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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.

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Integrating global sustainability into social studies teachers' education: a collaborative self-study

  • Kennesaw State University (GA)

There have been increasing calls for social studies educators to engage issues of sustainability. Proponents argue that the very survival of the planet depends on the degree to which teachers …

Promoting language education for sustainable development: a program effects case study in Japanese higher education

  • Konan University

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) approaches in English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japanese higher education. A content …

A proposal of personal competencies for sustainable consumption

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Despite advances in Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) scholarship and practice, ESE has not yet contributed to mitigate the sustainability-related problems it is meant to remedy. As part of an …

The Global Goals: bringing education for sustainable development into US business schools

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)

This paper aims to learn how sustainability and the circular economy were being integrated into the curriculum of a Dutch university and to transfer that knowledge back to a US …

How management education is engaging students in the sustainable development goals

This paper aims to explore if, and how, business schools globally have been engaging their students in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both inside and outside the classroom, since the …

Business schools are embracing the SDGs – But is it enough? – How business schools are reporting on their engagement in the SDGs

This paper explores the extent to which business schools are engaging in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and what that engagement looks like based on how schools have reported their …

Education for Sustainable Development and Action-Oriented Learning at Higher Education Institutions: Reflections on a Trans-Disciplinary Teaching Project

  • Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg

The objective of ESD is to make people think differently about lifestyles as well as economic and political structures, to raise awareness for complex problems, to sharpen political judgment and …

Teaching Environmental Sustainability while Transforming Study Abroad

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Environmental issues are of especially great importance to younger individuals, such as university students. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are a proven methodology for transforming short-term study abroad to yield …

Making Change Visible – An Explorative Case Study of Dealing With Climate Change Deniers in Forest Education

  • School Administration of Lower Saxony

This case study addresses the issue of climate change denial among students in their firstyear of vocational education. It was possible to shake the belief that man-made climatechange was not …

Addressing the higher education for sustainable development agenda at the College of Open and Distance Learning, St. Mary’s University, Ethiopia: opportunities and challenges

  • St. Mary’s University, Ethiopia

This study aims to assess the extent to which sustainable development practices are prevalent at the College of Open and Distance Learning (CODL), St. Mary’s University, Ethiopia. The assessment focused …

Sustainability and accounting education: perspectives of undergraduate accounting students in Saudi Arabia

  • Tanta University

The purpose of this study is to explore undergraduate accounting students' perceptions and understanding of the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, this study aims to explore students' perceptions of the …

Sustainable Smart Cities Challenges in Project Management Curriculum

  • The Academic College of Tel Aviv–Yaffo

Business schools aim to educate and train tomorrow’s managers, who will be responsible to lead their organizations towards success. Since businesses use projects as the main means to implement innovative …

Internationalization, Whiteness, and Biopolitics of Higher Education

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

From a postcolonial perspective, U.S. higher education is entangled with the colonial past and the neoliberal neo-colonial present as an economic actor that dominates global educational markets through internationalization. The …

Learning for the Future: Exploring Effective Characteristics of Sustainability Leadership Programs in Higher Education

  • Thompson Rivers University (BC)

In response to global environmental, economic, and social issues, universities and colleges have begun to create and expand leadership courses and programs that aspire to foster sustainability change agents. This …

Sustainability in Top Hospitality/Leisure Management Programs: Teaching for a Sustainable Future?

  • University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

Higher education (HE) programs in hospitality/leisure management studies offer the theoretical knowledge which should prepare graduates to be effective thought leaders for a changing global workplace. Previous research examined HE …

Enabling Sustainable Development by Embedding Tongan Knowledge into University Science Curricula

  • University of Auckland

Sustainable development requires the valuing of Indigenous knowledges. The complex and intertwined processes of coloniality and globalisation have contributed to spreading a dominant set of Western knowledge, values, and practices …

Social Responsibility and the World of Nature: an interdisciplinary environmental studies course for inspiring whole system thinking and environmental citizenship

  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)

Environmental educators face many challenges in university settings, including improving students’ capacity for systems thinking, the effective use of educational technology, and supporting a sense of agency for participation in …

Engaging students in education for sustainable development: The benefits of active learning, reflective practices and flipped classroom pedagogies

  • University of Edinburgh

Effective Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) requires appropriate pedagogies that engage learners in transformative learning. These pedagogies include reflective and active learning, involving experiential, collaborative and learner-centred activities. This paper …

How to Bring About Change – A Literature Review About Education and Learning Activities for Sustainable Development

