A Data-Driven Benchmarking Framework for Enhancing Sustainability Performance in UI GreenMetric Rankings: Insights from Saudi Arabian Higher Education Institutions

Worldwide sustainability rankings have gained their importance as evaluation tools for aligning HEIs with global sustainability goals and environmental responsibility (L​o​z​a​n​o​,​ ​2​0​0​8; L​o​z​a​n​o​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​1​3). Among these tools, the UIGWUR has now become a globally recognized framework since its inception in 2010 (U​I​ ​G​r​e​e​n​M​e​t​r​i​c​,​ ​2​0​2​4). It assesses HEIs based on six key categories including Setting and Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change, Waste, Water, Transportation, and Education and Research. This ranking system provides a structured methodology for international HEIs to benchmark their sustainability initiatives, track progress, and implement strategic improvement. Sustainability rankings also help HEIs enhance reputation, foster institutional competitions and influence students’ and faculty’s decisions (B​r​u​n​d​i​e​r​s​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​1; H​a​l​l​i​n​g​e​r​ ​&​ ​C​h​a​t​p​i​n​y​a​k​o​o​p​,​ ​2​0​1​9; M​a​c​h​a​d​o​ ​&​ ​D​a​v​i​m​,​ ​2​0​2​3). HEIs that perform well in global rankings could often secure better funding opportunities, research collaborations, and top talent (A​b​u​b​a​k​a​r​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​0; A​l​b​e​r​t​i​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​5; C​h​r​i​s​t​o​u​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​4; M​u​ñ​o​z​-​S​u​á​r​e​z​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​0; W​a​j​i​d​,​ ​2​0​2​5​b). The UIGWUR provides HEIs with guidance on transparency and accountability in sustainability reporting, leading institutions to impose their environmental impact. In recent years, global HEIs have deemed sustainability a core component of social responsibility. As climate change and environmental challenges escalate, HEIs should be the role model to integrate sustainable practices into various operations, infrastructure and academic programs (A​i​n​a​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​1​9; A​l​s​h​a​r​i​f​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​0). The participation of HEIs in the UIGWUR, to a certain extent, demonstrates their commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs), resulting in possible improvement of their global positioning.

The number of Saudi Arabian HEIs participating in the UIGWUR has significantly increased from one in year 2014 to 14 in year 2024, thus demonstrating a growing commitment to sustainability in line with Vision 2030 (U​n​i​t​e​d​ ​N​a​t​i​o​n​s​ ​S​a​u​d​i​ ​A​r​a​b​i​a​,​ ​2​0​2​2). The growth was driven by initiatives promoting green infrastructure, renewable energy, and water conservation (M​u​ñ​o​z​-​S​u​á​r​e​z​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​0). HEIs including King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), Qassim University (QU), and Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IABFU) have consistently ranked among the top 100 worldwide and this showcases the possibility of their adoption of strategies to attain robust sustainability (A​l​-​O​h​a​l​i​ ​&​ ​S​h​i​n​,​ ​2​0​1​3). Their achievements in the rankings mask persistent and context-specific barriers that require tailored solutions to be discussed in the next section, as globally leading HEIs could maintain their sustainability with effort. Despite the progress of some Saudi Arabian HEIs, there are major recurring challenges that hinder them from obtaining global excellence. Context-specific constraints confronted by Saudi Arabia also distinguish it from temperate-climate countries and these obstacles demand tailored and data driven benchmarking strategies to resolve.

