King’s College London is in the top 20 most sustainable universities in the UK

King’s College London has ranked as one of the UK’s top 20 most sustainable universities.

In People and Planet’s latest league table, KCL placed 18^th out of the 149 UK universities assessed.

People and Planet, a student led organisation focused on achieving social and environmental justice, provides an annual compilation of UK universities ranked based on environmental and ethical performance.

All 149 universities in the league are scored out of a possible 100 per cent in criteria ranging from environmental policy to workers’ rights.

King’s placed in the first class section and achieved a perfect score of 100 per cent in five categories: Environmental policy, auditing and EMs, sustainable food, sustainability staff, and education.

Other universities that ranked highly included the University of Bedfordshire in first place and King’s biggest rival UCL in 15th position.

King’s also stood out for its high score in the workers’ rights and engagement category. This result has made it the fourth most sustainable Russell Group uni overall.

However, this isn’t the first time that the university’s approach to sustainability has been commended. Last year, King’s ranked eighth in Europe and 14th globally in the QS World University Sustainability Rankings 2025, making the university rise from its previous 44^th position and be in the top one per cent of universities in the world for sustainability.

Senior Vice President, Professor Rachel Mills stated that this recognition reflected the universities commitment to “transformative interdisciplinary research” and “embedding sustainability into all of our education programmes”.

KCL has already made significant sustainable changes including an increase in the generation of on-site solar electricity and the selling of plastic free alternatives in on campus cafes to reduce their carbon footprint.

Furthermore, the university’s high score is reflected through the success of new education programmes, such as the KEATS sustainability and climate module created for both staff and students to not only gain sustainability knowledge, but to take action on these matters.