25 November 2025 Our commitment to sustainability at Lincoln University

In a rapidly evolving world experiencing the accelerating impacts of climate change, here at Lincoln University, we understand the need to continue adapting and leading – honouring our pledge to be an exemplar of sustainable practices for the land-based sectors.

Over the past few years, we have taken significant steps toward this commitment. One of our most impactful achievements was decommissioning our coal boiler—a major milestone that will reduce our carbon footprint by 50%. Alongside this, we have established a robust framework for carbon reporting across our campus and farms. This framework underpins our ongoing efforts to reduce emissions and keeps us firmly on track to achieve our carbon reduction target of 2,500 tCO₂e on campus by 2030.

The Lincoln University Sustainability Plan 2025 - 2028

This year, we updated our Sustainability Plan to reaffirm our goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and net carbon zero by 2050. The plan outlines the University-wide priorities and actions for 2025 - 2028, providing a clear roadmap to ensure we remain at the forefront of sustainability and environmental stewardship—kaitiakitanga in the land-based sectors.

Through our Sustainability Plan, we continue to strive to embed sustainability in every aspect of what we do. Over the next three years, our research will expand with Māori-led initiatives and global collaborations on climate resilience. We will integrate sustainability into education through new programmes, enhanced coursework and hands-on learning opportunities.

Our Sustainability Taskforce, chaired by Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Edwards, champions this work. With members representing the breadth of our academic community and student body, the taskforce reviews and monitors progress toward our targets and provides a forum for ideas and concerns around sustainability.

Our Sustainability and SDG Report 2024

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underpin everything we do. Our Sustainability and SDG Report 2024 highlights our successes in supporting these goals and provides a snapshot of our efforts across education, research, student experience and operations.

Global sustainability rankings

In 2025, we achieved significant milestones in global sustainability rankings. In the THE Impact Rankings, we placed 41st in the world for SDG 2 Zero Hunger, recognising our impactful research and education addressing global hunger. Our research-rich and globally connected environment has solidified our leadership in land-based education and research - crucial for tackling food poverty and promoting sustainable food practices. We also ranked 48th for SDG 13 Climate Action, demonstrating the practical applications of our education and research in understanding and addressing climate change and its impacts.

We also improved our global sustainability ranking in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings, moving up nine places to 85th, despite an additional 294 universities joining the ranking system in 2024. Lincoln remains the only New Zealand university participating in this ranking, which measures commitment and actions toward sustainability across six indicators: setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation and education and research.

Toitū Certification

In recognition of our carbon reduction efforts, we achieved Toitū Envirocare carbonreduce certification, passing our annual audit in 2024. This certification covers both our campus (120.5ha) and our farms (2,337ha of dairy, sheep, beef, arable, and horticulture land) and helps us track progress toward becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050. Our ambitious target of reducing emissions to 2,500 tonnes of CO₂-e by 2030 represents a 70% reduction compared to our 2019 baseline of 8,555 tonnes.

We are proud of what we have achieved so far, but we know there is more to do. By continuing to lead through action, research and education, we are demonstrating what sustainability looks like in practice and inspiring others to join us on this journey.