024)
Griffith University has a comprehensive strategy for good governance, from governance council and committees to policy governance frameworks, a policy and delegation consultation hub and an Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law. The institute is a strategic research centre which links Griffith University with Queensland University of Technology, Australian National University, the Center for Asian Integrity in Manila, OP Jindal University in Delhi, and Strathmore University in Nairobi, to improve governance and build institutional integrity in governments, corporations, non-government organisations and international institutions.
Kazakhstan leads the way for Central Asia, with Al-Farabi Kazakh National University holding the country’s highest score for the Good Governance category. This score is made possible through the active efforts of the university as a global hub of the United Nations 'Academic impact' programme on sustainable development; implementing environmental, social, and educational initiatives aimed at achieving the sustainable development goals, promoting green technologies, and shaping future leaders capable of addressing global challenges.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building reputation
The steps towards building your sustainable reputation and delivering impactful sustainability outputs are not universal. Utilising data and analytics to measure your performance and understand where your uniqueness lies can enable you to identify the areas where you can have the greatest impact.
Where there are areas of weakness or gaps in knowledge or impact, collaborating with other institutions, companies and organisations can drive impact in those areas. Institutions that are members of an officially recognised sustainability network support the UN SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ by collaborating across countries, sectors, and stakeholders to strengthen the means of implementation across the other 16 SDGs.
Smart Forests, a project from the Brazilian university FACENS is an award-winning example of partnering for impact. The project won the Global Education Award at the QS Reimagine Education Awards & Conference 2024 and unites students from four Brazilian universities in Brazil to develop sustainable solutions that protect forests and conserve biodiversity in the Amazon and Atlantic Forests.
Vitor Belota, Head of Sustainability at FACENS University, said: “Winning the Global Education Award is a transformative milestone for our project, which bridges students and local communities to promote sustainable development and protect the environment and its biodiversity. We hope this prestigious recognition will attract more partners, enabling us to expand the project, improve the lives of Amazon River communities, and empower more students to become changemakers and champions of sustainability.”