The University of Sydney has released its Sustainability Annual Report for 2023. Aimed at displaying its efforts to clean up its investments and institutional ties, the report has come under fire from student activists as performative.
The report notes that the University was ranked 1st in Australia and 7th globally in the QS World University Rankings for Sustainability 2024.
These ranking systems have come under increasing student scrutiny for prioritising academic reputation and citations over student outcomes.
The University has introduced a new major in Sustainability, in the Science faculty, which is designed to complement its existing postgraduate Master of Sustainability program. The major includes topics such as sustainable development, environmental management, and the social dimensions of sustainability.
The report highlights a small percentage of their laboratories have gone through the My Green Lab Accreditation Program which assesses sustainability in lab environments. Three labs received ‘Green’ Certification and one achieved ‘Platinum’ Certification.
SRC Environment Officer Jordan Anderson told Honi Soit that the content of the report was “virtually immaterial” and that the certification and rankings are “yet another attempt to greenwash, replete with corporate buzzwords and false promises.”
Parts of the report do not address the institution but competitions like the Green Impact Cup, where teams from multiple universities across Australia and New Zealand compete to develop sustainable business and product ideas.
The University claims significant progress in its investment practices, often relying on corporate rating systems like attempting to achieve a ‘gold rating’ in the STARS system by 2025.
The 2024 Action Plan outlines several specific actions aimed at advancing sustainability initiatives. One of the key actions is the launch of an Expression of Interest (EOI) for seed funding, which will support researchers in conducting further research and living lab trials on campus.
Anderson was critical of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) exclusion guidelines which govern the sustainability of investments and what it still allows.
“What we know is that, in 2022, the University covertly purchased shares from fossil fuel companies, despite claims of divestment. This included the purchase of 300,000 BHP shares and direct investment in Rio Tino; companies that also have a reputation for destroying First Nations land, in the name of expanding coal mines.”
The University also aims to maintain transparency by updating the Sustainability at Sydney website to reflect progress towards sustainability targets and commitments, alongside completing its fourth annual report.
Anderson dismissed the claims of increased transparency, telling Honi that the University attempted to hide its investments into weapons companies.
“The University still has ties with weapons manufacturing companies (ties that they will not even disclose), such as their ties to Thales, which have fuelled a genocide in Gaza and colossal environmental damage all over the world.”
If the University was serious about the environment, they would actually follow through with divestment, rather than the status quo: drafting up a nice-sounding report that does not legitimately reflect management’s orientation toward the environment”
