Awards and Achievements

Why should you join? Do you want to gain awareness of sustainable issues and opportunities whilst developing your employability skills? Then you should sign up to the Reading Experience and Development (RED) Sustainable Action Award. In doing so you will gain an award that will demonstrate your sustainability awareness and understanding to future employers, evidencing some of the skills that many companies are actively seeking, whilst committing to making the world a better place for all. How do you complete it? To successfully achieve the Award you will need to complete 40 hours of activity across two components (Acquire and Act), with…

The University of Reading has once again proven it’s a true sustainability champion, earning fourth place in the 2024 People & Planet University League. Consistently in the top 5 for several years, Reading shows how serious it is about tackling environmental challenges. This latest milestone reflects the university’s passion for weaving sustainability into everything it does from daily operations to teaching and community outreach. What is the People & Planet University League? People & Planet is the UK’s largest student led organization for environmental and social justice, releases an annual league table that evaluates universities on their sustainability efforts. They…

We’re thrilled to share that the University of Reading has achieved a major milestone in the QS Sustainability Rankings 2025, securing a spot at joint 42nd place worldwide. This is a significant leap from 61st place last year, marking our third consecutive year of improvement in these global rankings. Out of 1,744 institutions worldwide, our rise highlights the ongoing effort and dedication across the university to make sustainability a core priority. Our progress isn’t just global, it’s regional too. We’re now ranked joint 26th in Europe (up from 30th last year) and joint 16th in the UK, improving from joint…

The University of Reading has been recognized as The Times and The Sunday Times Sustainable University of the Year 2025, a well-deserved celebration of its outstanding commitment to tackling climate change and driving sustainability. For years, Reading has been at the forefront of environmental efforts, achieving some truly impressive milestones. Since 2009, the university has slashed its carbon emissions by over 59.7% and reduced its waste by 35% a testament to how serious it is about making a difference. Whether its cutting emissions, saving energy, or finding smarter ways to manage resources, Reading has consistently shown that sustainability isn’t just a goal, it’s a way of life.…

The University of Reading is committed to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which is evidenced in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) Global Impact Rankings for 2024. We are now joint 28 in the world, out of 2031 participating institutions. This is up from 61st place in 2023. This shows our commitment to addressing the challenges that the goals set out such as hunger, poverty, equality and the environment. We are absolutely delighted with this results and were within the top 30 globally in 5 SDGs, which were: 3 in SDG12 - Responsible production and consumption 16 in SDG15…