The University of Toronto (U of T) was just named the top university in the world for sustainability for the second year in a row, according to the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025. The rankings looked at nearly 1,800 universities from 95 countries around the world to discover which post-secondary institutions are leading the way in social and environmental sustainability.
With an overall ranking of 100, U of T beat out other environmental heavyweight schools like ETH Zürich in Switzerland (second place) and Lund University in Sweden (third place) when it comes to environmental impact (which looks at environmental sustainability, education, and research); social impact (looking at factors like equality, knowledge exchange, impact of education, employability and opportunities, and health and wellbeing), as well as “good governance” (e.g., schools that have open-access publishing, transparent financial reporting, support ethical organisational culture, etc.).
U of T ranked an impressive 91/100 in environmental sustainability, 99.7/100 in environmental education, and 98.5/100 in environmental research. It also scored 98.5 in the good governance category.
U of T President, Professor Meric Gertler, told QS in an interview published Monday that student and faculty engagement is important to achieving sustainability goals.
“A huge number of U of T students and faculty come to the university already deeply committed to sustainability. To support and amplify this talent and passion among our students and to prepare them for a lifetime of leadership in the field, we’ve established what we call the Sustainability Pathways Program,” Gertler stated, noting that the ultimate goal is to provide all undergraduates with opportunities to incorporate sustainability learning, inside and outside the classroom, regardless of their degree program.
The university, which has three campuses (with 64,000+ students at the St. George campus, 14,000+ at the Scarborough campus, and 16,000+ at its Mississauga campus) has been committed to sustainability as far back as the 1970s, when the University hired its first full-time energy manager!
According to the City of Toronto, the University of Toronto’s St. George campus has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43,000 tonnes between 2009 and 2019, with commitments to cut an additional 35,000 tonnes by 2030 through the school’s tri-campus 2019 Low Carbon Action Plan.
As such, Gertler believes that universities are well-positioned to lead the way in the global sustainability agenda.
“[A]s I’ve said, our community includes a massive number of students, faculty and staff who are experts in every aspect of the challenge and deeply committed to meeting it. But U of T isn’t alone in offering these tremendous assets to our partners in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors,” Gertler told QS. “So governments should be engaging universities as key parts of their strategies for tack[l]ing climate change, and this is something U of T is encouraging at the national and international levels, including our work with Universities Canada, the University Climate Change Coalition (UC3) and the U7+ Alliance of World Universities.”
Other noteable Canadian universities to make the list are the University of British Columbia, BC (6th) and McGill University, Montreal (15th).
These are the top 10 most sustainable universities, according to the QS rankings:
- University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Lund University, Lund, Sweden
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, United States
- UCL, London, United Kingdom
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
- The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
