A Journey in Sustainable Development in an Urban Campus

A review of empirical data of sustainability initiatives in university campus operations

“…Other initiatives and subareas stand out: the treatment of wastewater (2 %), rainwater 279 harvesting to be used in the irrigation of green spaces (4 %), which Edwin et al (2015) 280 demonstrated saved from 25 % to 30 % of water used on irrigation, while Walker and 281 Mendler (2017) indicated a percentage of 100 % of wastewater treated onsite; the waste 282 separation for recycling purposes (3 %), which increased separation and recycling rates (Geng 283 et al, 2013;Reidy et al, 2015); the adoption of a bicycling culture, namely through support 284 facilities, "pick-and-ride" schemes or for internal small cargo transportation to reduce the use 285 of motorized vehicles on campus (3 %); and the use of native plants in green open spaces 286…”

“…Integrated energy management systems are more comprehensive 311 solutions to control active systems (4 %), namely the HVAC schedules, lighting and 312 appliances, allowing it to be done remotely with the help of information and communications 313 technologies (Ferrão and Matos, 2017;Gomes et al, 2017). Reidy et al (2015) and Gomes et 314 al. (2017) report a reduction of 20 % and up to 40 % in energy consumption, respectively.…”

Students as Catalysts in Achieving Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Initiatives and Program Highlights

“…Cork, Ireland, whose student programs range from food production to on-campus poly-tunnels for biodiversity conservation. 54 Second, since the students have hands-on involvement in their activities, student-led initiatives undeniably act as a learning space for students in gaining knowledge and experience through communication among their peers. 5 A good example is a case study of the initiative Greening of the University of Tübingen, Germany, 5 a bottom-up initiative by the students to facilitate change toward SD in combating climate change.…”

“…The students created a "communicative arena" as a space for formal and informal exchanges for the entire university to participate in social and institutional learning on SD. Overall, other universities around the world, including Malaysia, are adopting student-led initiatives toward SD, 3,7,54 bringing a promising future to the world's community.…”

Evaluation of Scientific Research in Universities Based on the Idea of Education for Sustainable Development

“…Scientific research is one of the core functions of modern universities and plays an important role in the process by constantly cultivating outstanding graduates, producing useful knowledge, and developing hi-tech products. However, existing research about higher education's contribution to sustainable development focuses on how to react to the requirement of sustainability development [3,4], how to construct an ecological environment on campus [5][6][7], or how to prepare future generations to address sustainability problems through curriculum [8,9] and teaching [10]. Such research only reflects what universities have done for sustainable development and does not directly present how well they are doing and where they need to improve in the process.…”