From Pesantren Towards Ecopesantren: Sustainability Index Assessment and Improvement Recommendations

Abstract

As one of the educational institutions, pesantren contain great potential to develop sustainable development both in the local scope where the pesantren operates and the wider environment. The purpose of this study is to measure the sustainability index of pesantren and build a typology of pesantren based on the characteristics of space utilization to produce recommendations for improvement to increase the sustainability index. The researcher formulated the concept of sustainability index based on three parameters: the proportion of roofs with low albedo (white roof), the proportion of trees (green space), and the proportion of water bodies (blue space) to the total land area. In addition, data was collected on the area of buildings that do not have white roofs (orange space) and the area of open land (gray space). Dimensional data of the five parameters were collected from Google Earth satellite images of 46 pesantren that are members of the Ecopesantren program spread across Sumatra and Java. Hierarchical cluster analysis using the Wald method was also conducted to build a typology of pesantren to recommend strategies for improving the sustainability index of existing pesantren. The analysis revealed that none of the pesantrens had a sustainability index above 50%, mainly due to the little use of white roofs and blue spaces in the space utilization of the pesantrens. The cluster analysis revealed five clusters named as developed pesantren, pesantren towards development, pesantren with space competition, green pesantren, and compact pesantren. Recommendations for improving sustainability indels were formulated for each type of pesantren.