On the 14th May 2015, The Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism, jointly with the Environmental Education and Training Unit of UNEP, organized the first meeting of Mongolian universities to establish Green University Network of Mongolia.

At the meeting Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, the Head of UNEP's Environmental Education and Training Unit (EETU), introduced the Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES), its goals, objectives and activities and exchanged views on establishment of the Green University Network of Mongolia. In June 2012, EETU launched GUPES that aims at promoting the integration of environment and sustainability issues into the teaching, research, community engagement and management of universities (infrastructure/facilities/ operations) and to enhance students’ engagement and participation in sustainability activities.

GUPES contributes to collaboration and partnership between universities and works in three directions; education, research and networking.

Today GUPES presents a network of over 520 universities in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. In June 2013 the UNEP launched “Greening University Toolkit” and produced its updated version in 2014. The Toolkit aims to encourage and support universities to develop and implement their own strategies for establishing green, resource efficient and low carbon campuses and integrate green development and sustainability concepts into academic curriculum.

The Mongolian Green University Network (MGUN) will aim to develop functional network of higher education institutions that incorporate environment and sustainability issues in their education, training, campus operations and student activities.

UNEP will partner with the MEGDT and Mongolian universities and facilitate establishment of MGUN, support universities in their efforts to develop greener and more sustainable universities in Mongolia.