By Khairul Anuar Muhamad Noh
SERDANG, 14 Dec – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) made history once again in the country when it was listed as the world’s top 27 according to the UI-Greenmetric World University Ranking 2017 based on its effort in promoting campus sustainability and environmental management.
The results also indicated that UPM is ranked 3rd in Asia, 2nd in South East Asia and has maintained the 1st ranking in the country for eight consecutive years since the ranking was introduced in 2010.
The ranking measures the commitment of each university in developing environment-friendly infrastructure. It has successfully attracted the attention of 619 universities in the world to take part in the ranking. Four Malaysian universities that have listed top 100 in the ranking are Universiti Malaya (34), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (37), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (66), and Universiti Utara Malaysia (83).
The ranking of UI-Greenmetric evaluates environmental sustainability that has more than 40 indicators, covering six main scopes: setting and infrastructure (15%), energy and climate change (21%), waste (18%), water (10%), transportation (18%), and education (18%).
UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datin Paduka Dato’ Dr. Aini Ideris commented that this success showed UPM’s commitment towards environmental conservation and maintenance through various activities of teaching, research, co-curriculum and quality management system based on effective environmental management.
“UPM recorded improvements especially in the transportation indicator and in the infrastructure indicator, in terms of size and the infrastructure of green land area, apart from having efficient energy consumption and facility upgrade, as well as using bicycles on campus,” she said.
The results showed that on 13 December 2017 the universities from America and Europe dominated the Top 20 ranking.
The efforts taken by UPM last May to improve the sustainability of the green campus enabled UPM to win the Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa’s Chair Award and to receive a grant of RM300,000 for a three-year period at the Green Campus Sustainability Convention.
