Understanding the limits of assessing sustainability at Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Ecuador, while reporting for a North American system

Abstract

Purpose Universidad San Francisco de Quito, USFQ, completed an assessment study to understand its performance in sustainability in 2012. This study aims to recognize the limitations of applying a North American rating system considering relevant criteria to a South American university and to emphasize the importance and lack of benchmarks available in the region. Design/methodology/approach Methodology used for this study is based on the Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System (STARS) by AASHE. In December 2013, USFQ joined the Pilot Program that included publicly documenting efforts, sharing feedback and making suggestions for system improvements. Findings Data collected by USFQ in 2012 and 2013 illustrate how the status of USFQ as a non-residential, teaching university in Ecuador in a developing country had several challenges while using an evaluation system established for universities within a North American system. The limits of assessing sustainability in South America are associated to its geographical location, the number of students and staff that commute to University and the lack of environmental services and certifications available in Ecuador. There are applicability issues with the use of STARS without performance reports from regional peers that can guide the development of relevant benchmarks for future comparability. Originality/value Little research has been conducted in the assessment and tracking of sustainability within universities in South America. This paper is one of the first to address the applicability of a North American self-reporting tool to a South American university.

Holistic integration of sustainability at universities: Evidences from Colombia

“…Another finding is the lack of assertiveness in transportation and commuting. Despite the efforts to promote cycling or other clean alternatives, it seems to be a trend in countries with Geographical difficulties such as Ecuador and Colombia permeated with the Andes and other mountains that make students and staff use their own vehicle (Velasco et al, 2018).…”

“…Precisely, the communication of results in sustainability reports, certification and rankings emerged in this research as an opportunity. In the assessment study made by Velasco et al (2018) arose the need for Latin-American universities to have a guideline for benchmarking that offers comparable results or clear instructions. Although the research was in Ecuador, the analysis covered the attempted methodologies reported in the literature for Latin-American countries referencing only three Countries: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia but all failed (Velasco et al, 2018).…”

Sustainability disclosure in higher education

“…From a country perspective, these types of studies have concentrated on, for instance, institutions from Spain (Lozano, 2011;Berzosa et al, 2017;Ferrero-Ferrero et al, 2018;Zorio-Grima et al, 2018;Brusca et al, 2018), Germany and Austria (Lopatta and Jaeschke, 2014), Germany and Australia (Schaffhauser-Linzatti and Ossmann, 2018), Belgium (Ceulemans et al, 2018), Ghana (Hinson et al, 2015), Canada (Fonseca et al, 2011), New Zealand (An et al, 2017), United Kingdom (Townsend and Barrett, 2015;Bullock and Wilder, 2016), Australia (Gamage and Sciulli, 2017), North America (Sepasi et al, 2018), South America (Velasco et al, 2018), Portugal (Madeira et al, 2011), Scotland (de Aguiar and Paterson, 2017) and Lithuania (Katiliute and Daunoriene, 2015).…”

Towards Carbon Neutrality in Higher Education Institutions: Case of Two Private Universities in Colombia

“…Regarding sustainability in HEIs, one can find numerous examples of efforts that have been reported from several countries, including, for instance: the United States and Canada [13,14], Italy [15], Ecuador [16], Portugal [17], Brazil [18,19], Turkey [20], Jordan [21], and Colombia [22], among others. At the end of the first decade of 2000, Rauch and Newman [23] derived a qualitative/quantitative methodology to define what a sustainable metric target might be and how it can be used to describe the path for universities towards sustainability, using short to long-term time scales.…”