An Exploratory Study Examining the Key Aspects and Actions for Universities to Achieve High Sustainability Rankings

Abstract

Understanding the concept of sustainability and its implementation in specific actions is necessary for today’s societies, and part of this responsibility falls on Higher Education Institutions. How these institutions have tried to address this issue has been diverse. To standardize, homogenize, and validate these sustainable practices, a few years ago, the University of Indonesia Green Metric positioned itself as the internationally accepted ranking; however, other rankings have begun to emerge, such as the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, which also addresses the search for compliance of the SDGs. For a novel or incipient university to establish the politics and actions to fulfill sustainability and SDGs or stay on track may represent a disorienting and challenging task, particularly when these rankings have different origins or criteria. So, this research aimed to review the top ten universities and their actions in the University of Indonesia Green Metric and Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, along with the organizational initiatives in education, to clarify the key measures and actions adopted by universities toward sustainability and their participation in the rankings, to pursue the SDGs related to social and environmental impacts in universities. Additionally, as a case study, we analyzed in detail the actions performed by the Tecnologico de Monterrey (located at the 274th and 100–200th places of the University of Indonesia Green Metric and the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, respectively) and compared them with those of Top Ten Higher Education Institutions in both rankings. As a result, a summary guide of the actions is suggested to guide higher education institutions in adopting the required level of sustainability development indicated in the rankings.