The sustainability performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs is limited by several intertwined barriers such as culture, infrastructure, and environment etc. which require greater attention and research-backed analysis to contextualize benchmarking effort. Some challenges are discussed below:

• Waste Management Deficits: Top-performing global HEIs such as ETH Zurich have adopted circular economy models (W​i​l​t​s​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​1) and AI-enabled waste analytics to enhance sorting precision and recycling efficiency (G​r​e​a​t​e​r​ ​Z​u​r​i​c​h​ ​A​r​e​a​,​ ​2​0​2​3). The national recycling rate of Saudi Arabia is approximately 21%, with the National Center for Waste Management, Saudi Arabia targeting a 90% landfill diversion by 2040 through integrated waste strategies (N​a​t​i​o​n​a​l​ ​C​e​n​t​e​r​ ​f​o​r​ ​W​a​s​t​e​ ​M​a​n​a​g​e​m​e​n​t​,​ ​n​.​d​.). However, data on waste management performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs are mostly unrecorded, thus underscoring a critical gap in the institutional reporting and benchmarking.

• Sustainable Transportation Gaps: Survey data showed that 57% female students of Saudi Arabian HEIs depended on private transportation, either cars or vans, whereas only 39% used bus services, hence highlighting gaps in infrastructure and gender-inclusive options (S​a​l​e​h​ ​&​ ​M​a​l​i​b​a​r​i​,​ ​2​0​2​1) in the face of broader cultural and policy constraints. Saudi Arabia can initiate campus mobility reforms such as inclusive transport policies and electric vehicle programs to reduce emissions and enhance access for all student groups, drawing inspiration from inclusive transportation initiatives implemented in Malaysia (C​h​a​n​,​ ​2​0​2​1; T​h​a​m​,​ ​2​0​2​5).

• Energy Use and Carbon Footprint: The University of Manchester achieved a 36% reduction in scopes 1 and 2 emissions from 2007 to 2023 through retrofitting buildings, investing in renewable energy, and deploying smart systems as documented in its official carbon strategy (U​n​i​v​e​r​s​i​t​y​ ​o​f​ ​M​a​n​c​h​e​s​t​e​r​,​ ​2​0​2​3); the institution ranked second worldwide in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2025 (T​i​m​e​s​ ​H​i​g​h​e​r​ ​E​d​u​c​a​t​i​o​n​,​ ​n​.​d​.). Similar results achieved by the hybrid model implemented at the University of Coimbra, where scope 3 emissions accounted for 78.38% of the total footprint, helped refine carbon mitigation policies (D​e​d​a​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​5). Saudi Arabian HEIs could benchmark integrated approaches to strengthen carbon accounting and actively support Saudi Vision 2030 and the S​a​u​d​i​ ​G​r​e​e​n​ ​I​n​i​t​i​a​t​i​v​e​ ​(​2​0​2​1​).

• Sustainability Reporting: Global HEIs increasingly report their sustainability performance through platforms such as UI GreenMetric and THE Impact Rankings (T​i​m​e​s​ ​H​i​g​h​e​r​ ​E​d​u​c​a​t​i​o​n​,​ ​n​.​d​.; U​I​ ​G​r​e​e​n​M​e​t​r​i​c​,​ ​2​0​2​4), facilitating greater transparency and alignment with the UN-SDGs (A​l​b​e​r​t​i​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​5; W​a​j​i​d​,​ ​2​0​2​5​b). Promising Saudi Arabian HEIs could have opportunities to embrace global best practices by adopting standardized Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and public disclosures that would elevate benchmarking, foster innovation and accelerate sustainable progress across the higher education sector of Saudi Arabia (G​e​n​e​r​a​l​ ​A​u​t​h​o​r​i​t​y​ ​f​o​r​ ​S​t​a​t​i​s​t​i​c​s​,​ ​2​0​2​2; U​n​i​t​e​d​ ​N​a​t​i​o​n​s​ ​S​a​u​d​i​ ​A​r​a​b​i​a​,​ ​2​0​2​2).

• Limited Sustainability-Focused Institutional Collaborations: Saudi Arabian HEIs have demonstrated limited engagement in structured sustainability collaborations. This gap presents a unique opportunity for them to take a leadership role in advancing sustainability by strengthening collaborative frameworks, as proposed by W​a​j​i​d​ ​(​2​0​2​5​b​). While global frameworks like the UIGWUR have imitated the Western models, adapting practices from the West to the distinct climate, campus culture and governance in Saudi Arabia could unlock tailored high-impact solutions (A​l​b​e​r​t​i​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​2​5).

