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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%).

Subject: Invitation to participate in UI Green Metric World University Sustainability Ranking 2014 Dear Sir/Madame, It is with great pleasure that I write to invite your institution to participate in our world ranking of university sustainability – Green Metric. Since the last 4 years, UI GreenMetric has become one of the flagship programs of Universitas Indonesia that ranked universities throughout the world according to appointed indicators of campus environmental issues such as setting and infrastructure, energy, waste management, water, and transportation, and education. This ranking is one of the university’s efforts in promoting sustainability in campuses and also in involving stakeholders in any kind of effort to create a sustainable environment. This program was launched in 2010 and has been conducted four times, ranked 301universities from 61 countries around the world. In this ocassion, we would like to invite you to join the 2014 ranking. There are a number of benefits for participating universities. Participation can help you in sharing your experience in sustainability to other universities. You can measure your sustainability policies and compare results with other institutions on the ranking. You can also see the criteria that need to be improved. This ranking also could be a platform for future cooperation. We do hope your institution will be able join us. Please let me know as soon as you can whether you can make it. We hope to see you with us. Please do not hesitate to email any questions you may have to greenmetric@ui.ac.id Yours sincerely, Prof. Dr. Ir. Muhammad Anis, M. Met Rector rektor@ui.ac.id

By : Wagdy Sawahel To counter the negative impact of climate change in North Africa, several higher education initiatives and scientific programmes are producing scientific workforces with the required skills, as well as carrying out research for promoting renewable energy for sustainable development. The North Africa region is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its geographic and ecological features. The situation is aggravated by the interaction of multiple economic and social sources of stress and further compounded by a low adaptive capacity. Model projections indicate a clear rise in temperature over the next 20 years and this is expected to continue throughout the 21st century, probably at a rate higher than the estimated global average, according to a recent report,'North Africa: The Impact of Climate Change to 2030. Simulations also suggest a drying trend, particularly along the Mediterranean coast, driven by large decreases in summertime rainfall. Because coastal areas historically receive by far the largest amount of rainfall in North Africa, future decreases will likely have a significant and noticeable impact, the report says. Given the ecological and socioeconomic characteristics of the southern Mediterranean countries, the effect of climate change may be more marked than in other regions of the world. The most significant factors are likely to include water resources stress, agriculture, migration, natural disasters, energy and tourism. "Most of the predicted impacts in the region are already occurring regardless of climate change, for example, water stress and desertification. Climate change is expected to exacerbate these trends," the report says.   Green universities Only three universities in North Africa were ranked out of 301 participating higher education institutions located in 49 countries in the 2013'UI'GreenMetric World University Ranking for their sustainability initiatives. These were the American University in Cairo (101) and Kafrelsheikh University in Egypt (130), along with Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco (284). Launched in 2010 in response to the absence of sustainability criteria from existing university rankings bodies, the UIGreenMetric World University Ranking reflects the efforts made by participating institutions to implement environmentally friendly policies and programmes to reduce their carbon emissions and to help combat global climate change. The criteria include baseline information such as the size of the university, spatially and in terms of population, the campus location and the amount of green space; and also information on energy use, transport, water use and recycling and waste treatment, along with efforts being made by the institution towards establishing green policies and management and education programmes.   Teaching and research programmes To deal with climate change challenges, North African countries have hosted several regional initiatives including the following: The Pan African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences, or PAUWES, at Algeria’s University of Tlemcen, contributes to the development of higher education and sustainable development in Africa. PAUWES offers two world-class graduate programmes, a master of science in water and an MSc in energy, as well as providing training programmes for top students to become engineers and policy analysts, able to address Africa’s most pressing development challenges. The Desertec University Network is an integrated concept which includes energy security and climate protection, as well as drinking water production, socio-economic development, security policy and international cooperation. It focuses on generating sufficient clean power in the world's deserts to supply mankind with enough electricity on a sustainable basis. The Desertec University Network is formed around 20 universities in North Africa and the Middle East and is aimed at the development of know-how and the implementation of programmes related to renewable energy. Among