aashe stars conference community hub bulletin
Login Create an Account Become a Member

AASHE Campus Sustainability Hub
Browse All

Curriculum

Introduction

One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.

View all Curriculum Submit a new resource

Featured Resources

Latest News from AASHE Bulletin

New Resources

8083 resources

Transformative, interdisciplinary and intercultural learning for developing HEI students’ sustainability-oriented competences: a case study

  • Erasmus University Rotterdam
  • University of Jyvaskyla (PO Box 35)

The literature has produced relevant theoretical insights into pedagogical frameworks, tools and competences that would be best suited to teach sustainability at higher education (HE). This article contributes to such …

Developing a sustainability competences paradigm in Higher Education or a White Elephant?

  • Gävle University College

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been at the forefront in creating and breaking paradigms, and educating the future decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. In the last decade, there have been many …

Student Teachers’ Willingness to Act in the Climate Change Context

  • University of Rijeka

In education for sustainable development, widely regarded as a framework that offers us the opportunity to improve the ways in which we cope with climate change issues, the need for …

The Challenge of Teacher Training in the 2030 Agenda Framework Using Geotechnologies

  • Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia – UNED
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Social evolution, globalization, and advances in technology are making it increasingly necessary to offer complete and comprehensive teacher training. This training should produce citizens who are concerned about the planet …

Advancing SDG competencies in higher education: exploring an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach

  • Kristianstad University

This study aims to explore an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach for advancing knowledge and understanding of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) at higher education institutions (HEIs).

The patterns of curriculum change processes that embed sustainability in higher education institutions

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Implementing education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education institutions (HEIs) is critical to facilitating a transition toward sustainable development. However, little is known about the specific implementation processes that …

Sustainability in engineering education: A review of learning outcomes

  • Monash University (VIC)

Although UNESCO and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals have articulated the critical role of engineering in achieving sustainable forms of development, there remains the need to analyze the design, features, …

A scale for assessing student understandings of marine resource conservation and sustainability: psychometric verification and the latent mean difference between genders

  • Tzu Chi University
  • National Taiwan Ocean University

This study developed a scale for evaluating how well students understand marine-resource conservation and sustainability; it evaluated the scale’s psychometric properties and investigated the gender difference in the scale’s score. …

Diffusing corporate sustainability knowledge with online education: experiences from a massive open online course (MOOC) on sustainable fashion

  • Copenhagen Business School

This study aims to show how a massive open online course (MOOC) can be used as an educational tool to diffuse specialised corporate sustainability research globally to a broad range …

A Qualitative Assessment of Community Learning Initiatives for Environmental Awareness and Behaviour Change: Applying UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Framework

  • Bournemouth University (Dorset)
  • The Open University of Japan

This study uses qualitative research methods of text mining to elucidate the potential and prospects for community-based learning opportunities for raising environmental awareness and bringing about healthy behaviour change among …

Environmental sustainability in higher education: Mapping the field

  • University of Magdalena
  • University of Barcelona

A considerable amount of literature has been published on environmental sustainability in the context of higher education. However, no previous studies have investigated how environmental sustainability has evolved in the …

Development of the Assessment of Student Knowledge of Green Chemistry Principles (ASK-GCP)

  • North Dakota State University (ND)

As implementation of green chemistry into university-level courses increases, it is vital that educators have a tool to rapidly measure student knowledge of green chemistry principles. We report the development …

Nurturing the Seeds of Sustainability Education: Information Regime in Brazilian Public HEI

  • Northumbria University (Newcastle Upon Tyne)
  • Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca
  • Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

We currently live under the Anthropocene, a period in which human beings have generated impacts on nature corresponding to a geological force capable of modifying the planet's biophysical parameters, affecting …

Teaching environmental sustainability in China: opportunities and challenges for business and economics faculty in higher education

  • Plymouth Marjon University

Environmental sustainability constitutes an important part of the political and educational context in China as it strives to move toward an ecological civilization. However, there is limited literature documenting the …

Higher education: the best practices for fostering competences for sustainable development through the use of active learning methodologies

  • Pompeu Fabra University

The purpose of this paper is to analyse which are the active learning methodologies, which had better contribute to acquiring competences for sustainable development (SD) in higher education.

