Origins of the Ranking

The UI GreenMetric World University Ranking is an initiative of Universitas Indonesia which is being launched in 2010. As part of its strategy of raising its international standing, the University hosted an International Conference on World University Rankings on 16 April 2009. It invited a number of experts on world university rankings such as Isidro Aguillo (Webometrics), Angela Yung-Chi Hou (HEEACT), and Alex Usher (Educational Policy Canada). It was clear from the discussions that current criteria being used to rank universities were not giving credit to those that were making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and thus help combat global climate change. We were aware that a number of top world universities, for example Harvard, Chicago, Copenhagen have been taking steps to manage and improve their sustainability. There are also cooperative efforts among groups of universities. A grading system which includes information on sustainability at 300 universities exists under the title the United States Green Report Card. This is excellent, however, results are given in terms of a grade (A to F) rather than a ranking and the number of universities included is relatively circumscribed. We saw the need for a uniform system that would be suitable to attract the support of thousands of the world’s universities and where the results were based on a numerical score that would allow ranking so that quick comparisons could be made among them on the criteria of their commitment to addressing the problems of sustainability and environmental impact. The Rankings have seen a dramatic increase of participants from 95 universities in 35 countries in 2010 to 912 universities in 84 countries in 2020.

Aim of the Ranking

The aim of this ranking is to provide the result of online survey regarding the current condition and policies related to Green Campus and Sustainability in the Universities all over the world. It is expected that by drawing the attention of university leaders and stake holders, more attention will be given to combating global climate change, energy and water conservation, waste recycling, and green transportation. Such activities will require change of behavior and providing more attention to sustainability of the environment, as well as economic and social problem related to the sustainability. We believe that the universities that are leading the way in this regard need to be identifiable and so we have decided to make a start in doing this. Initially, we will collect numeric data from thousands of universities world wide and process the data provided to arrive at a single score that reflects the efforts being made by the institution to implement environmentally friendly and sustainable policies and programs. Universities will be ranked according to this score. We hope that the rankings will be useful to university leaders in their efforts to put in place eco-friendly policies and manage behavioral change among the academic community at their respective institutions.

Vision and Missions

Our vision is to be an open and respected World University Rankings which brings sustainable impacts to universities around the world. Our missions are:

1. Organizing annual World University Rankings on sustainability.
2. Encouraging sustainability practices in universities around the world.
3. Providing sustainability-related services for universities around the World.
4. Facilitating international partnership on sustainability.

Methodology

We are using a set of criteria and methodology that has been carefully thought out to be simple and easy enough to fill in without an inordinate amount of effort, but at the same time, provide information on key indicators.In the current performance evaluation tool there are 39 indicators and 6 criteria i.e. Setting and Infrastructure (SI), Energy and Climate Change (EC), Waste (WS), Water (WR), Transportation (TR), and Education (ED). We are aware that critical examination of the data collection instrument will yield insights that can help improve it. Therefore we have already given the questionnaire to an independent review board and will welcome comments from participants that can be used to improve and refine it in subsequent versions.