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.

 

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).

 

"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.