UNU Jogja's Decarbonomics Center Explores Sustainable Cooling Partnership with Recoolit to Advance Decarbonization

Yogyakarta, Indonesia – Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Yogyakarta (UNU Jogja), through its Decarbonomics Center, is exploring a strategic partnership with PT Recoolit Bumi Lestari Indonesia to develop a Sustainable Cooling and Decarbonomics ecosystem in support of Indonesia's decarbonization efforts.

PT Recoolit Bumi Lestari Indonesia specializes in refrigerant recovery as part of its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Proper refrigerant management plays a crucial role in lowering emissions from the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) sector, one of the major contributors to carbon emissions across buildings, industry, healthcare, tourism, and commercial facilities. Recognizing this challenge, UNU Jogja sees an opportunity to establish a multidisciplinary collaboration that integrates technology, environmental sustainability, economics, education, and community empowerment.

During the discussion, both parties identified several strategic priorities for future collaboration. These include decarbonizing the HVAC sector, addressing refrigerants as a source of hidden emissions that are often overlooked in carbon reporting, promoting the concept of Green Tourism through Sustainable Cooling, and strengthening public awareness of refrigerant management, climate change, and energy efficiency among technicians and communities.

Director of the Decarbonomics Center at UNU Jogja, Tri Susdinarjanti, said the collaboration extends beyond technical cooperation and is intended to build a broader decarbonization ecosystem involving academia, industry, and society.

"This partnership is more than a technical collaboration on cooling systems or refrigerants. It is an effort to build a Sustainable Cooling ecosystem that connects education, research, community engagement, and innovation. We hope this collaboration with Recoolit will generate decarbonization solutions that create tangible benefits for industry, government, and society," she said.

Echoing this vision, Erik Cahyanta, Senior Business Development Manager at PT Recoolit Bumi Lestari Indonesia, emphasized the importance of university–industry collaboration in accelerating the implementation of decarbonization solutions.

"We hope our collaboration with UNU Jogja will connect industry expertise with research and education, leading to innovations that deliver meaningful environmental and societal impact," he said.

Through the partnership, UNU Jogja plans to develop a range of educational initiatives, including guest lectures, joint curriculum development, student internship programs, and the establishment of an HVAC Sustainability Training Center. These initiatives are expected to strengthen students' competencies in sustainability, energy efficiency, carbon accounting, ESG reporting, and refrigerant management.

In the area of research, the collaboration will focus on strategic topics such as building energy audits, HVAC efficiency, refrigerant emissions, carbon accounting, digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV), artificial intelligence for predicting energy consumption and refrigerant leakage, and the development of digital dashboards for carbon emissions monitoring.

Community engagement initiatives will include the development of Green Campus, Green School, Green Hotel, Green Pesantren, and Green MSME programs. These activities will cover energy and carbon audits, environmental education, refrigerant management, and assistance in implementing energy-efficient cooling technologies.

A distinctive feature of the proposed collaboration is the development of the Islamic Decarbonomics concept, which integrates Islamic economic principles into decarbonization efforts through initiatives such as Green Waqf, Green Zakat, Sharia ESG, and the circular economy to promote sustainable development aligned with Islamic values.

The partnership is also designed to support the implementation of the university's Tri Dharma—education, research, and community engagement—while contributing to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Quality Education (SDG 4), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

As a next step, both parties have outlined a collaboration roadmap that includes the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), organizing a national seminar on Sustainable Cooling, delivering guest lectures, identifying pilot projects, and establishing a Sustainable Cooling Training Center at UNU Jogja.

"Looking ahead, we hope this partnership will help build a decarbonization ecosystem that connects academia, industry, and society, generating innovations that make a meaningful contribution to reducing carbon emissions in Indonesia," Tri concluded. [Latifah]