Our Achievements in Sustainability
Nottingham Trent University has been classed as one of the greenest universities in the UK for the past eight years and has also been ranked amongst the world's most sustainable universities.
High performance, low impact
For over 10 years, NTU has consistently ranked as a first-class university in the People and Planet University League, the UK's only comprehensive and independent league table of universities ranked by environmental and ethical performance.
For the 4th year running, we have been ranked amongst the top 3 universities in the world in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings, out of over 1,183 institutions.
In 2024, NTU was named within the top 100 institutions worldwide in the Times Higher Education Impact rankings.
EAUC Green Gown Awards
NTU has won several highly prestigious Green Gown Awards.
In 2024, NTU was awarded the Money for Good Award. Professor Emily Burton and Colleagues were also Highly Commended in the Research with Impact category.
In 2023, Lecturer Sheri Scott was Highly Commended for her work promoting clinical lab sustainability.
In 2021, the Catering and Food Team received the Campus Food and Drink Award.
Green Flag Status
Since the summer of 2012, both our Clifton and Brackenhurst Campuses have been awarded Green Flag status. In 2025, City campus was recognised for its well-managed, accessible, and sustainable green spaces.
Green Flag is a national award recognising green spaces throughout the country. NTU is one of only 23 universities in the UK to have achieved this prestigious award for its grounds. Other notable green spaces with the award include Buckingham Palace Garden, Hyde Park in London, and Nottingham's Arboretum in the city centre.
The campuses were assessed against eight key criteria, including Cleanliness and Maintenance, Health, Safety and Security, Biodiversity, Landscape and Heritage, Environmental Management and Community Involvement.
For further information about our plans to help enhance biodiversity and encourage community involvement, please see our:
Nature Positive NTU
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has become a founding signatory of the Nature Positive Universities Alliance, which was launched at COP15 in Montreal on 8th December 2022. The Alliance is a global network of universities that have made an official pledge to work towards halting, preventing and reversing nature loss by addressing their own impacts and restoring ecosystems harmed by their activities.
Hedgehog Friendly Campus
NTU is committed to making further improvements across the estate to help the UK’s Hedgehog population as part of the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative.
In 2024, we achieved the Platinum Award for Brackenhurst, Clifton, and City Campus. In 2025 NTU Mansfield achieved Silver certification .
LEAF – Sustainable Labs
NTU is proud to have signed up to the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), which is a nationwide sustainability standard for laboratory operations.
Developed by UCL, LEAF has been designed to facilitate improvements in laboratory sustainability, practice and research quality by providing actions to complete in a workbook, to achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold status.
Laboratory spaces typically use up to five times more energy and resources than an office space of a similar size. By using the LEAF tool, NTU hopes to reduce the environmental impact of these laboratory spaces whilst maintaining the high quality of work that is already taking place within them.
Lab users are presented with pre-set actions to complete, starting with Bronze, working up to Silver and then Gold. These actions have been proven to improve sustainability within a lab environment.
As of 2026, 48 NTU labs have been awarded either Bronze, Silver or Gold certification.
Food Made Good Award
The Sustainable Restaurant Association awarded Nottingham Trent University the Three-Star Food Made Good Sustainability Award in July 2024.
This award is accredited to all of NTU's catering offers, including our catering outlets and Hospitality and Conference catering.
The Restaurant Association commended the Catering team's work toward ethical sourcing, community benefit and environmental impact, particularly in areas such as reducing our carbon footprint and repurposing of food waste.
Race to Zero pledge
Since 2019, NTU has been one of over 500 higher education institutions to have committed to being Net-Zero by 2050 through the Race to Zero for Universities and Colleges Letter.
For this, NTU has committed to being Net-Zero across Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions by 2040.
Find out more about NTU's Net Zero carbon targets and projects.
Find out more about NTU's sustainability achievements
Learn more about individual awards and ongoing projects on our live Sustainability Stories webpage .
You can also read our latest updates within our Annual Sustainability Report.