UI GreenMetric World University Rankings successfully held The 7th International (Virtual) Workshop on UI GreenMetric World University Rankings (IWGM 2021) in collaboration with the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) on 25-26 August 2021. Due to the ongoing global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the concerns that the event could help spread coronavirus, this event was held online via Zoom Meeting and UI GreenMetric YouTube Channel. The workshop was an academic forum for Rectors, Vice Rectors, and Directors of Sustainability and Facilities, of UI GreenMetric participants. These universities had demonstrated a lot of development in achieving best positions in each category at the UI GreenMetric Rankings. The workshop was opened by Prof. Dr. Ir. Riri Fitri Sari, M.M., M.Sc., Chairperson of UI GreenMetric World University Rankings and Prof. Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Bin Sulaiman, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia, as host of this event. There also a greeting from YGhg. Dato’Seri Ir. Dr. Zaini Bin Ujang, Secretary General, Ministry of Environment and Water, Malaysia to welcome all participants who attended the workshop. This forum aimed at providing an opportunity for the top leaders of participating universities to show case their university’s excellence in sustainability and Green Campus. This event provided opportunities for developing network and collaboration on sustainability management among global university.

Figure. Prof. Riri Fitri Sari

Figure. Vice Chancellor of UPM - Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Bin Sulaiman

This year there were 50 invited speakers for parallel sessions and 19 participants for poster session (from 50 Universities from 30 Countries), which shared their best practices in respective universities. The time difference among different locations could be accommodated, and after the event in the main room for keynote speeches, all participants could join the zoom meetings in parallel sessions and interact with the speakers, after watching their prepared videos. The videos of the IWGM 2021 could be found at https://bit.ly/IWGM2021Playlist

Figure. Participants of he 7th International (Virtual) Workshop on UI GreenMetric World University Rankings (IWGM 2021)

  This conference attracted active participation from many high rank officials from many universities. In total, we have 882 registered participants from 443 universities of 56 countries such as: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zimbabwe on the list. The large number of participants indicated that ranking has been internationally recognized as an important and popular tool for improving sustainability standard of universities. We thank all participants and all stakeholders for making this International (Virtual) Workshop on UI GreenMetric 2021 a fruitful and memorable event. Meanwhile, the 8th International Workshop on UI GreenMetric University Rankings next year will be held, hopefully the pandemic is over and it can be no longer virtual, at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Pingtung, Taiwan. At the end of this 7th international workshop, the President of NPUST himself, Mr. Chang-Hsien Tai gave a presentation on their readiness to host the next international workshop, by showing a profile video from NPUST and a tourism video from Pingtung Town itself which presents a lot of interesting things that will surely make the next year's participants and speakers are excited to participate and come to Pingtung. Hopefully this COVID-19 pandemic will end soon and next year the international mobilization journey between countries can return to normal. See you in the next IWGM 2022 in NPUST, Taiwan.