Benchmarking is considered a useful data-driven method for improving performance in various fields including the higher education sector. The sustainability rankings help HEIs assess their performance based on the recognized standards and pinpointed areas for improvement (L​o​z​a​n​o​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​1​5). This study presents a benchmarking model using data from the UIGWUR spanning year 2020 to 2024. The model enables HEIs to compare their sustainability performance with the minimum scores of the top 100 HEIs listed in the UIGWUR (U​I​ ​G​r​e​e​n​M​e​t​r​i​c​,​ ​2​0​2​4). Unlike traditional models that use average or median values, this approach adopts category-wise minimum scores among the top 100 globally ranked HEIs in the UIGWUR as attainable reference points. In the context of sustainability rankings, enabling HEIs to assess gaps, learn from high-performing peers, and set realistic targets is of paramount importance. However, existing benchmarking studies often focus on global leaders and did not provide context-sensitive frameworks that guide HEIs with diverse capabilities and starting points (A​A​S​H​E​,​ ​2​0​2​5). Therefore, a benchmarking tool is introduced based on four-tier effort level classification such as Aligned, Low, Medium, and High using percentage threshold scores (Δ) between the performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs and the qualifying score for year 2025.

While existing studies examine the participation of HEIs in sustainability rankings, few offer a comprehensive benchmarking tool developed by empirical data and adapted to regional contexts. To address this gap, the present study has the following objectives:

• Assess participation and performance trends of Saudi Arabian HEIs in the UIGWUR spanning year 2014 to 2024;

• Develop a benchmarking framework to identify performance gaps and strategic areas for improvement;

• Introduce a tiered effort classification system across six sustainability indicators; and

• Provide evidence-based recommendations to help global and Saudi Arabian HEIs enhance their rankings in the UIGWUR.

This study contributes by:

• Enhancing the methodological toolkit for benchmarking in the context of underrepresented HEIs.

• Offering a scalable model adaptable to HEIs worldwide.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the UIGWUR. Section 3 presents a comprehensive methodology explicitly discussing the analytical framework and benchmarking model. Section 4 provides concluding insights and recommendations for the planning and policies of HEIs.

The UIGWUR was established in year 2010 with the participation of 301 HEIs worldwide. By the 15th edition in year 2024, the ranking had expanded to 1,476 HEIs from 95 countries, rendering it the most comprehensive global ranking system dedicated to assessing sustainability performance in higher education, as shown in Figure 1.

The UIGWUR is based on an online survey designed to evaluate the sustainability effort, policies, and progress of HEIs worldwide. Its primary objective is to draw the attention of leaders and stakeholders of HEIs to the critical global challenges, such as climate change, clean energy, water conservation, waste management, green transportation, and sustainability-focused education and research. Besides, it aims at driving HEIs worldwide towards sustainable future for all through increased awareness and behavioral shifts. To further strengthen this effort, the 2024 edition introduced a new theme, “Doing Sustainable Development Goals in Higher Education: The Story of Our Institution and Society” (U​I​ ​G​r​e​e​n​M​e​t​r​i​c​,​ ​2​0​2​4). This theme is intended to inspire and attract HEIs worldwide at large by fostering a shared commitment to building sustainable campuses that will benefit future generations.

The current study employed a data-driven benchmarking approach to quantitatively analyze the trends of participation and sustainability performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs in the UIGWUR from year 2014 to 2024. The methodology is structured into four major sections detailed below:

In this study, the data covering the number of Saudi Arabian HEIs participating in the UIGWUR, spanning from year 2014 to 2024 were inherited from the official website: https://greenmetric.ui.ac.id/rankings/rankings-overview of the UIGWUR (U​I​ ​G​r​e​e​n​M​e​t​r​i​c​,​ ​2​0​2​4). The yearly data of Saudi Arabian HEIs in the UIGWUR were provided in the Appendix, Tables A1-A11.

