Integration of Sustainability Into Universities - Good Practices and Benchmarking for Integration

Integration of Sustainability Into Universities - Good Practices and Benchmarking for Integration PDF

Author: Clemens Mader

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2007-07-26

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13: 3638712249

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Diploma Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Sociology - Work, Education, Organisation, grade: 1,0, University of Graz (Institut für Geographie und Raumforschung), language: English, abstract: The number of charters and declarations, promoting sustainability in education is increasing with the number of universities integrating sustainability. For many universities, those declarations are self commitments and are used to improve public relations. Although they may have further implications, declarations can be a strong policy statement. Over 300 European universities have signed the Copernicus Charta and in the same moment, they sign a commitment for sustainable development. This shows that sustainability became an important issue. Universities can use the Charta to raise awareness among staff and convince them that they should act and demonstrate universities' role and impact on society. Universities impact society by their four roles. - Education: Universities train and influence future decision makers - Research: University research influences daily life - Administration/Management: Universities are large employers and consume all kinds of resources - Role in Society/Outreach: Universities have a direct (regional development, actor in society) and indirect (education, research, administration) influence on societal development and especially the surrounding and environment. By fulfilling their role and obligations, universities can contribute to a sustainable development for the society and the university itself. Good examples of each of those responsibilities offer universities ideas about what they can do. Of course good practices must be adapted to their own structure. To gain insight to the processes and the activities of other "sustainable" universities, universities can participate in the COPERNICUS University Core Group. Within this group, universities can benchmark themselves with others and can get a better understanding about the structure and pr

Sustainability on University Campuses: Learning, Skills Building and Best Practices

Sustainability on University Campuses: Learning, Skills Building and Best Practices PDF

Author: Walter Leal Filho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-06-03

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 3030158640

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The implementation of sustainability initiatives on campuses is an essential component of promoting sustainability in the higher education context. In addition to reflecting an awareness of environmental issues, campus programmes demonstrate how seriously universities take sustainability at the institutional level. There is a lack of truly interdisciplinary publications that comprehensively address the issue of campus greening, and there is an even greater need for publications that do so at a truly international level. This book meets these needs. It is one of the outcomes of the “Second Symposium on Sustainability in University Campuses” (SSUC-2018), which was jointly organised by the University of Florence (Italy), Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), the Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management” and the “European School of Sustainability Science and Research” at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), in cooperation with the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP). The book showcases examples of campus-based research and teaching projects, regenerative campus design, low-carbon and zero-carbon buildings, waste prevention, and resilient transport, among others. Ultimately, it demonstrates the role of campuses as platforms for transformative social learning and research, and explores the means by which university campuses can be made more sustainable. The aims of this publication are as follows: • to provide universities with essential information on campus greening and sustainable campus development initiatives from around the world; • to share ideas and lessons learned in the course of research, teaching and projects on campus greening and design, especially successful initiatives and good practice; and • to introduce methodological approaches and projects intended to integrate the topic of sustainable development in campus design and operations. This book gathers contributions from researchers and practitioners in the field of campus greening and sustainable development in the widest sense, from business and economics, to the arts, administration and the environment, and hailing from Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia.

Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions

Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions PDF

Author: Sandra Caeiro

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-19

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 3319023756

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This book contributes to debates on current sustainability practices, with a focus on assessment tools as applied in higher education institutions. These institutions are challenged to carry out management, research, and teaching, and to create settings that allow developing new competencies to address the complex global environmental, social, cultural, and economic pressures with which current and future generations are confronted. The first chapters discuss issues of sustainability in higher education, namely the role of universities in promoting sustainability and the emergent fields of sustainability science and education for sustainable development and how to integrate and motivate sustainability into the university. Subsequent chapters present examples of sustainability assessment tools specifically developed for higher education institutions, such as the AISHE – Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education, the GASU – Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities too, the STAUNCH – Sustainability tool for Auditing Universities Curricula in Higher Education. The use of other integrated tools are also presented. The papers have adopted a pragmatic approach, characterized by conceptual descriptions, including sustainability assessment and reorienting the curricula, on the one hand, and practical experiences on the other, with good practices from different edges of the world. Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions will be of interest to graduate student, lecturers, researchers, and those setting university policy.

Sustainability in Higher Education

Sustainability in Higher Education PDF

Author: Peggy F. Barlett

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-08-16

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 0262519658

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Campus leaders describe how community colleges, publicly funded universities, and private liberal arts colleges across America are integrating sustainability into curriculum, policies, and programs. In colleges and universities across the United States, students, faculty, and staff are forging new paths to sustainability. From private liberal arts colleges to major research institutions to community colleges, sustainability concerns are being integrated into curricula, policies, and programs. New divisions, degree programs, and courses of study cross traditional disciplinary boundaries; Sustainability Councils become part of campus governance; and new sustainability issues link to historic social and educational missions. In this book, leaders from twenty-four colleges and universities offer their stories of institutional and personal transformation. These stories document both the power of leadership—whether by college presidents, faculty, staff, or student activists—and the potential for institutions to redefine themselves. Chapters recount, among other things, how inclusive campus governance helped mobilize students at the University of South Carolina; how a course at the Menominee Nation's tribal college linked sustainability and traditional knowledge; how the president of Furman University convinced a conservative campus community to make sustainability a strategic priority; how students at San Diego State University built sustainability into future governance while financing a LEED platinum-certified student center; and how sustainability transformed pedagogy in a lecture class at Penn State. As this book makes clear, there are many paths to sustainability in higher education. These stories offer a snapshot of what has been accomplished and a roadmap to what is possible. Colleges and Universities Covered Arizona State University • Central College, Iowa • College of the Menominee Nation, Wisconsin • Curriculum for the Bio-region Project, Pacific Northwest • Drury University, Missouri • Emory University, Georgia • Florida A&M University • Furman University, South Carolina • Green Mountain College, Vermont • Kap'olani Community College, Honolulu, Hawaii • Pennsylvania State University • San Diego State University • Santa Clara University, California • Slippery Rock State University, Pennsylvania • Spelman College, Georgia • Unity College, Maine • University of Hawaii–Manoa • University of Michigan • University of South Carolina • University of South Florida • University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh • Warren Wilson College, North Carolina • Yale University

