Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability

The Global Universities Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES) is a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) flagship programme, hosted by the Environmental Education and Training Unit (EETU), at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The partnership seeks to increase active environmental commitment and action with higher education institutions and policy institutions globally. Origin GUPES was established in 2010, after a UNEP led consultative forum with partners. The partnership builds on the accomplishments of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA), the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in the Caribbean Universities, and the Asia-Pacific Regional University Consortium (RUC). GUPES was launched in June 2012 at the UNEP – Tongji Institute for Environment and Sustainability in Shanghai, China. At present (March 2015), over 530 global universities subscribe to the partnership. Goal GUPES serves to increase the mainstreaming of environment and sustainability practices and curricula into universities around the world. It is also geared towards encouraging further interaction between UNEP and universities, around the three pillars of education, training and applied research. This is done in accordance to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) of 2004–2015; the Rio+20 Summit outcome document – The Future We Want; the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development in collaboration with United Nations University (UNU); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partners.