This study relied heavily on the accuracy, consistency, and completeness of the dataset and no missing, redundant, or extreme values were found. Furthermore, no inconsistencies were observed in the used data, thus ensuring the reliability of the dataset for trend and performance analysis.

Figure 2 shows the rising trend of 67 Saudi Arabian HEIs (M​i​n​i​s​t​r​y​ ​o​f​ ​E​d​u​c​a​t​i​o​n​—​K​S​A​,​ ​2​0​2​5; W​a​j​i​d​,​ ​2​0​2​5​b), including 29 public and 38 private ones, which participated in the UIGWUR from year 2014 to 2024:

Figure 2 illustrates that in year 2014, there was only one participating HEI but the number of HEIs joining the UIGWUR grew to 14 in year 2024, hence reflecting a steady increase in engagement. Over the period of year 2014 to 2024, there were a total of 17 HEIs participants, with a breakdown of 16 public HEIs and just one private HEI, i.e., AlMaarefa University. The above data are summarized in Tables A1-A11 in the Appendix; despite the growth, 25% of the established HEIs in Saudi Arabia have participated in the UIGWUR while 75%, consisting of 13 public and 37 private HEIs, have not yet joined it.

This section presents the comprehensive performance analysis of participating HEIs discussed in the previous section. Table 1 summarizes the frequency of participation, highest achieved ranking and the frequency of top 100 ranks worldwide by Saudi Arabian HEIs.

Table 1 demonstrates that among all participating Saudi Arabian HEIs:

• 24% of the HEIs, including KAU, PNU, QU, and IABFU achieved top 100 rankings at least once.
• 50% of the HEIs participated more than five times between year 2014 and 2024, reflecting continuous engagement.
• 29% of the HEIs participated once only, highlighting the need for stronger institutional commitment to continuity and strategic sustainability.
• Six HEIs newly joined the UIGWUR, exhibiting a rising trend in the participation of HEIs in year 2024.

The performance assessment underscores the growing institutional momentum toward sustainability in Saudi Arabia while identifying the need for improved consistency, cross-institutional collaboration, and capacity-building to support HEIs with limited experience in the UIGWUR.

This section evaluates the performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs ranked among the top 100 worldwide with details given in Table 2.

Key insights from Table 2 are listed below:

• KAU maintained the top 100 rank from year 2016 to 2022, peaking at 26 in year 2021. Its absence in years 2023 and 2024 may suggest internal policy shifts, changes in data reporting priorities, or reallocation of sustainability resources. This gap highlights the importance of institutional continuity and reporting stability.
• PNU improved steadily between years 2015 and 2021, reaching rank number 71 before dropping out. This may reflect reporting fatigue, leadership transitions or diminished institutional focus despite previous strong performance.
• QU showed significant upward momentum via rising from rank number 342 in year 2019 to number 48 in year 2024, indicating strategic investments and operational alignment with sustainability indicators.
• IABFU improved from rank number 441 in year 2019 to number 95 in year 2024 likely due to targeted enhancements in energy use and mobility infrastructure.

Although Saudi Arbian HEIs achieved eight top 100 placements from year 2020 to 2024 in the UIGWUR, leadership in this ranking remains limited to a small number of Saudi Arabian HEIs. Inconsistent participation, particularly among leading HEIs, may weaken long-term visibility and hinder national progress. The variations found emphasize the importance of establishing formal sustainability governance, maintaining regular data reporting and adopting long-term strategies to compete for the rank.

This section identifies benchmarking scores for Saudi Arabian HEIs to qualify among the top 100 ranked HEIs.

