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PETALING JAYA: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has been listed among the world’s top eco-friendly universities. The university has been voted 17th in the world under the 2015 UI-Greenmetric World University Ranking, beating other Malaysian and international universities, including the National University of Singapore and the University of Bath. The 17th place is a big leap from the 41st place that UPM achieved in 2014. University of Nottingham, University of Connecticut and University of California were ranked first, second, and third. UPM has outranked other Malaysian universities for the past six years. UPM vice-chancellor Prof Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris said the ranking recognised the university’s commitment towards being an eco-friendly learning space. “UPM has made significant improvements, particularly in the sectors of transport and infrastructure, such as the size of available green spaces, in addition to the use of efficient energy-saving facilities and bicycles within the campus area,” she said. She added that the university organised various eco-friendly and effective learning activities, research, co-curriculum and quality management systems which were based on sustainable and efficient environmental management. A total of 407 universities from 66 countries were included in the ranking. The ranking rates a university’s commitment to creating a sustainable campus based on more than 40 indicators covering six major scopes including infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste management, water, transportation and education. > Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.   Resource : http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/01/26/upm-is-top-ecofriendly-varsity-in-malaysia/

Policymakers and developers planning high-density housing near public transit with the goal of reducing automobile use and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming need a clearer understanding of the health risks from air pollution that may be created if that housing is also built near busy roads and freeways, according to new research by Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) scientists. The study is one of the first to focus on the burden of heart disease that can result from residential exposures near major roadways in a large urban area. According to the researchers, the effects of the near-roadway component of air pollution is generally underappreciated and not included in estimates of air pollution-related heart disease. These near-roadway exposures are largely unregulated. The study estimated the current impact of near-roadway pollution and of likely future exposure under proposed urban redevelopment plans for Southern California in response to landmark California legislation passed in 2008 to reduce greenhouse gases by 2035. Senate Bill 375, the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, sets regional targets to decrease vehicle traffic, in part by promoting urban redevelopment with multifamily homes in corridors with good public transportation. The anticipated result is less reliance on private automobiles, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and corresponding reduced levels of air pollution hazardous to health. "The health benefits of these reduced emissions are partially offset by increased exposure to high concentrations of near-roadway pollutants among a larger population living next to major traffic corridors," said Rob McConnell, professor of preventive medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC and corresponding author. "The response to SB 375 is a historic opportunity to optimize the health co-benefits of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An appreciation of the health risks of near-roadway pollution would strengthen the argument for proposals to zone buffer areas between busy roadways and new high-density housing and to develop a zero-emission or near-zero-emission vehicle fleet." "Near-roadway pollutants are rapidly diluted over short distances," said Rakesh Ghosh, first author and research associate, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC. "Residential exposure reduces markedly within a few hundred feet of even the busiest roadways." The investigators noted that the population is aging and that older persons are more vulnerable to the effects of pollution. Therefore, the number of heart attacks caused by air pollution is likely to increase over the next two decades even though pollution is decreasing.   Source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150707082348.htm Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southern California. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Rakesh Ghosh, Frederick Lurmann, Laura Perez, Bryan Penfold, Sylvia Brandt, John Wilson, Meredith Milet, Nino Künzli, Rob McConnell. Near-Roadway Air Pollution and Coronary Heart Disease: Burden of Disease and Potential Impact of a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy in Southern California. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2015; DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1408865

