Higher education's sustainability imperative: how to practically respond?
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 6 January 2012
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe four phases for how universities have addressed a sustainability agenda and offer specific lessons for how and where experiences on one campus, the University of Colorado Boulder, have been met with success and other challenges. The authors offer general reflections for executing university‐wide sustainability initiatives with a central intent of illuminating central barriers against, and incentives for, a coordinated and integrated approach to campus sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach for arriving at four phases and a description of the University of Colorado Boulder is based on experiences from learning, teaching, and administering within universities–collectively for almost a century among the authors–and lessons from “war room” discussions.
Findings
Sustainability initiatives on campus may evolve through a series of phases labeled: grassroots; executive acceptance of the business case for sustainability; the visionary campus leader; and fully self‐actualized and integrated campus community. The University of Colorado Boulder, while a leader in many respects of sustainability (research, student activities, facilities management) has experienced serious challenges for coordination.
Originality/value
The four phases are a relatively novel contribution for the specific literature on sustainability education. Second, the tangible examples from University of Colorado Boulder demonstrate how coordination is difficult in these situations; these examples allow readers to better relate to and understand such challenges. Finally, the authors reflect on central issues according to three categories: self‐reflection, recommendations, and advantages.
Keywords
Citation
Krizek, K.J., Newport, D., White, J. and Townsend, A.R. (2012), "Higher education's sustainability imperative: how to practically respond?", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 19-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/14676371211190281
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited