a comparative analysis of environmental sustainability in top iranian universities: ui greenmetric rankings, 2023-2024

In the last decades, sustainable development and green management have been at the top of the list of priorities among all universities worldwide. universities are among the most important organizations whose impacts on the environment are significant because of their population, high use of energy, considerable volume of waste, and the scientific role of guidance in society. the ui greenmetric ranking is the most popular design used for university performance assessment in matters related to issues of sustainability. the ranking is dependent on the progress made by a university towards implementing environmentally sustainable practices in six categories: infrastructure and setting, energy and climate change, waste, water resources, transport, and education and research. this paper will examine the performance of top five iranian universities: alzahra university, razi university, university of kashan, kashan university of medical sciences, and tarbiat modares university for the period 2023-2024. using the data from all six categories obtained in ui greenmetric, this research conducts an analysis based on the variation of the total scores and ranking positions globally, influencing factors for improvement or decline, and explores to which policy reforms and operational activities contribute to such variations. results show that there are important differences in the sustainability performance of these institutions. while certain universities had a remarkable advance regarding energy and waste management, others showed a decline in water use and transportation. this study therefore, feeds into the evolving understanding of the state of green governance in iranian universities through evidence-based recommendations for improving their best practices in sustainability.