AUT Sustainability Report 2022
AUT is proud to release its Sustainability Report 2022, which highlights a year of dedication and innovation in sustainability across our staff, students and faculties.
Throughout the report are examples of our ongoing commitment to advancing sustainability and the impact that our teaching and learning, research and operations has on society and the environment. I would like to thank everyone across AUT who has contributed to the successful advancement of our sustainability objectives and initiatives.
AUT - Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau - has been a pacesetter in New Zealand education and continues to make significant progress on our ambitious and strategic sustainability objectives.
We have maintained our place as one of the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) impact rankings. The ranking assesses universities based on their contribution to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), which collectively address the most serious and critical global challenges of our time, including poverty, inequality, and climate change.
It is the hard work we have done across these areas that saw AUT placed 64th equal amongst 1,591 universities and remain in the top 30 universities in the world for decent work and economic growth and gender equality.
The report, which assesses our progress against the ambitions of the AUT Sustainability Roadmap and the UN’s SDGs, found that over the course of the past year AUT has:
- Increased the number of sustainability focused courses taught to 88, from 67 in 2020 – the baseline year;
- Increased the number of student enrolments in sustainability focused courses;
- Increased the percentage of SDG related research publications from 17% to 30%, an increase of 170 publications; and
- Decreased AUT’s total CO2e emissions to 45% below the baseline year and waste and water 34% and 23% respectively below the baseline year, which in part reflects the flow-on effects of the pandemic with fewer people on campus.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals contextualise AUT’s commitment to sustainability by creating great graduates, great research, and impact for a sustainable world. AUT recognises that contributing to the SDGs in a meaningful way requires more than a ‘business as usual’ contribution; there is a need for a step change in human behaviour before society can meet these goals. AUT is committed through research, teaching and the management of its own operations to be part of this step change.
In 2022 we saw new sustainability-focused teaching, impactful research, and several investments in energy-saving technologies, including installing low-emissions heating, cooling and ventilation systems in WB, our only listed heritage building.
However, while we are on the right track, we must acknowledge there is still a lot more work to do and there are significant challenges that lie ahead. We also can’t ignore that many of our recent reductions were COVID-related, such as campus shutdowns. The challenge now is to ensure we maintain this momentum and avoid a complete rebound to high-emission, pre-pandemic habits.
I would encourage you to read the report and, where you can, join with us in advancing AUT’s ambitions of being an institutional leader in sustainability.
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari, he toa takitini
It is through the efforts of all of us that we succeed
Professor Damon Salesa
Vice-Chancellor,
Auckland University of Technology