An immensely powerful yet invisible force pulls water from Earth to the top of the tallest redwood and delivers snow to the tops of the Himalayas. Yet despite the power of evaporating water, its potential to propel self-sufficient devices or produce electricity has remained largely untapped until now. In the June 16 online issue of Nature Communications, Columbia University scientists report the development of two novel devices that derive power directly from evaporation -- a floating, piston-driven engine that generates electricity causing a light to flash, and a rotary engine that drives a miniature car. When evaporation energy is scaled up, the researchers predict, it could one day produce electricity from giant floating power generators that sit on bays or reservoirs, or from huge rotating machines akin to wind turbines that sit above water, said Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D., an associate professor of biological sciences and physics at Columbia University and the paper's lead author. "Evaporation is a fundamental force of nature," Sahin said. "It's everywhere, and it's more powerful than other forces like wind and waves." Last year, Sahin found that when bacterial spores shrink and swell with changing humidity, they can push and pull other objects forcefully. They pack more energy, pound for pound, than other materials used in engineering for moving objects, he reported in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, which was based on work Sahin had started as a Scholar in Residence at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Building on last year's findings, Sahin and his Columbia colleagues sought to build actual devices that could be powered by such energy. To build a floating, piston-driven engine, the researchers first glued spores to both sides of a thin, double-sided plastic tape akin to that in cassette tapes, creating a dashed line of spores. They did the same on the opposite side of the tape, but offset the line so dashes on one side overlapped with gaps on the other. When dry air shrinks the spores, the spore-covered dashes curve. This transforms the tape from straight to wavy, shortening the tape. If one or both ends of the tape are anchored, the tape tugs on whatever it's attached to. Conversely, when the air is moist, the tape extends, releasing the force. The result is a new type of artificial muscle that is controlled by changing humidity. Sahin and Xi Chen, a postdoctoral fellow in his lab, then placed dozens of these tapes side by side, creating a stronger artificial muscle that they then placed inside a floating plastic case topped with shutters. Inside the case, evaporating water made the air humid. The humidity caused the muscle to elongate, opening the shutters and allowing the air to dry out. When the humidity escaped, the spores shrunk and the tapes contracted, pulling the shutters closed and allowing humidity to build again. A self-sustaining cycle of motion was born. "When we placed water beneath the device, it suddenly came to life, moving on its own," Chen said. The spore-covered artificial muscles function as an evaporation-driven piston. Coupling that piston to a generator produced enough electricity to cause a small light to flash. "We turned evaporation from a pool of water into light," Sahin said. With its current power output, the floating evaporation engine could supply small floating lights or sensors at the ocean floor that monitor the environment, Chen said, speculating that an improved version with stickier plastic tape and more spores could potentially generate even more power per unit area than a wind farm. The Columbia team's other new evaporation-driven engine -- the Moisture Mill -- contains a plastic wheel with protruding tabs of tape covered on one side with spores. Half of the wheel sits in dry air, causing the tabs to curve, and the other half sits in humid environment, where the tabs straighten. As a result, the wheel rotates continuously, effectively acting as a rotary engine. The researchers next built a small toy car, powering it with the Moisture Mill and were successful in getting the car to roll on its own, powered only by evaporation. In the future, Sahin said, it may be possible to design engines that use the mechanical energy stored in spores to propel a full-sized vehicle. Such an engine, if achieved, would require neither fuel to burn nor an electrical battery. A larger version of the Moisture Mill could also produce electricity, Sahin said, suggesting a wheel that sits above a large body of water and evaporates saltwater, causing the wheel to rotate and generate electricity. This development would steadily produce as much electricity as a wind turbine, Sahin said.   Source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150616123608.htm Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Xi Chen, Davis Goodnight, Zhenghan Gao, Ahmet H. Cavusoglu, Nina Sabharwal, Michael DeLay, Adam Driks, Ozgur Sahin. Scaling up nanoscale water-driven energy conversion into evaporation-driven engines and generators. Nature Communications, 2015; 6: 7346 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8346

The following is invitation letter to participate in Technical Workshop in Techincal Workshop on UI GreenMetric 2015 for Indonesian Universities. Please read carefully the following information about workshop venue and registration [gview file="http://greenmetric.ui.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Registration-Workshop-UI-GreenMetric-2015.pdf"]

On 22 September 2015, University College Cork, one of the National University located in Cork, Ireland visited Universitas Indonesia. Dr. Christopher K.Brown, Director of International, Dr. Christopher Shepard, International Strategy Officer, Prof. David Kerins, Dept. of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and Dr Liz Gebruers are the delegation of UCC. Prof. Dr. Ir. Riri Fitri Sari, M.Sc., MM, Dr. Ayomi Dita, and Drg. Baiduri Widanarko MKKK, PhD. and other Green Metrics team received the delegation with international Office representatives, Nurul Tri and Desi Dinwati. The partnership between UCC and UI has started since UCC becomes a member of Green Metrics, World University Ranking on environmental Sustainability made by Universitas Indonesia. The aim of the visit is to develop more collaborative relationships between UI and UCC and meeting Green Metrics team. UCC emphasized marine renewable energy, and food science biochemistry as one of their key concern of joint research to be considered in the future. UI also proposed to sign formal MOU between UCC and UI and also offered some other possible collaboration such as student exchange, and customized short term student mobility to attract more inbound students to UI and vice versa. This initiative is taken to accommodate internationalization of UI to global world.   Source : http://international.ui.ac.id/news/news-university-college-cork-visit-ui.html