A study of the Web visibility of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda on university websites

  • University of Barcelona
  • Pompeu Fabra University

Universities play an important role in the promotion and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This study aims to examine the visibility of information about the Sustainable Development …

University gardens for sustainable citizenship: assessing the impacts of garden-based learning on environmental and food education at Spanish higher education

  • Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador
  • University of Valladolid

Gardens are being used at all educational stages, because they provide with a real-world context for active and experiential learning. In Spain, there exists a movement in favor of their …

Active learning as enabler of sustainability learning outcomes: Capturing the perceptions of learners during a materials education workshop

  • Imperial College London
  • Research Institutes of Sweden - RISE

Active learning is a promising teaching approach that can develop sustainability competences in learners. In this paper, we investigate the potential of active-learning pedagogies such as serious games and active-learning …

Conceptualization of sustainability among students, administrative and teaching staff of a university community: An exploratory study in Italy

  • Università degli Studi di Torino
  • Politecnico di Torino
  • Sapienza Università di Roma

Universities have been widely recognised as unparalleled potential catalysers for sustainability, being both formal learning institutions and places where informal, mutual influences and lay/expert knowledge meet. The 17 Sustainable Development …

Does Higher Business Education Champion Environmental Sustainability for Next Generation of Leaders? An Assessment of In-School Students and Alumni’s Perspective

  • University of Hradec Kralove (Královéhradecký kraj)
  • Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology
  • South China Normal University

Higher business education has become a crucial driver of change in achieving sustainable development because it can educate future leaders who champion environmental sustainability initiatives in the corporate world. Given …

Exploring the development of context appreciation in coursework that targets problem-solving for sustainable development

  • Griffith University (Queensland)
  • Swinburne University of Technology

This study aims to explore the role of planned, sudden shifts in lived experiences, in influencing learner capabilities towards improved problem-solving for sustainable development outcomes. The authors responded to employers …

Fostering Sustainability through Mobility Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)

International mobility programmes embed higher education (HE) students in a learning process in which they gain key knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), some of them crucial in pursuing the Sustainable …

University students involved in a sustainable world: assessing sustainable consumption in Spain

  • Universidad de Salamanca

To achieve sustainable development to protect the environment and society, an increasing number of scholars have conducted in-depth research on sustainable and responsible consumption behaviors. The outputs demonstrate that consumers …

Happy Sustainability: A Future Quest for More Sustainable Universities

  • Universidad de Sonora (Sonora)
  • University of Glasgow

For decades, sustainability researchers have tenaciously insisted on transforming higher education institutions into more sustainable and inclusive campuses. Yet, as the 2030 agenda seems unlikely to be achieved, universities are …

Inclusion of Education for Sustainable Development in Environmental Engineering. A Systematic Review

  • Universidad de Salamanca
  • Universidad Santo Tomas

Sustainable development (SD) is a global commitment, in the economic, social, and environmental terms of the 21st century. The SD integrates conventional development models that seek economic growth and human …

Let’s read green! A comparison between approaches in different disciplines to enhance preservice teachers’ environmental attitudes

  • Universitat de València

This article examines the effect of different educational approaches to environmental education (EE) in the environmental attitudes of 507 preservice teachers. In one experimental group EE was addressed in a …

The three enablers of sustainability intelligence

  • Breda University of Applied Sciences
  • University of Antwerp

Sustainability intelligence is critical for the prosperity of societies worldwide, for conservation of the natural world, for achieving future business success and for the credibility of the concept of sustainability …

Critical Approaches to Sustainability in the Business Communication Classroom: A Developmental Perspective

  • University of Connecticut (CT)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

Business communication faculty who invite students to critically engage with issues of sustainability must consider students’ developmental readiness to do so, as these invitations can often seem uninvited. To promote …

Collaborative reflection on environmental practices: a vehicle for environmental education in teacher education

  • Lahore College for Women University
  • University of Education Lahore (Punjab)
  • Beaconhouse National University

Environmental education and sustainability education have emerged as a key focus in teacher education in the past few decades. Researchers have investigated the impact of different pedagogies on pre-service teachers’ …

Action research for education for sustainable development: the case of the university in-service course ‘education for sustainable development – innovations in school and teacher education (BINE)’

  • University of Klagenfurt
  • University of Education Upper Austria

The goal of the university professional development course BINE is to encourage participants to address education for sustainable development (ESD) in a reflective way. The main aims are for the …

Education for sustainability in higher education institutions: A multi-perspective proposal with a focus on management education

  • Universidade Feevale
  • UNIFOR University of Fortaleza

It is crucial to understand which conditions or elements are relevant to the development of more holistic and integrative models for implementing sustainability into Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is …

Assessing learning progress: validating a test score interpretation in the domain of sustainability management

  • University of Göttingen
  • DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education/DIPF Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation (Darmstadt)

This paper aims to provide evidence regarding the interpretation that test scores of a newly developed test instrument reflect learning progress in competence in sustainability management. As competence in sustainability …

Promoting Sustainability Through Multimodal Storytelling

  • Åbo Akademi University (Varsinais-Suomi)
  • University of Helsinki

In recent years, sustainability has been increasingly recognized within the early childhoodeducation and care (ECEC) context. Early childhood educatorsí capacities to designmeaningful learning opportunities for young children have been underlined. …