the first steps are plans for tertiary-level degrees in renewable energy to be made available at local universities along with training technical personnel. The Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, or RCREEE, is the first regional centre of excellence for capacity building in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the Middle East and North Africa. The centre carries out research and studies on renewable energy resource assessment as well as demonstration, testing and evaluation of different technologies focusing on solar and wind. It also provides consultancy services, promotes knowledge and technology transfer as well as providing training programmes for scientific and technical manpower to settle renewable energy technologies in Egypt and other Middle Eastern and North African countries. In addition, the centre focuses on promoting renewable energy technologies through direct contact with research centres in Europe and takes part in formulating policies related to renewable energy.   Expert's views Manar Sabry, an Egyptian higher education expert at the US State University of New York says climate change is a real threat for the North African countries. Sabry says higher education institutions have an important role to play in reducing the risk of these changes. "The first role that universities can play is to establish specialised research centres to study the impact of climate change at the regional, global and local levels. This may include studying the expected impacts of climate change and the risks associated with it,' he says.' "These centres should also bring university professors and form multidisciplinary committees to draft applicable policies, taking into consideration the legal, technical and financial aspects, and the like, that would help prevent further deterioration." Sabry says universities should design courses to educate new generations about the issue including the risks of climate change, methods to face it, and adaptation to climate change. At the local level, universities have a responsibility to educate the public and the local communities about the causes, solutions and adaptation measures. "In short, universities can take a leadership role as well as being a role model in this regard by actively studying, researching and implementing sound solutions that would consider the financial and legal components as well as the technical ones," he says. A Libyan higher education expert, Amal Rhema, who lectures at the Aljabal Algharbi University and at Victoria University in Australia, says higher education institutions have good practical, financial, academic and moral reasons to try to reduce the impacts of climate change. "I would suggest that universities in the North Africa region should work hard at reducing the carbon impact of their campuses, and exercise moral leadership in the fight against climate change," Rhema says. "They can benefit from other successful initiatives and experiences in developed countries, which can serve as a powerful example for those institutions that follow their strategies for confronting the negative impact of climate change." He says North African universities should participate in research and innovation for promoting sustainable development, and ensure provision of a safe, equitable and prosperous future for their students and communities.   Way forward With last month's creation of the'Africa Climate Change Fund by the African Development Bank in Tunis, African universities and research centres have the opportunity to enhance their scientific, teaching and training programmes.' These include support for adaptation and mitigation projects, knowledge management and information sharing related to climate change; and capacity building, recruitment of national and international consultants; as well as training and consultation workshops, and regional and international meetings.   Source :'http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php'story=20140517163225939

By : Wagdy Sawahel The Arab world has been late to join the ? green? universities movement, which strives for lower emissions and less water consumption. Only 12 out of about 500 universities implement environmentally friendly policies and programmes to reduce their carbon emissions and help to combat global climate change. This is the conclusion of the recent?UI GreenMetric World University Ranking which reflects the efforts made by 301 universities located in 49 countries in US, Europe, Asia and Africa to become sustainable. The universities ranking criteria include baseline information such as the size of the university, spatially and in terms of population, the campus location and the amount of green space; and also information on energy use, transport, water use and recycling and waste treatment along with efforts being made by the institution towards establishing green policies and management and education programmes.   