UI GreenMetric World University Rankings 2023 announced the ranking results at a meeting held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday (5/12). Universitas Indonesia (UI) won the title of best university in Asia in the Most Sustainable Universities category and is ranked 24th in the world. UI maintained its position as the best in the country, even though the number of participants increased from 1,050 to 1,183 universities.
UI’s success in remaining in 24th place in the world is the result of UI’s efforts to create an environmentally friendly campus. Of the six criteria determined in the ranking, namely Setting and Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change, Waste, Water, Transportation, and Education and Research, UI obtained a total score of 8,925—an increase from the previous year which reached 8,800. One of the increases was obtained from the Setting and Infrastructure score which increased from 1,175 to 1,325.
In the Setting and Infrastructure criteria, there are at least several points that serve as assessment indicators. These indicators are the ratio of the area of open space to the total area, the area of the campus covered by forest vegetation and plants, and the area of open space. Apart from that, plant and animal conservation programs, water catchment areas, as well as various facilities, such as buildings, health infrastructure and security facilities are also taken into account.
UI is quite superior in this criterion because of the entire UI area on the Depok Campus, 50% of the area is forest, 9% is lake or water conservation area, and 70% is green open space. To maintain sustainability, UI has even established a campus development master plan policy to keep the percentage of open land and green land at 50%. Therefore, one of the policies set by UI is the rule for building new buildings of at least 8 floors with a green building concept.
Thanks to these efforts, UI managed to surpass Universiti Putra Malaysia in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings 2023. The Top 5 World’s Most Sustainable Universities in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings 2023 were successively won by Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands; Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom; Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld (Trier University of Applied Sciences), Germany; University of Groningen, Netherlands; and University of California, Davis, USA.
UI Rector, Prof. Ari Kuncoro, S.E., M.A., Ph.D, said that the UI GreenMetric ranking functions as a platform for cooperation between higher education institutions to make the world a better place. UI’s achievements at the global level in this ranking show UI’s seriousness in improving university infrastructure and actions towards a sustainable university at the world level.
“We believe universities play an integral role in joint efforts between stakeholders and society in dealing with climate change. Therefore, by promoting and developing new ideas and innovations, we hope that UI can make real contributions in the form of energy and water conservation, waste recycling and environmentally friendly transportation to the community to create a healthy and sustainable environment,” said the Head of the Public Relations Bureau and KIP UI Amelita Lusia.