To determine minimum qualification scores, the lowest total and category-wise score from the top 100 globally ranked HEIs in the UIGWUR was recorded annually from year 2019 to 2024. Table 3 presents these minimum benchmarking scores.

Key insights from Table 3 are summarized below:

• The total benchmarking scores have increased by 17%, from 7,025 in year 2019 to 8,475 in year 2024, making qualifications more competitive.

• The SI, EC, and TR categories have shown steady growth with

  • SI increased from 75 in year 2019 to 855 in year 2024.

  • EC increased from 900 in year 2019 to 1,335 in year 2024.

  • TR increased from 775 in year 2019 to 1,300 in year 2024.

• WS was observed to follow a fluctuating trend.

• WR and ED followed a steady growth; however, their scores dropped in 2024 WR (from 700 to 600) and ED (from 1,425 to 1,375).

• Importantly, WS, TR and ED have consistently remained above 1,000 since 2020, making them key focus areas for global HEIs.

• SI and WR attained the maximum scores of 855 and 700, respectively as they may not be priortised by HEIs over these years.

Rather than using the average scores, this study adopts a strict benchmarking approach by selecting minimum scores to ensure a realistic yet competitive performance target. The structured benchmarking approach to be illustrated below provides Saudi Arabian HEIs a roadmap to improve sustainability performance and offer explicit targets to qualify for the top 100 in the UIGWUR.

This section evaluates the performance of the top 100 HEIs in Saudi Arabia based on their annual benchmarked scores from year 2020 to 2024. Table 4 presents a comparative analysis of the total scores and category-wise scores against the benchmarked scores. The data indicates that all top 100 HEIs performed consistently above the benchmarked scores, hence providing strong empirical evidence to justify using the minimum scores of the top 100 globally ranked HEIs in the UIGWUR as benchmarks.

Performance scores is newly introduced to calculate the difference between the benchmarked scores of last year and the scores of the current year. The results revealed that the total scores and the scores of individual categories remained negative for all top 100 HEIs, except for the WS category, where a zero score was observed in some cases. This finding suggests that the performance score can serve as a valuable metric for HEIs worldwide to self-assess their performance annually, identify weak and strong areas and develop targeted strategies to maintain or improve their rankings.

Table 5 provides the required maximum Performance Scores, Benchmarked Scores, and Qualifying Scores for year 2025. It presents the maximum performance scores which are added in absolute value to the benchmarked scores to set a qualifying score for securing a position among the top 100 ranked HEIs in year 2025. The results indicate that HEIs should not fall below the benchmarked scores in both total and category-wise assessments to remain competitive. The qualifying scores establish a performance threshold that HEIs should meet and exceed to remain competitive in the UIGWUR in year 2025.

Table 6 provides an in-depth benchmarking analysis of all participating HEIs of Saudi Arabia from year 2020 to 2024. Additionally, key strengths, weaknesses and recommended target actions are outlined for each HEI to improve strategically.

To enhance readability and eliminate redundancy, the performance of Saudi Arabian HEIs across the six UIGWUR categories has been consolidated into Table 7, which distinguishes institutions that are on track from those that require improvement. The classification is based on consistent multi-year performance derived from Table 6.

KAU, PNU, QU, and IABFU consistently led across all categories. However, 69% of HEIs struggled notably with Energy & Climate Change and required further improvement in this area while 75% lagged behind in Water Resources. KFU showed recent progress by reaching “on track” status in Water Resources in year 2024. Transportation, Waste Management, and Education and Research also presented challenges, with around 60% underperforming HEIs. The gap between a few top-performing HEIs and the rest shows that improvement focusing in the management of energy, waste, and water are urgently required. 75% of the HEIs should put high-level effort in the WR category to sustain water in a circular fashion and should implement region-specific initiatives tailored to the patterns of local water demand in Saudi Arabia (W​a​j​i​d​,​ ​2​0​2​5​a).

