On March 11, AENOR audited the UPV’s Environmental Management System according to ISO 14001 and EMAS standards and issued a full report, the contents of which are summarized below.
Strengths:
- Once again, the transparency, collaboration, and proactive attitude of all auditees, with special mention to the staff of the Environment Unit, allowed for the optimal development of the audit.
- Communication and awareness processes in terms of its dissemination to the entire university community. Publication and communication of the new version of the Guide to Sustainable Events.
- A significant increase in the electricity generation of photovoltaic energy, which accounted for 2.34% of the UPV’s total electricity consumption in 2024; this percentage was 0.24% in 2023, thanks to the installation of 11 plants.
- Bearing in mind that this is an estimate, it is worth noting the 32.55% reduction in the use of well water for garden irrigation on the Vera campus by 2024.
- The university continues to emphasize the decrease in fugitive emissions of refrigerant gases in relation to the total amount of refrigerant gases in the air-conditioning installations, with 5% leakage in 2024 for the total amount of gases in the installations (8% in 2023, 9% in 2022, and 11% in 2021).
- The organization has begun calculating and verifying its scope 3 carbon footprint according to GHG Protocol (2023).
- The Cultural Action Area has started calculating the carbon footprint of Poliniza’s events. They have also begun to measure the digital footprint by the number of visits to the catalogue available on the website.e calculation of the carbon footprint being made by the Poliniza’s events. They have also begun to measure the digital footprint by the number of visits to the catalogue available on the website.
- Highlights:
- The 178th position in sustainability was achieved in the QS World University Rankings with the participation of 5,663 institutions from 106 countries.
- The 134th position out of 1,476 institutions analyzed in 2024 in the Greenmetric Ranking. At national level, the UPV is in 3rd place in the ranking of the waste field, which also recognizes it as the best polytechnic in Spain in this field.
Opportunities for improvement:
- The organization is still in the process of installing electric recharging points for vehicles as required by regulations, although this process has been identified as one of the actions of the mobility objective. It is recommended to start measuring the amount of electrical energy supplied by the existing recharging points.
Remarks:
- The inventory of the refrigeration installations was completed in July 2024. The organization is reminded of the need to start accounting for the possible leakage of refrigerant gases that this type of facility may generate, both for the evaluation of the environmental aspect and for its accounting in calculating the carbon footprint.
In reading the report, the auditor explicitly indicated that she had observed a clear improvement in the UPV compared to the previous year’s audit. She congratulated the entire university community, especially the Environmental Unit, for their collaboration, involvement, and commitment to environmental sustainability.
The full UPV report is available at UMA.