Arab green campuses. While Lebanon has only one university in the ranking with the American University of Beirut at number 197, two universities in Palestine and three universities in Jordan were ranked, making Jordan top of the Arab world in establishing green universities ?. Palestine's universities include the Islamic university of Gaza at 87 and An-Najah National University at 94. Jordan's universities include the Jordan University of Science and Technology (113), University of Petra (218), and University of Jordan (279). In North African countries, only three universities were ranked, including the American University in Cairo at 101, and the Kafrelsheikh University in Egypt (130), along with Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco (284). Only two Arab Gulf States-based universities, in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were included in the green university rankings: King Abdulaziz University (165) and the UAE University (181). This is despite recent studies indicating that the low-lying gulf states could be especially vulnerable to climate change as a result of rising sea levels. These could rise by more than a metre by the end of the century and this could lead to the submerging of thousands of kilometres of the gulf coastline ?. "The UI GreenMetric is a good initiative, but many of the universities doing excellent work in this area are not included in its ranking. It should not be considered a definitive guide," said Ann Kildahl, sustainability manager at the University of Hong Kong. "It may be that some of the Gulf state universities are making progress, but their work is not yet well known outside the region." Kildahl mentioned the 26-building campus of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, opened in 2009, that recycles all its wastewater, uses 27% less energy than a typical campus and was built with 20% recycled content. Also, UAE is setting up Masdar City which is the world's first large-scale carbon-neutral development. This US$18 billion investment in clean technology is creating a new city in the heart of the Middle East's oil country that boasts a research university and acts as incubator for newly emerging green collar industries. Turning universities green Arab universities are lagging behind in adopting a green pathway in their universities because there may be a regional trend toward consumerism, says Melissa Goodall, assistant director in the Office of Sustainability at Yale University in the United States.' "Demand for new products has implications for resource extraction, the impacts of manufacturing and transportation of goods, and disposal," Goodall said.' A 2013'report by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development, or AFED, stated that oil and gas revenues accounted for 36% of the total Arab GDP. But Goodall said the implication of this was probably two-fold: 'First, the countries of that area have a vested interest in continued consumption of and demand for fossil fuels; second, fossil fuel-based energy may be more economically viable than renewable energy alternatives." She said that to encourage Arab universities to become green campuses it would be helpful to have support from the institution leaders. If the head of a university announced a commitment to sustainability ' or a sustainability policy ' students and staff members were more likely to take it seriously. Goodall added: "After that, responsibilities and accountability should be clear ' if the university is going to reduce its energy use, how will it do so, and whose job is it to ensure that it happens'Ideally, there is one office or person on a campus that takes on this responsibility and ultimately will have a set of university-level sustainability goals that are measurable and time-bound." As for what should be done on Arab campuses, she said establishing the local and regional contexts for sustainability was imperative. Many Arab nations were currently addressing challenges in terms of access to water and food security ' both of which were likely to worsen with climate change. In addition, much of the oil and gas extracted in Arab countries was exported. Yet, according to AFED, 35 million Arab people did not have access to modern energy services.' "Sustainability efforts on Arab campuses should reflect these imperatives in two ways: first, in commitments to strive for operational efficiencies; second, as priority areas for academic exploration so that local institutions can inform robust regional solutions," Goodall said. Mohamed Abdelraouf, a research fellow in the environmental research programme at the Gulf Research Center in Saudi Arabia, said Arab universities should have their own environmental policies, recycling programmes and environmental education. "However, as a start, there could be a policy mix of tools ' incentives and regulations ' from governments that could include a mandatory request that each university have their own environmental and social safeguards' policy, a policy that defines minimum requirements of their activities, including operational and educational ones.'   Sustainable universities leading green economy. Goodall said the green economy included several key concepts that should be fundamental to the operations and teaching at any higher education institution: equity between peoples and between generations, and committing to policies and practices that balanced people, planet, prosperity and culture. "Beyond this, though, universities have a remarkable and unique role to play. They have the capacity to test and innovate in ways that cities and businesses cannot. Cities are bound by their budgets and their need to provide consistent and reliable infrastructure to their residents. Everything that a business does must be focused on profits.' "The mission of a university, however, is to teach tomorrow's leaders. This requires constantly refreshing ideologies and exploring new solutions to complex problems," she said. Abdelraouf said Arab 'green universities' could also play an important role in promoting green industry and green economy as they represented the tools to accompany this. The tools could range from laws, incentives to education and awareness. 'For example, curricula and research of green universities must aim at subjects related to the green economy to provide the work market with the qualified graduates that fit green jobs,' he said. "If the universities have the above policy and role, the private sector will automatically turn to them for green technology and research."   