A Preliminary Model for Assessing University Sustainability from the Student Perspective

Isaksson, Raine; Johnson, Mikael

doi:10.3390/su5093690

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…This systems approach to sustainability is important as it suggests that every aspect of campus sustainability should be considered and evaluated, utilizing the entire campus community to foster long-term project success [26][27][28][29]. Assessment tools and their defined criteria also enable prospective students to easily access information on the sustainability of a university and allow it to be compared against others [30].…”

Section: Overview Of Campus Efforts and Assessment Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder Perceptions of Campus Sustainability Efforts: Lessons from Vermont

et al. 2018

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Universities have begun to officially recognize advancing sustainability as an institutional goal. This paper reports on research on students’ awareness, attitudes, and behaviors at the University of Vermont as a means of understanding cultural acceptance of sustainability. We report on the results of a survey administered by an applied research methods class working in partnership with the University’s Office of Sustainability. Survey respondents report strong understanding of sustainability and believe it is important. They perceive the University’s performance as strongest along environmental efforts and weakest along economic lines. Respondents were most likely to engage in sustainability behaviors, like waste and energy reduction, and least likely to attend campus events regarding sustainability. Responses to open-ended questions suggest skepticism of the University’s commitment to sustainability, seeing it as more of a marketing effort, and express a desire for more concrete initiatives to foster sustainable behaviors and culture on campus. Our implications focus on ways to promote a more holistic and nuanced understanding of sustainability.

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Section: Overview Of Campus Efforts and Assessment Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder Perceptions of Campus Sustainability Efforts: Lessons from Vermont

et al. 2018

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“…Change toward sustainability is needed in all branches. One of the areas where change would really be needed is in universities, where the current teaching seems mostly to continue with "business as usual" (Isaksson and Johnson, 2013). Those graduating today are those that are supposed to solve the problems with lack of sustainability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The crippled bottom line – measuring and managing sustainability

Isaksson

Garvare

Johnson

2015

Int J Productivity & Perf Mgmt

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Sustainability can be assessed in the dimensions Profit, Planet and People. A problem with the approach is that these dimensions cannot be added. Another problem is that performance seldom is related to global system boundaries. The purpose of this paper is to study the "what" of sustainability by linking this to global boundaries and proposing "how" the authors could manage change toward sustainability. Design/methodology/approach -Sustainability definitions are reviewed to identify main stakeholders. People value defined as utility is compared to Planet harm as carbon emissions and People harm as prices of products. This approach is examined in business studying the global processes of housing, transporting, providing food and cement manufacturing. Findings -The relative indicators with focus on People utility compare to Planet and People harm seem to be relevant for measuring the level of sustainability. The Crippled Bottom Line of People value/ Planet harm and People value/Planet harm is proposed as the "what" to measure and the change process of "understanding-defining-measuring-communicating-leading change" is proposed as the "how" to change.Research limitations/implications -The research is based on identifying the main stakeholders based on sustainability definitions and from that point mostly on deductive reasoning. Practical implications -The practical implications are that organizations could define sustainability indicators with objectives that are linked to global limits. Social implications -Advocating the use of price as a social indicator could have social implications. Originality/value -The paper contributes to the discussion of how to link global limits to organizational measurements and targets.

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“…The reason for this choice is mainly based on the facility of access to national information through the website Studera (2015). Additionally, Sweden is an OECD country with high rankings within economic, environmental and social dimensions (Isaksson and Johnson, 2013). Any detected improvement potential could therefore be relevant to most countries in the world.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the aspect of adaptability we study data from six chosen Swedish universities, which are Chalmers, Gothenburg University, Karolinska Institutet, Luleå Technical University, Stockholm School of Economics and Uppsala University. Gothenburg University is identified as a benchmark university in relation to sustainable development in Isaksson and Johnson (2013). Also, Chalmers is known to focus on sustainability.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards a perfect learning process - where is Sweden?

Isaksson¹,

Yamamoto²,

Garvare³

2018

Sinergie Italian Journal of Management

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Purpose of the paper: Competition gets tougher with globalization. Information and knowledge are shared like never before, putting pressure on businesses and nations to provide effective and efficient means of learning. Learning could be seen as the educational process from the user perspective. How could a perfect learning process look when based on process theory and how does reality compare with this? One option is defining a perfect process as doing the right thing based on stakeholder needs, doing it in the right way by minimising resource use and by being adaptable.Methodology: Applying the proposed educational process on Swedish HEI educational processes indicates that the model can be used. Findings:The results from the study indicate that Sweden seems to perform well in many areas but also that there are important areas of improvement, such as lifelong learning and the integration of sustainability into education.Research limitations: The proposed process has only been partly tested. Research and managerial implications:The strength of the process approach. Originality/value of paper: Basic process theory in a new context.

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A Preliminary Model for Assessing University Sustainability from the Student Perspective

Cited by 5 publications

References 10 publications

Stakeholder Perceptions of Campus Sustainability Efforts: Lessons from Vermont

Stakeholder Perceptions of Campus Sustainability Efforts: Lessons from Vermont

The crippled bottom line – measuring and managing sustainability

Towards a perfect learning process - where is Sweden?

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