The publication of the Sustainability Leadership Scorecard (SLS) annual impact report for 2025 shows us that there has been a remarkable 42% uplift in use of the tool since last measured in 2023. More and more universities are understanding the SLS to be the key tool in monitoring the gains to sustainability in their institution. By nature it encourages and supports collaborative work on sustainability, asking that cross-campus coalitions look in the round at shared issues and develop co-ordinated plans and solutions. In 2025 128 universities and colleges are using this tool. Thankyou for your engagement, and your contributions to the report. While those universities using the tool will gain their own insights, those not yet using it will still be able to compare general trends in the progress we are all making on sustainability.

And it isn’t too late to sign up.

The SLS is a digital self-assessment tool specifically developed for Higher and Further education. It can help you build a definitive picture of your institution’s sustainability performance; benchmark and track your progress; and support you in collaborating across your institution and beyond. Users self-score against 18 key sustainability areas. This year 58 institutions achieved a ranking of bronze, silver, gold or platinum.

As the newly published annual impact report shows, institutions are closest to achieving their target scores in the areas of health and wellbeing, leadership, and risk; and they are furthest from achieving their target scores in the areas of climate change adaptation, learning and teaching and water.

With the publication of this impact report AUDE members can see how institutional scores compare online.

Speaking on behalf of AUDE, Executive Director Jane Harrison-White remarked on the longevity of the SLS tool, now in its 7^th year, and the consistency of several of the usage patterns that emerge. “We consistently see high scores in the category of leadership, and that is credit in some measure to the way in which boards and councils grapple with these tough issues, often steered by expertise from AUDE members. The quality of the leadership and governance around these issues is a vital enabler of strong sustainability performance at an institutional level; and within the tool this theme encompasses staff engagement, the level and success of which again act as key indicators of success. At the same time we see consistent areas of concern to users, such as in the ‘water’ category, where a wide variety of concerns from supply to management of waste water to flood mitigation may play into lower scores. The key is that while you can benchmark against others your scores and your tracking across a number of years to demonstrate progress, is entirely within your control. The patterns that emerge over use are therefore as rigorous as you make them. The SLS generates the information you will need to keep your university aligned behind a clear plan based on strengths, weaknesses and priorities.”

It is vital to AUDE that we continue to arm members with mutually supportive tools and information that enable them to answer the difficult questions around sustainability. In the last 12 months alone this has included the publication of several reports include the Guide to Decarbonisation, and the Legacy Buildings Guide. Before the end of the summer 2025 we will follow these with a new Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Guide. We are grateful for our ongoing collaboration with EAUC (the environmental association of universities and colleges) that allows us to develop and host the SLS tool, and other partnership work.

If you aren’t yet using the Sustainability Leadership Scorecard we still consider it to be the best available one-stop-shop for benchmarking your sustainability planning. Once you have registered there is an online user guide to help you.