The way forward. To promote regional exchange of expertise and best practice, Arab science and technology expert Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid called for the creation of an Arab network for green universities including scientists, technologists, lecturers and policy-makers, as well as universities, technology institutions and centres with green programmes. "The proposed network will support higher education institutions in the exchange of information, ideas and best practices for achieving sustainable campus operations and integrating sustainability in research and teaching," Abdelhamid said.' It should also focus on curriculum innovations, local carbon campuses and targeted training programmes. The network should set up a database for international best practice in campus sustainability and could include, for example, the February 2014report on the International Sustainable Campus Network website on best practices in campus sustainability, which provides an overview of current sustainability initiatives by leading universities and colleges.' A virtual library for green university studies should also be established that included important information for policy makers and higher education experts such as the 2013 UN Environment Programme report'Greening Universities Toolkit: Transforming universities into green and sustainable campuses.' "Developing joint research projects in green technology with regional and international science institutions and organisations is also a must in order to advance scientific progress and enhance knowledge and technology transfer," Abdelhamid said.   Source : ?http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php story=20140513091427533

The Arab world has been late to join the ‘green’ universities movement, which strives for lower emissions and less water consumption. Only 12 out of about 500 universities implement environmentally friendly policies and programmes to reduce their carbon emissions and help to combat global climate change. This is the conclusion of the recent UI GreenMetric World University Ranking which reflects the efforts made by 301 universities located in 49 countries in US, Europe, Asia and Africa to become sustainable. The universities ranking criteria include baseline information such as the size of the university, spatially and in terms of population, the campus location and the amount of green space; and also information on energy use, transport, water use and recycling and waste treatment along with efforts being made by the institution towards establishing green policies and management and education programmes. Arab green campuses While Lebanon has only one university in the ranking with the American University of Beirut at number 197, two universities in Palestine and three universities in Jordan were ranked, making Jordan top of the Arab world in establishing green universities. Palestine's universities include the Islamic university of Gaza at 87 and An-Najah National University at 94. Jordan's universities include the Jordan University of Science and Technology (113), University of Petra (218), and University of Jordan (279). In North African countries, only three universities were ranked, including the American University in Cairo at 101, and the Kafrelsheikh University in Egypt (130), along with Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco (284). Only two Arab Gulf States-based universities, in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were included in the green university rankings: King Abdulaziz University (165) and the UAE University (181). This is despite recent studies indicating that the low-lying gulf states could be especially vulnerable to climate change as a result of rising sea levels. These could rise by more than a metre by the end of the century and this could lead to the submerging of thousands of kilometres of the gulf coastline. "The UI GreenMetric is a good initiative, but many of the universities doing excellent work in this area are not included in its ranking. It should not be considered a definitive guide," said Ann Kildahl, sustainability manager at the University of Hong Kong. "It may be that some of the Gulf state universities are making progress, but their work is not yet well known outside the region." Kildahl mentioned the 26-building campus of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, opened in 2009, that recycles all its wastewater, uses 27% less energy than a typical campus and was built with 20% recycled content. Also, UAE is setting up Masdar City which is the world’s first large-scale carbon-neutral development. This US$18 billion investment in clean technology is creating a new city in the heart of the Middle East’s oil country that boasts a research university and acts as incubator for newly emerging green collar industries. Turning universities green Arab universities are lagging behind in adopting a green pathway in their universities because there may be a regional trend toward consumerism, says Melissa Goodall, assistant director in the Office of Sustainability at Yale University in the United States. “Demand for new products has implications for resource extraction, the impacts of manufacturing and transportation of goods, and disposal," Goodall said. A 2013 report by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development, or AFED, stated that oil and gas revenues accounted for 36% of the total Arab GDP. But Goodall said the implication of this was probably two-fold: “First, the countries of that area have a vested interest in continued consumption of and demand for fossil fuels; second, fossil fuel-based energy may be more economically viable than renewable energy alternatives." She said that to encourage Arab universities to become green campuses it would be helpful to have support from the institution