Handbook on Climate Change and Disasters

Handbook on Climate Change and Disasters PDF

Author: Shaw, Rajib

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2022-10-13

Total Pages: 711

ISBN-13: 1800371616

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This comprehensive Handbook assesses the escalation of global natural disasters as a result of climate change. Examining the complex interplay of human and natural activities, it highlights the growing vulnerability of people and communities in developing countries to floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves and wildfires.

Humanising Education Maqasid Al-Shari’ah and Sustainable Development

Humanising Education Maqasid Al-Shari’ah and Sustainable Development PDF

Author: Abdul Rashid Moten

Publisher: IIUM PRESS

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 2014

ISBN-13: 9674910921

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“This rigorously analytical and well-presented work captures the strides made by the International Islamic University Malaysia embracing maqāṣid al-sharῑ‘ah and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, albeit with a strong focus on spirituality. The University is also pursuing the agenda of humanizing higher education by providing continuous, holistic, and integrated education based on the world view of Islam.”

Implementing Sustainability in the Curriculum of Universities

Implementing Sustainability in the Curriculum of Universities PDF

Author: Walter Leal Filho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-11-17

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 3319702815

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This book presents sustainable development themes across universities and introduces methodological approaches and projects to the teaching staff. It has been prepared against this background, to identify ways to better teach about sustainability issues in a university context. It contains a set of papers presented at a Symposium with the same title, held at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) in March 2017. The event was attended by a number of institutions of higher education active in this field. It involved researchers in the field of sustainable development in the widest sense, from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies. Sustainability is seldom systematically embedded in the curriculum at higher education institutions. Yet, proper provisions for curricular integration of sustainability issues as part of teaching programmes across universities are an important element towards curriculum greening. The aims of this book are: (i) to provide teaching staff at universities active and/or interested in teaching sustainable development themes with an opportunity to document and disseminate their works (i.e. curriculum innovation, empirical work, activities, case studies practical projects); (ii) to promote information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of teaching courses, especially successful initiatives and good practice; (iii) to introduce methodological approaches and projects which aim to offer a better understanding of how matters related to sustainable development can be tackled in university teaching. Last but not least, a further aim of this book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), is to catalyse a debate on the need to promote sustainable development teaching today.

Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development

Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development PDF

Author: Walter Leal Filho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-30

Total Pages: 862

ISBN-13: 3030156044

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This book fills an important gap in the literature, and presents contributions from scientists and researchers working in the field of sustainable development who have engaged in dynamic approaches to implementing sustainability in higher education. It is widely known that universities are key players in terms of the implementation and further development of sustainability, with some having the potential of acting as “living labs” in this rapidly growing field. Yet there are virtually no publications that explore the living labs concept as it relates to sustainability, and in an integrated manner. The aims of this book, which is an outcome of the “4th World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities” (WSSD-U-2018), held in Malaysia in 2018, are as follows: i. to document the experiences of universities from all around the world in curriculum innovation, research, activities and practical projects as they relate to sustainable development at the university level; ii. to disseminate information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects, including successful initiatives and good practice; iii. to introduce and discuss methodological approaches and projects that seek to integrate the topic of sustainable development in the curricula of universities; and iv. to promote the scalability of existing and future models from universities as living labs for sustainable development. The papers are innovative, cross-cutting and many reflect practice-based experiences, some of which may be replicable elsewhere. Also, this book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), reinforces the role played by universities as living labs for sustainable development.

Towards Green Campus Operations

Towards Green Campus Operations PDF

Author: Walter Leal Filho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-14

Total Pages: 909

ISBN-13: 3319768859

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Matters related to sustainable development, albeit global in nature, are best handled at the local level. This line of thinking is particularly true to the higher education context, where the design and implementation of sustainability initiatives on campuses can demonstrate how a given university translates the principles of sustainable development into practice, at the institutional level. Yet, there is a paucity of specific events where a dialogue among sustainability academics and practitioners concerned with a) research, projects b) teaching and c) planning and infra-structure leading to campus greening takes place, so as to allow a transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral exchange of ideas and experiences on the issues, matters and problems at hand. It is against this background that this book has been prepared. It is one of the outcomes of the “First Symposium on Sustainability in University Campuses” (SSUC-2017) organised by the University of São Paulo in Brazil, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), the Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP). This book showcases examples of campus-based research and teaching projects, regenerative campus design, low-carbon and zero carbon buildings, waste prevention, and resilient transport, among others. It also demonstrates the role of campuses as platforms for transformative social learning and research, and explores the means via which university campuses can be made more sustainable. The aims of this publication are as follows: i. to provide universities with an opportunity to obtain information on campus greening and sustainable campus development initiatives from round the world; ii. to document and promote information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of research, teaching and projects on campus greening and design, especially successful initiatives and good practice; iii. to introduce methodological approaches and projects which aim to integrate the topic of sustainable development in campus design and operations. This book entails contributions from researchers and practitioners in the field of campus greening and sustainable development in the widest sense, from business and economics, to arts, administration and environment.