Sustainability Performance of Istanbul Technical University (ITU): Lessons Learned from UI Green Metrics

The UI Green Metric ranking is a significant initiative that has assessed the sustainability of universities around the world since 2010. This study aims to evaluate ITU’s sustainability performance using this system and to share the lessons learned during the process. Making the university campus more sustainable requires a long-term commitment and dramatic shifts from a business-as-usual scenario. The “Green Campus” project was initiated by ITU in 2013 to create a barrier-free and nature-friendly university and it was recently updated to the “Sustainable Campus” concept. Following on from this, the Sustainability Office was established in 2021 and has a set of commissions addressing 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The “Climate Action Plan” and “Gender Equality Plan” were also published in the same year, and sustainability reports have been published annually. ITU proclaimed 2023, the 250th anniversary of its establishment, as the “Year of Sustainability” and the interdisciplinary M.Sc. program in Sustainability welcomed its first students in the Fall semester of 2023–2024. As a result, ITU was awarded as the Most Sustainable University in the Middle East and ranked 46th globally in the UI Green Metric 2023. On the other hand, ITU could not reach the desired levels in the “Energy and Climate” category. Projects and investments in the future should focus more on renewable energy and smart building topics as they become more prominent. Consequently, the findings of this study could be beneficial for universities wishing to navigate a sustainability transition.