To support Saudi Arabian HEIs in meeting the competitive sustainability benchmarks set for year 2025, a quantitative and data-driven framework is proposed to classify the levels of effort required by Saudi Arabian HEIs across the six core UIGWUR categories. The levels of effort are determined by a two-step process.

Step 1. Calculating percentage threshold score: The percentage threshold score denoted by ∆ is calculated using formula given by:

$\Delta=\frac{\left(\text {Qualifying Score }_{2025}-\text { HEI Score }_{2024}\right)}{\text { HEI Score }_{2024}} \times 100 \%$

where, the qualifying score is the target benchmark for year 2025 (see the last row in Table 5), and the HEI score is the performance score of HEI in year 2024 (Table A1 in the Appendix). Table 8 compiles the ∆ values for all participating HEIs in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, negative ∆ indicates that the HEI exceeding the benchmark requires no further improvement while a positive ∆ reflects the percentage of improvement needed.

Step 2. Tiered effort level classification: Based on the ∆ score calculated using formula above and presented in Table 8, the levels of effort devoted by HEIs are categorized into 4 tiers as in Table 9.

Table 10 details the required levels of effort for each HEI by category and it highlights targeted areas for improvement at different levels to achieve higher rankings in year 2025.

This classification framework directs HEIs with High effort designations to prioritize strategic investments and capacity development while those categorized as Aligned or Low should focus on sustaining progress and setting ambitious goals to lead sustainability transformation in the higher education sector of Saudi Arabia.

This study initiated performance evaluation of Saudi Arabian HEIs in the UIGWUR based on the proposed data-driven benchmarking approach. Using a composite performance score and category-wise analysis, the research offered insights into improving the sustainability progress and strategic positioning of Saudi Arabian HEIs.

(1) Key Findings

• Four Saudi Arabian HEIs, namely KAU, PNU, QU, and IABFU, have consistently achieved top 100 global rankings, which could serve as national benchmarks for sustainability practices.

• KAU and PNU demonstrated the highest consistency in frequently ranked among the top 100 HEIs worldwide.

• UJ discontinued its participation after year 2020. This incident was followed by PNU and KAU after years 2021 and 2022, respectively. It was recommended that PNU and KAU should resume their participation in future rankings to maintain the momentum.

• HEIs, such as UJ, JU, and UM require broad institutional improvement whereas PSAU, TU, and UOHB require targeted enhancements across multiple categories.

• KFU, with strong emphasis on water-related sustainability, has been positioned as the potential top 100 entry in 2025.

(2) Gap Analysis and Effort Prioritization

• A novel 4-tier threshold based on the effort classification analysis (Aligned/Low/Moderate/High) was adopted to reveal specific categorical deficits per institution per category, thus allowing targeted actions instead of extensive reforms.

• Overall speaking, 79% of the participated HEIs in year 2024 should dedicate either medium or high levels of effort in anticipation of a position among the top 100 HEIs in year 2025.

• 50% of the participated HEIs in year 2024 should invest a high level of effort in the SI, EC, WS, and WR categories to improve their rankings in year 2025.

(3) Strategic Implications

• HEIs aiming to improve should form alliances with national top performers, e.g., KAU, PNU, QU, and IABFU to exchange best practices, engage in joint research, and co-develop sustainability policies;

• Long-term participation in the UIGWUR should be institutionalized as a strategic part of HEIs planning to ensure performance consistency; and

• National higher education and sustainability policy should incentivize transparent reporting, inter-university collaboration, and category-specific progress tracking.

To sum up, Saudi Arabian HEIs have made remarkable progress in the UIGWUR since several participated HEIs have already achieved top rankings in the previous years. The maintenance and enhancement of global standing in sustainability performance requires sustained effort and targeted strategies. In this regard, Saudi Arabian HEIs could further strengthen their sustainability initiatives by implementing the above recommended actions so as to guarantee continued success in the UIGWUR. Their directions for future improvement could inspire global HEIs to move toward the excellence in sustainability performance.