The Global Universities Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES), was jointly established by UNEP and Tongji University during the “Rio+20” Summit. It builds on the successes of the Asia-Pacific Regional University Consortium (RUC), the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities, and the nascent Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in the Caribbean Universities. At present, 833 universities and regional partners/focal points from five different continents and 105 countries are part of the growing GUPES network.

Overall goal

GUPES aims to promote the integration of environment and sustainability concerns into teaching, research, community engagement,and the management of universities including the greening of university infrastructure / facilities / operations,It also aims to enhance student engagement and participation in sustainability activities both within and beyond universities. 

Objectives

• To provide a strategic platform for the mainstreaming of environment and sustainability concerns into university systems across the world, and to facilitate inter-university networking on sustainability issues with emphasis on South-South and North-South tertiary partnerships;

• To build up, through university education systems, professional capacity and leadership needed for the prevention of and responses to environmental issues, risks and associated sustainable development challenges;

• To contribute to revitalizing the global higher education system and enabling it to address current sustainable development challenges with emphasis on UNEP’s seven thematic priorities;

• To contribute to the knowledge generation within UNEP’s seven priority thematic areas and other contemporary environmental and sustainability issues, risks and challenges;

• To optimize development opportunities provided by ecosystem services in a sustainable manner in line with the principles of “Green Economy” and in the context of sustainable development;

• To help prepare the world for the projected impacts of global climate change, disasters and conflicts, harmful substances and hazardous wastes, as well as to assist in reversing and mitigating these and other negative environmental and sustainability trends.