UC Davis continues to be listed among the top public universities in the nation, according to annual rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report. “With hundreds of public universities in the United States, we are always gratified to be considered one of the very best in the nation,” said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “As we continue to grow and advance our big initiatives to enhance the university and support the success of our students, I know our reputation for excellence remains very solid. That is certainly reflected in our receiving a record number of applications year after year from some of the best students anywhere.” The U.S. News & World Report rankings come on the heels of other strong rankings for the university. In the latest report from QS World University Rankings, for example, UCD was rated No. 1 in the world for agriculture, forestry and veterinary sciences. It was the third No. 1 world ranking in a row for UC Davis in agriculture and forestry, and in this year’s QS rankings, UCD was one of just four universities to be listed as No. 1 in more than one discipline. The others were Harvard, M.I.T. and Yale. In addition, the School of Veterinary Medicine was ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report for its graduate and professional school rankings. Sierra magazine listed UCD as 2nd “Cool School” among more than 150 of America’s greenest colleges and universities in 2015. The UI GreenMetric World University ranked UC Davis as 4th internationally and 1st in the United States. UCD is 6th among universities with the most students hired by top companies in and around Silicon Valley, according to Business Insider. And just last month, Washington Monthly listed UCD as the 16th best university in the nation and 4th best in the Western United States in the category of “Best Bang for Your Buck.” As part of the 2016 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings, UCD is ranked 41 overall. “UC Davis continues to build on our commitment to be a global leader in providing a high impact and quality environment for our students and faculty, and we are very proud of our reputation both nationally and internationally,” Katehi said. One of several UC Davis initiatives underway is the University of the 21st Century, which aims to address how the university can work collaboratively with faculty, students and staff to transform into a stronger community of learners, locally and globally. Another significant goal is the 2020 Initiative, with activities underway to create a more diverse scholar community and achieve greater financial stability. UC Davis has also established a World Food Center to broaden collaboration and partnerships, convene leaders to shape strategy and policy, and connect groundbreaking research to society and the marketplace. UC Davis also continues to make progress on Katehi’s goal of attracting $1 billion a year in research grants, with grants totaling more than $780 million this year, according to preliminary figures.   Resource : http://www.dailydemocrat.com/article/NI/20150909/NEWS/150909870

People do a lot of activities every day. But they don’t realize that the activities can give bad impacts to the environment. Various activities that we do every day will accumulate and will cause Carbon foot print. Carbon foot print is the amount of greenhouse gas that is produced through the various activities undertaken by individuals, organizations, corporations, derived from daily activities, such as the use of motor vehicles, air-conditioning, the lighting and electrical equipment, the use of paper, and others. These greenhouse gases will give effect to temperature of the earth. The gas will withstand sunlight in the atmosphere so that the temperature of the earth will increase. Carbon foot print can be calculated using the carbon calculator. Carbon calculator serves to measure the amount of carbon that is produced every day, so it will be able to help individuals, organizations, or companies to control the amount of carbon that they produce.Knowing the approximate amount of carbon produced each day, will help individuals, companies, or organizations to control the amount of carbon in the air.Carbon calculator will calculate the amount of carbon released then advise how emissions can be reduced or how many trees planted that are equivalent to the emissions released. We can do a lot of thing to reduce carbon emissions, among others are : • Reducing the use of motor vehicles. • Reduce the excessive use of electricity. • Reducing the use of electronic objects. • Conduct waste recycling

UI Greenmetric participated in IREG Forum, represented by Prof. Dr. Ir. Riri Fitri Sari, M.Sc., M.M. Over 140 participants and speakers from 40 countries attended IREG Forum on Rankings by Subject held at the Aalborg University in the city of Aalborg in Denmark. There had been a general consensus among the participants of the IREG Form that rankings by subject or fields of study represent a positive trend as these rankings provide a wealth of information valid for users of rankings both on national and international level. As an example how to approach a ranking by subject, the fields of engineering was discussed in detail, taking into account both academic as well as industry’s perspectives. At the IREG Forum, the IREG Guidelines for Stakeholders of Academic Rankings were presented and officially launched as a document of IREG Observatory.

