The rising consumption of fossil fuels has led to a severe energy crisis and environmental pollution, driving researchers to seek renewable alternatives. Biomass is a promising option due to its abundance, low cost, and clean characteristics. Here, a novel Cu catalyst encapsulated in a metal-organic framework, Cu/MOF-808, was prepared by a simple, convenient, and efficient solvothermal method. Cu atoms were anchored to the defective sites within the secondary building units of the Zr-based MOF-808. Cu/MOF-808 catalyst selectively converted the biomass-derived platform chemical levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) with a high yield of 91.5% via catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) using isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a hydrogen donor under mild reaction conditions (140 ℃). Solvent effects indicated that Cu/MOF-808 catalyst exhibited the best activity and selectivity in isopropyl alcohol, significantly outperforming methanol, ethanol and 2-butanol due to IPA′s superior hydrogen supply capacity. Additionally, Cu/MOF-808 demonstrated good stability and reusability, maintaining high selectivity for the target product after five consecutive cycles. Mechanistic studies revealed that the efficient conversion of levulinic acid was attributed to the synergistic effect of uniformly distributed Cu metal sites anchored by the MOF and the Zr Lewis acid sites within the MOF structure.