Proposal for sustainability action archetypes for higher education institutions

Abstract

Purpose Higher education institutions (HEIs) should assume their role as leaders in the search for a sustainable future. Consequently, such institutions need to incorporate sustainability into their activities. However, this needs to be done holistically and not with isolated and independent actions. Therefore, this study aims to develop a structure of sustainability action archetypes to help HEIs holistically incorporate sustainability in their strategies. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of the literature was conducted focusing on the subject of sustainability in HEIs. Findings A structure of sustainability action archetypes for HEIs was proposed. Further, based on scientific literature, examples of actions were presented within each archetype. Practical implications This study provides HEI administrators and other organizations with a practical structure to enable the systemic incorporation of sustainability objectives and actions into institutional activities. Originality/value This study adapts the tool “sustainable business model archetypes” for a new purpose. This tool was initially developed to classify innovations of sustainable business models.

Developing a method for incorporating sustainability into the strategic planning of higher education institutions

“…Starting from concepts present in previous studies on sustainability incorporation by HEIs and Bocken et al (2014), the authors proposed a structure composed of four groups that aggregate eight subgroups called "archetypes" to demonstrate the holistic incorporation of sustainability in HEIs. Figure 1 represents the concepts addressed in Sanches et al (2022).…”

“…Thus, considering what HEIs represent to society, they need to embrace the SDGs and take the lead in the process toward SD (Hueske and Guenther, 2021; Leal Filho et al , 2019a). Therefore, university institutions need to holistically incorporate sustainability into all of their actions: teaching, research, campus operations, community relations and organizational structures (Lozano and von Haartman, 2018; Sanches et al , 2022).…”

“…This study is unique in its use of “HEIs sustainability action archetypes” (Sanches et al , 2022) as a basis for developing strategic plans for HEIs. The proposed method overcomes the main barriers and implements SD in HEIs in a holistic manner.…”

Strategies to Increase Sustainability Awareness in Higher Education: Experiences from Abu Dhabi Women’s College

“…Using PAR, the research team was able to work collaboratively with the college community and industry partners to design, implement, and evaluate each of the sustainability awareness activities. Several studies also support the use of action research for sustainability awareness research [25,26].…”

Brazilian federal universities and their sustainable practices based on sustainable logistics management plan

“…Organizations in general have striven to incorporate the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) into their management systems (Elkington, 1999). Universities have also emphasized this because of the growing importance of declarations, letters and partnerships that ratify their commitment to sustainable development (Kohl et al, 2022); the emergence of sustainability rankings (Galleli et al, 2022); greater professionalization of their management (Ntim et al, 2017); and fulfilling their social mission of educating future professionals and responsible citizens (Sanches et al, 2022). Moreover, stakeholders are increasingly demanding that universities reaffirm their roles as agents of change (Brandli et al, 2015).…”