Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES)

The Global Universities Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES), is one of the flagship programmes of UNEP’s Environmental Education and Training Unit (EETU). GUPES was the result of a consultative forum organized by UNEP and its partners, to deliberate on ways of escalating UNEP’s engagement with universities. It builds on the successes of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA), the nascent Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in the Caribbean Universities (MESCA) and the Asia-Pacific Regional University Consortium (RUC). At present, over 680 universities and regional partners/focal points from five different continents are part of the growing GUPES network.

Overall Goal of GUPES

GUPES aims to promote the integration of environment and sustainability concerns into teaching, research, community engagement, the management of universities including greening of university infrastructure/facilities/operations, as well as to enhance student engagement and participation in sustainability activities both within and beyond universities. This is done in accordance to the UN Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-14, and the outcome document of the Rio+20 Summit - The Future We Want among others.

www.unep.org/training/programmes/gupes.asp