by Dan Johnson

Durham has fallen to 70^th in a league table which ranks universities’ environmental and ethical performance.

The People & Planet Green League of 145 UK universities awarded Durham 35.5 out of 70 for its green credentials; good enough for a ‘2:1’ ranking. This was some way behind Greenwich’s table-topping score of 55.

People & Planet, a national organisation of student-run environmental campaign groups, has been running the Green League since 2007. Last year Durham came 41^st with a score of 35.

The league table measured universities on thirteen different criteria, including water consumption, carbon reduction and sustainable food. While Durham scored an impressive 29.5 out of 40 for environmental policy, it gained just six out of a possible 30 for its performance.

In spite of improvements across the sector, People & Planet’s Louise Hazan called on the government to do much more.

She said: “Now is the time for stronger leadership from Government to help build on the commendable efforts of our greenest universities and encourage those further down the Green League table, and in other industries, to turn over a new green leaf too.

“There’s an awful lot to be encouraged by, but as ever there’s a large chunk of universities getting very low scores compared to the high-performers.”

The winners Greenwich have cut their carbon emissions by 22% since 2005, and even sold 100 pots of honey made in their beehives.