leaders. If the head of a university announced a commitment to sustainability – or a sustainability policy – students and staff members were more likely to take it seriously. Goodall added: "After that, responsibilities and accountability should be clear – if the university is going to reduce its energy use, how will it do so, and whose job is it to ensure that it happens? Ideally, there is one office or person on a campus that takes on this responsibility and ultimately will have a set of university-level sustainability goals that are measurable and time-bound." As for what should be done on Arab campuses, she said establishing the local and regional contexts for sustainability was imperative. Many Arab nations were currently addressing challenges in terms of access to water and food security – both of which were likely to worsen with climate change. In addition, much of the oil and gas extracted in Arab countries was exported. Yet, according to AFED, 35 million Arab people did not have access to modern energy services. "Sustainability efforts on Arab campuses should reflect these imperatives in two ways: first, in commitments to strive for operational efficiencies; second, as priority areas for academic exploration so that local institutions can inform robust regional solutions," Goodall said. Mohamed Abdelraouf, a research fellow in the environmental research programme at the Gulf Research Center in Saudi Arabia, said Arab universities should have their own environmental policies, recycling programmes and environmental education. "However, as a start, there could be a policy mix of tools – incentives and regulations – from governments that could include a mandatory request that each university have their own environmental and social safeguards’ policy, a policy that defines minimum requirements of their activities, including operational and educational ones.” Sustainable universities leading green economy Goodall said the green economy included several key concepts that should be fundamental to the operations and teaching at any higher education institution: equity between peoples and between generations, and committing to policies and practices that balanced people, planet, prosperity and culture. "Beyond this, though, universities have a remarkable and unique role to play. They have the capacity to test and innovate in ways that cities and businesses cannot. Cities are bound by their budgets and their need to provide consistent and reliable infrastructure to their residents. Everything that a business does must be focused on profits. "The mission of a university, however, is to teach tomorrow’s leaders. This requires constantly refreshing ideologies and exploring new solutions to complex problems," she said. Abdelraouf said Arab ‘green universities’ could also play an important role in promoting green industry and green economy as they represented the tools to accompany this. The tools could range from laws, incentives to education and awareness. “For example, curricula and research of green universities must aim at subjects related to the green economy to provide the work market with the qualified graduates that fit green jobs,” he said. "If the universities have the above policy and role, the private sector will automatically turn to them for green technology and research." The way forward To promote regional exchange of expertise and best practice, Arab science and technology expert Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid called for the creation of an Arab network for green universities including scientists, technologists, lecturers and policy-makers, as well as universities, technology institutions and centres with green programmes. "The proposed network will support higher education institutions in the exchange of information, ideas and best practices for achieving sustainable campus operations and integrating sustainability in research and teaching," Abdelhamid said. It should also focus on curriculum innovations, local carbon campuses and targeted training programmes. The network should set up a database for international best practice in campus sustainability and could include, for example, the February 2014 report on the International Sustainable Campus Network website on best practices in campus sustainability, which provides an overview of current sustainability initiatives by leading universities and colleges. A virtual library for green university studies should also be established that included important information for policy makers and higher education experts such as the 2013 UN Environment Programme report Greening Universities Toolkit: Transforming universities into green and sustainable campuses. “Developing joint research projects in green technology with regional and international science institutions and organisations is also a must in order to advance scientific progress and enhance knowledge and technology transfer,” Abdelhamid said.   Resource : http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140513091427533

Rector of the University of Indonesia (UI), represented by the Secretary of the University, Prof. Dr. Ir. Tommy Ilyas, M. Eng. received the "The Global Green Award 2014" from Otherways Management Association Club, Paris, Monday (03/31/2014). The award was accepted on UI gait in environmental field. UI received the award because of the role of attention problems in environmental sustainability through UI Greenmetric program. UI is considered to have been a pioneer that invites other universities around the world to pay attention to environmental issues. Earlier, in June 2013, on gait in the same field, UI was awarded "Indonesia Green Award 2013" for Forest Conservation category from La Tofi School of CSR.

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