Irina Safitri Zen

Head of the Office of Campus Sustainability, Universiti of Teknologi (UTM), Malaysia (Johor Bahru campus)

“You have to use your interpersonal skills to find out people’s interest. You have to make sure people on the campus aren’t feeling threatened when you talk to them about sustainability.”

Dr. Irina works with students and faculty at UTM to develop a campus culture focusing on healthy living, environmental stewardship, and a commitment to sustainability in campus governance and operations. She is leading the effort to make UTM a low carbon campus. Under her guidance, the university has improved its global ranking (i.e., UI GreenMetric University Global Ranking) from 139th in 2012 to 86th in 2014. At UTM she teaches environmental studies and sustainability assessment. She has been involved related research on Malaysia’s ‘No Plastic Bag Campaign’ and the development of indicators of environmental awareness that will inform the national government’s Environmental Performance Index. Irina has extended her focus on sustainable development by networking with other sustainability advocates in Malaysia and the broader Asia Pacific region.