University rankings are a popular way to gauge the academic prowess of schools, but a new report released last January rates the environmental sustainability of campuses across the globe. Unsurprisingly, it shows that the Arab world could do better. Only 14 universities located in eight countries have adopted any significant environmentally friendly policies out of the more than 600 universities across the region. This was the conclusion of the fifth annual Universitas Indonesia UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, which used data collected in 2014. The ranking was based on results computed from information provided by 360 universities from 62 countries. The data relates to six main categories: green statistics; energy and climate change; waste management; water use; transportation and education. The data categories varied in weight in the rankings with factors related to energy and climate change the most important and water use the least.  Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Syria and Morocco have only one university each in the rankings. Egypt has two, Palestine three, and Jordan four. Jordan was accordingly the top country in the Arab world for establishing environmentally conscious universities. The rankings of the Arab institutions are as follows: – Jordan University of Science and Technology: 49th – University of Jordan: 103rd – American University in Cairo: 105th – Kafrelsheikh University (Egypt): 129th – The Islamic University of Gaza: 133rd – An-Najah National University (Palestine): 136th – al-Aqsa University (Palestine): 201st – The University of King Abdulaziz (Saudi Arabia): 203rd – United Arab Emirates University: 230th – Petra University (Jordan): 253rd – American University of Beirut: 257th – Damascus University 333rd – Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco): 340th – The Hashemite University (Jordan): 345th The meager representation of Arab countries among the world’s green campuses comes despite a 2009 report from the U.S. National Intelligence Council, which cites North Africa as particularly vulnerable to climate change—thanks to its geographic and ecological features along with a low capacity to adapt to change. Shabbir Shahid, acting manager of the central analytical laboratory at International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in the United Arab Emirates, said that the low performance of Arab universities in the green metric is due to the persistence of an “old curricula and a lack of understanding of the values for adopting a green campus concept.” Tarek Saif, an environmentalist at Egypt’s National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, recommended establishing a network of green Arab universities to collaborate on environmental innovations, training programs and building low carbon campuses. The 14 Arab universities that were in the green rankings could partner with other specialized institutions—such as the Pan African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences in Algeria and Masdar in the United Arab Emirates—to constitute the core of the network, suggested Saif. A Saudi bio-scientist, Mohammed Kuchari at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, agreed with the idea of an Arab network, but warned it shouldn’t be too ambitious.  “The proposed network should not re-invent the wheel as we already have regional and international best practices to learn from.” Those best practices include 25 recommendations from universities and colleges across the globe, which were documented in another report last month by the International Sustainable Campus Network. The United Nations also has a list of recommendations in a “toolkit,” released two years ago, which focused on sustainable campuses. A recent report on the “Green Economy: Sustainable Transition in a Changing Arab World,” made the case for more environmental awareness in Arab countries. (Download a PDF of the report here.) Eltayeb Mohamed Abdelgadir, a researcher at the Agricultural Research Corporation in Sudan, said the effort to create environmentally conscious campuses in the Arab world should produce homegrown technologies and generate a competitive green industry in the region. “Applying the green-campus concept should not be seen as just fashionable imitations of Western higher education trends.”     Resource : http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2015/03/arab-world-lags-behind-green-universities-movement/

Universitas Indonesia (UI) released the results of its GreenMetric Ranking of World Universities on 16th January 2015. This is the fifth year of this ranking which compares universities efforts towards campus sustainability and environment friendly university management. it was announced by the university Rector, Prof. Muhammad Anis, Prof Gunawan Tjahjono, and the Chairperson of UI Greenmetric Prof. Riri Fitri Sari at the Central Administration Building, Depok. This year, 360 universities from 62 countries took part, which is an increase from last year with 301 universities from 60 countries. University of nottingham in UK was ranked first with a score of 7,803, followed by University College Cork National University of Ireland in the Ireland (score 7,553) and third by Nottingham Trent University (score 7,530). The UC Davis, University of Oxford, the University of Bradford, University of Connecticut, Universitat fur Bodenkultur Wien Austria, UC Berkeley, and Northeastern University are on the top 10 of the rank. Apart from the US, the UK, Japan, south America, Chinese Taipei and countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the 2014 results include universities from Trinidad & Tobago, Sri Lanka, and Syria. The results are computed from information provided by universities online. This year the information are organized under Six (6) main categories. These categories, and their weightings, are: Green Statistics (15%), Energy and Climate Change (21%), Waste management (18%), Water usage (10%), Transportation (18%), and Education (18%).

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