A sustainable campus is not built simply by adding more green space or cutting back on energy use. It grows out of how a university manages its resources, builds its academic culture, and instills ecological awareness throughout the life of its academic community. This is precisely the path that Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta continues to strengthen its footing on.

That commitment has once again earned national recognition. At the UI GreenMetric Sustainable University Rankings Indonesia 2026, held at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Yogyakarta, UIN Sunan Kalijaga received the award for “Indonesian University with the Best Substantive Improvement in Sustainability Performance.”

This achievement comes alongside a 26-place jump in the rankings compared to 2025, placing UIN Sunan Kalijaga within the 3.5 Trees Ranking category. UIN Sunan Kalijaga also received recognition for its compliance with the various sustainability indicators set out in the UI GreenMetric ranking system.

For UIN Sunan Kalijaga, this achievement is not simply about its position in a ranking. More significantly, the award reflects the university's efforts to build governance that is increasingly responsive to ecological issues and more efficient in its use of resources.

Upon receiving the award, UIN Sunan Kalijaga's Vice Rector for General Administration, Planning, and Finance, Prof. Dr. Mochamad Sodiq, S.Sos., M.Si., expressed appreciation to the UI GreenMetric team and to the entire academic community that contributed to this achievement.

“We would like to thank everyone for their outstanding collaboration. We want to be among the best in pursuing sustainable development, for a dignified Indonesia and an increasingly advanced world.”

UIN Sunan Kalijaga's leap in the rankings reflects change that goes beyond merely fulfilling administrative requirements. A range of sustainability indicators continue to be pushed into becoming part of everyday campus management practice, from energy efficiency, waste management, and water use, to strengthening education and research related to the environment.

This approach aligns with UIN Sunan Kalijaga's character as an Islamic university that develops scholarship while also responding to the social and ecological issues facing society.

Environmental awareness, then, is not treated as a standalone issue. It forms part of the broader effort to build a responsible higher education ecosystem, one in which knowledge, governance, and everyday campus practice are interconnected.

This spirit also reinforces UIN Sunan Kalijaga's identity in developing a green campus that speaks not only to infrastructure, but also to values, behavior, education, and academic contribution to sustainability.

The UI GreenMetric 2026 award stands as one marker of UIN Sunan Kalijaga's journey in strengthening its sustainability agenda. The 3.5 Trees rating and the award for substantive performance improvement show that the university's efforts toward becoming a sustainable campus continue to move forward and are gaining recognition at the national level.

For UIN Suka, sustainability is not merely a ranking target. It is part of the university's responsibility in preparing a generation equipped with both the knowledge and the awareness to safeguard life.

By combining the tradition of Islamic scholarship, Indonesian values, research, education, and increasingly environmentally friendly governance practices, UIN Sunan Kalijaga continues to strengthen its role as a sustainability-oriented Green Campus.

This step is part of UIN Sunan Kalijaga's ongoing effort to deliver higher education that is not only academically excellent, but also makes a real contribution to the environment, to society, and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). (humassk)