The role of universities in ensuring energy efficiency and sustainability: Investigating the link between UI GreenMetric ranking and countries’ sustainability indicators

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The article analyzes the role of universities, assessed through the prism of the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings (UI GreenMetric) methodology, in ensuring energy efficiency and sustainability of the national economy. For this purpose, UI GreenMetric results, systematized by country and region, were used, as well as data for 2017–2022 on countries’ progress in achieving SDG 7 and the national level of primary energy intensity. The analysis of trends in the development of sustainable universities according to UI GreenMetric shows regional differences: on average, the highest scores in the ranking are given to universities in OECD countries and East and South Asia, and the lowest – to Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe & Central Asia. A positive correlation (from 13.9% to 18.7% of the variation) was found between the activities of universities and the countries’ progress in achieving SDG 7, as well as a negative correlation with the energy intensity of the level of primary energy of these countries; this proves the participation of higher education institutions in ensuring the energy efficiency of national economies (the level of influence is much lower, the explanation of model variations is 2.4%-8.2%). The role of universities is not only to develop green campuses but also to increase research, create new educational programs, develop cross-sectoral cooperation and ‘living laboratories’ to implement sustainable development practices, and train future leaders capable of overcoming global energy challenges.
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    • Figure 1. Average value of the overall score in the UI GreenMetric ranking by geographic region in 2022
    • Figure 2. Scatter plots of UI GreenMetric university scores and national progress on SDG 7 by geographical regions in 2022
    • Figure 3. Scatter plot of UI GreenMetric university scores and national progress on SDG 7 in 2022
    • Figure 4. Scatter plots of UI GreenMetric university scores and national energy intensity level of primary energy by geographical regions in 2022
    • Figure 5. Scatter plot of UI GreenMetric university scores and national energy intensity level of primary energy in 2022
    • Table 1. Input data characteristics
    • Table 2. Breakdown of sample countries by period and geographic region
    • Table 3. Correlations between university scores in UI GreenMetric and national progress on SDG 7
    • Table 4. Correlations between university scores in UI GreenMetric and national progress on SDG 7 by geographical regions in 2022
    • Table 5. Regression analysis of universities’ contribution (measured by UI GreenMetric) to national progress on SDG 7
    • Table 6. Regression analysis of different vectors of universities’ contribution (measured by UI GreenMetric) to national progress on SDG 7
    • Table 7. Correlations between university scores in UI GreenMetric and national energy intensity level of primary energy
    • Table 8. Correlations between university scores in UI GreenMetric and national energy intensity level of primary energy by geographical regions in 2022
    • Table 9. Regression analysis of universities’ contribution (measured by UI GreenMetric) to national energy intensity level of primary energy
    • Table 10. Regression analysis of different vectors of universities’ contribution (measured by UI GreenMetric) to national energy intensity level of primary energy
    • Conceptualization
      Denys Smolennikov, Alina Raboshuk, Oksana Drebot, Zhanna Oleksich
    • Funding acquisition
      Denys Smolennikov
    • Methodology
      Denys Smolennikov, Alina Raboshuk, Liudmyla Huliaieva
    • Project administration
      Denys Smolennikov, Alina Raboshuk
    • Supervision
      Denys Smolennikov, Alina Raboshuk
    • Writing – original draft
      Denys Smolennikov, Alina Raboshuk, Liudmyla Huliaieva
    • Formal Analysis
      Alina Raboshuk, Liudmyla Huliaieva
    • Investigation
      Alina Raboshuk
    • Writing – review & editing
      Alina Raboshuk
    • Data curation
      Oksana Drebot, Zhanna Oleksich, Liudmyla Huliaieva
    • Resources
      Oksana Drebot, Zhanna Oleksich
    • Validation
      Oksana Drebot, Zhanna Oleksich
    • Visualization
      Oksana Drebot, Zhanna Oleksich