Across most Universities, students are perceived as recipients of instructions – they are taught, tested and certified. But the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC), founded in 2019, flips this dynamic. Students like Abdulsalam from Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS) in Nigeria, are now leading a structured needs assessment of their universities’ curricula on planetary health or environmental sustainability and doing this with the faculty at the table. This isn’t just advocacy, it’s disruptive innovation.  

Planetary Health & the Planetary Health Report Card

The Planetary Health Alliance has defined Planetary Health as a “solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of  human disruptions to earth’s natural systems (ecosystems) on human health and all life on earth”. As a lens, Planetary Health unites everyone affected by the interconnectedness of human and planetary health – across biosphere, society, and economy (some have dubbed this ‘the SDGs wedding cake’). The approach enables health and non-health professionals, faculty and students, policy makers, government, private sector, to confront the upstream underlying drivers (human-induced changes) and the concomitant ecosystem changes that impact health outcomes historically sidelined or siloed.

At the 2024 Planetary Health Annual Meeting (PHAM) in Malaysia, Nigerian campus ambassadors voiced the challenge of getting their university to meaningfully incorporate planetary health into their curricula. This sparked an idea: could a needs assessment provide the evidence? And how would this be done while engaging the faculty lead? Inspired by this conversation and learning about the PHRC Nagasaki University Report 2023, I applied to serve as a regional lead for Nigeria for the 2025 cycle. A random LinkedIn connection request would put Nigeria on the PHRC map for the first time since the inception.

The PHRC is a metric-based tool that aims to evaluate and improve health professional schools on their planetary health education. It offers a simple but transformative proposition: student-led and faculty-mentored school evaluation and improvement across five domains.

UDUS report card

For UDUS, these domains scored planetary health curriculum, interdisciplinary research in health and environment, community outreach and advocacy, support for student-led planetary health initiatives and campus sustainability. The report was published on World Annual Earth Day.

With an overall score of 78 percent, curriculum (99 percent) and Student-led initiatives (80 percent) were the strengths, reflecting a strong institutional openness to planetary health thinking. Yet, the evaluation also pointed out areas in need for strategic investment, most notably campus sustainability (with a score of 44 percent). The report called for clear actions plans on sustainable laboratory practices, procurement reform, green building practices, low carbon transportation systems, clean energy efficiency, and the adoption of green event guidelines (see full report here).

This is not just a technical gap, it is strategic one. Scope 3 emissions (indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that occur outside of an organization’s direct operation but are still a consequence of its activities, for example supply chains and procurement)  make up 70-90 percent of that institution’s total GHG emissions. Without accounting for, or measuring as well as greening these operations (Scope 1 – direct  and Scope 2 & 3 – indirect), true decarbonization will remain out of reach. The report card is thus not the endpoint, but rather a catalyst. Faculty who had never engaged with planetary health are now at the table with their students co-creating and charting a path for a sustainable future.

Paradigm shift & way forward

It’s a paradigm shift with students as catalysts for institutional self-reflection, certainly in Nigeria where curriculum reform is often slow and top-down. This model offers a bottom-up lever for change especially in times when speaking to power comes with all the nuances of equity and injustice.  The recent BMJ Leader Live kick-off webinar on Planetary Health Leadership aptly captured this theme.

In 2025, just 3 African countries (Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa) contributed to the PHRC representing 2 percent of all 188 Schools assessed globally. So, there’s still a long way to go.

Looking ahead to the 2025 PHAM in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (7- 10 October), I hope many of you will register and join the conversation with the theme “Planetary Health for All and In All: Boosting Urgency and Agency for Systems Change”. PHRC will most probably gain further momentum there, as what began as a challenge to get universities’ attention is now rapidly evolving into a coordinated movement.

What’s next?

First: scale the approach through peer-to-peer mobilization. Already, what started as club initiative led by four students in two universities six years ago has turned into a not-for-profit with 5 board of directors (including a student co-founding), 3 co-directors, 26 regional leaders, 5 operation and 9 interdisciplinary team members, 188 school leaders and a team of over 1500 student-faculty collaborators and counting. But there’s certainly room for further expansion.

Secondly, influence policy. The evidence-based insights from this framework present an unprecedented opportunity to inform national curriculum standards, such as those set by Nigeria’s National University Commissions (NUC). The insights can also guide climate adaption strategies, health sector reforms and even the Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.

Lastly, catalyze sustainability funding. The report card identifies gaps in areas like green procurement, emissions for campus operations, little or no nature-based student programs …. that could be transformed into bankable projects for sustainable infrastructure, curricula transformation and community resilience. With the right partners, this tool can serve not only as a mirror but as a launchpad for action.

Turning complaint into a model to shift power – in Nigeria and far beyond.

PHA Fellows at PHAM 2024 in Malaysia – with author at the far left (Source PHA)