Sustainability - United World Colleges

UWC’s commitment to Sustainability

18 schools worldwide, together for our planet and our future. Learn more about our climate commitments and sustainability education. Find out more about our schools’ sustainability journeys, the topics we care about, our activities and initiatives and our own progress towards meeting our goals.

In 2021, the Heads of all 18 schools signed commitments towards climate action. They put sustainability and sustainability education at the centre of what we do – with the goal of becoming carbon neutral and fossil-free as a movement.

We align our operations across our different campuses with our mission: from equipping students with concrete skills to maximise their personal contribution, to creating or further developing educational climate action programs with a solutions focus or reporting our own climate impact.

Find out more about individual UWC schools’ sustainability progress

Across all UWC schools, numerous initiatives and activities are underway to help achieve our individual goals and contribute to a more sustainable world. We have broken these down into six key topics. You can filter all the sustainability activities below by topic and or school.

Events, Initiatives & Activism
From special focus days to dedicated project weeks, these are events and activities with a focus on climate action and sustainability.

Nature & Biodiversity
Back to the roots: what we do to integrate positive interactions with nature into our lives.

People, Stories & Awards
No change happens without a changemaker: these are the fantastic people who are driving sustainability forward at our schools.

Policies & Structures
Action plans to clearly defined future targets to reduce our environmental impacts – the structures that are in place work towards the UWC Climate Commitments.

Reducing our Impact
What we are doing in practical terms to reduce our environmental footprint: from recycling and reusing resources to implementing renewable energy sources.