Teaching Sustainable Business Models— A Modeling-Driven Approach

  • University of Hildesheim

This study reports on a master-level university course that teaches sustainability by conveying factual and methodological knowledge in terms of business model development. By focusing on business model development, we …

What Does Education for Sustainable Development Offer in Initial Teacher Training? A Systematic Review

  • University of Jaén
  • Universidad de Granada

Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education impliesan improvement and quality in the exercise of responsible citizenship, being the key inthe training of future teachers as the main …

The adoption of corporate social responsibility active learning methodology with management accounting students

  • University of Jaén

The aim of this paper is to integrate active methodology on corporate social responsibility (CSR)1 learning into management accounting studies. The linkages between sustainable management and management accounting demand those …

CSR Education in Economia Aziendale Curricula: An Overview

  • Università del Salento

In the last few years, policymakers have underlined the need for new soft and hard skills about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main debate about CSR education has been driven …

Business models for integration of sustainability in universities: An explorative analysis of Italian state universities

  • Università degli Studi di Sassari

Although the leadership role of higher education in creating a sustainable development has been widely recognized, there is a paucity of studies following a strategic perspective to explain how universities …

Custom-made apparel manufacturing micro-enterprise owners’ perspectives on sustainability: how higher education can contribute

  • University of South Africa

The purpose of this paper is to investigate custom-made apparel manufacturing micro-enterprise (CMME) owners’ perspectives of sustainability within their business practices throughout the entire product development process and determine how …

Innovations and challenges in SDG integration and reporting in higher education: a case study from the University of South Florida

  • University of South Florida (FL)

As the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been widely adopted since 2015, higher education institutions (HEIs) are experimenting with ways they can be measured, reported and incorporated into all …

Effectiveness of a game-based class for interdisciplinary energy systems education in engineering courses

  • University of Tsukuba

Professionals in the energy sector are required to understand the interactions among technology, society, and the environment to tackle complex trade-offs among policy issues. The fostering of such professionals with …

Social marketing and higher education: partnering to achieve sustainable development goals

  • University of Twente
  • HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration

Accomplishing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is imperative for societies to meet their grand challenges. Achieving these goals by 2030 requires sustainability change agents with a can-do-attitude. This …

Perceived factors affecting student-teachers’ learning about social urban sustainability

  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Kentriki Makedonia)
  • University of Western Macedonia

The present study aims to explore the perceived factors affecting student-teachers’ (STs) learning about social urban sustainability. Participants were 63 STs enrolled in a Department of Primary Education located in …

Innovation for environmental sustainability: longitudinal effects of an education for sustainable development intervention on university students’ pro-environmentalism

  • University of Zaragoza

Although education for sustainable development (ESD) is a key tool in the transition to a more sustainable society, its integration in higher education remains scarce. One reason for this is …

Epistemic stability and epistemic adaptability: interdisciplinary knowledge integration competencies for complex sustainability issues

  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Global sustainability challenges transcend disciplines and, therefore, demand interdisciplinary approaches that are characterized by cross-disciplinary collaboration and integration across disciplines. In accordance with this need for interdisciplinary approaches, sustainability professionals …

Beyond practitioner and researcher: 15 roles adopted by actors in transdisciplinary and transformative research processes

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • Wuppertal Institut

To tackle complex sustainability problems, science and practice must join forces and interact in the processes of knowledge co-production. This central claim of sustainability science requires all actors to do …

Toward an integrated reporting framework in higher education institutions: evidence from a public university

  • Yildiz Technical University

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate to what extent a public university, named Yildiz Technical University, integrated report provides disclosure on International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) content …

The role of online social networks in university students’ environmentally responsible behavior

  • University of Tehran
  • Zabol University

This study aims to determine the effect of online social networks on university students’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). This research aimed to develop and test a behavioral model in the …

Synergizing education, research, campus operations, and community engagements towards sustainability in higher education: a literature review

  • Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University

The UN proclamation of 2005–2014 as the decade of education for sustainable development has been instrumental in creating awareness and driving higher education institutions (HEIs) in integrating sustainability into their …

Education for sustainable development amidst COVID-19 pandemic: role of sustainability pedagogies in developing students’ sustainability consciousness

  • National University of Modern Languages (Islamabad Capital Territory)
  • Beaconhouse National University

This study aims to assess the impact of sustainability pedagogies on students’ sustainability consciousness (SC) in the online instructional settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

AC 1: Academic Courses

AC 2: Learning Outcomes

AC 3: Undergraduate Program

AC 4: Graduate Program

AC 5: Immersive Experience

AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses

AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

Curriculum Partners

All Material Copyright © 2005–2023 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
AASHE reserves the right to control the reproduction and use of all material posted on this website.
For questions about this site, please email resources@aashe.org — Privacy Policy

About
Finding Resources
Submission Guidelines