  • University of Gothenburg

Sustainable development and transformational change have become more critical thanever in the era of climate change. The aim of this literature review was to increase know-ledge on education and learning …

“We Can’t Wait Anymore”: Young Professionals Engaging in Education for Sustainability

  • University of Memphis (TN)

Sustainability-minded young professionals are needed to facilitate movement toward a sustainable planet. Their development has largely been left to Higher Education Institutions charged with equipping future generations of professionals to …

Higher Education for Sustainability: A Critical Review of the Empirical Evidence 2013–2020

  • University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

Higher education for sustainable development (HESD) has grown into a substantial field of research and practice. HESD proposes that higher education will be central in a transition towards more sustainable …

Junkyard Planet: Using Stories to Teach Managerial Accounting with a Sustainability Theme

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

The purpose of this article is to share my experience teaching managerial accounting as a sustainability-themed course using stories. Theme-based learning suggests a relatable theme can make course content more …

Beyond Western and Indigenous Perspectives on Sustainability: Politicizing Sustainability With the Zapatista Rebellious Education

  • University of Stavanger

This article discusses the contributions of different worldviews to the debates on what a transformative sustainability education could be. It focuses on mainstream and alternative strands of thought present in …

Transforming sustainability education through transdisciplinary practice

  • University of Technology Sydney

Addressing urban sustainability challenges through transformative learning requires learners to be receptive to alternative viewpoints and to critically analyse their own assumptions and worldviews. Higher education institutions have an important …

Towards an eco-literate tertiary music education: Notes from a South African context

  • University of the Witwatersrand

On 20 September 2019 in Cape Town, as part of the global protests on inaction on climate change, the African Climate Alliance submitted a memorandum of demands to South African …

Growing action research on environmental learning in schools: a school-university partnership

  • University of Toronto (ON)

A team of teacher-researchers in a large urban school board is working in partnership with researchers from a leading Canadian university to use action research to broaden and deepen environmental …

Turtle Island (North America) Indigenous Higher Education Institutions and Environmental Sustainability Education

  • University of Waterloo (ON)

This article explores the environmental and sustainability programs of Indigenous Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) in North America. There are 38 Tribal Colleges and Universities in the United States and 26 …

The role of community-based learning in teaching about industrial ecology and sustainability in the context of engineering education: A case study from the field

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)

Industrial ecology and sustainability education have evolved over time, as this relatively new discipline has emerged and has been refined. Courses engaging with these topics are often found in engineering …

Using Macromarketing to Teach Business Sustainability

  • University of Wyoming (WY)

The first macromarketing seminar held in 1976 represented a first attempt to “hack the system” of business schools to bring a societal focus to the teaching of marketing. This effort …

Lessons learned from Covid-19: Why sustainability education needs to become political

  • University of Zurich

Research from various disciplines indicates that the human endeavour has shifted the earth into a new geologic epoch: the Anthropocene, in which we are stressing several planetary boundaries. Many political …

The Influence of Higher Education on Student Learning and Agency for Sustainability Transition

  • Victoria University (Victoria)

Higher education (HE) has a key role in educating graduates as decision makers and change agents; however, sustainability education (SE) remains on the fringes of mainstream curricula and is conducted …

Toward a Curriculum for the Future: Synthesizing Education for Sustainable Development and Internationalization of the Curriculum

  • Zuyd University of Applied Sciences

The need to solve the common global challenges at a systemic level in a collaborative, equitable, and culturally sensitive way naturally connects Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Internationalization of …

Education for Sustainable Development – A University’s Contribution

  • University of Bern

What is Education for Sustainable Development? And how can it be integrated into university teaching? This video shows some of the paths lecturers can take to discover how their own …

  • Posted May 5, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
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CFR 7/22 Higher Education Webinar: Campus Sustainability and Climate Change Mitigation

  • Mount Holyoke College (MA)

V.S. “Raghu” Raghavan, director of sustainability and associate director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke College, discusses actions campuses can take toward greater sustainability and …

  • Posted May 2, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
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JMU Geography Students Celebrate 10 Years of Gardening at Local Elementary School

JMU Geography Students Celebrate 10 Years of Gardening at Local Elementary School

  • James Madison University (VA)

JMU Geography faculty and students celebrated Earth Day with students from an elementary school in Harrisonburg, Virginia as a continuation of 10 years of gardening together. Dr. Amy Goodall and …

Exploring the nature and culture of science as an academic discipline: implications for the integration of education for sustainable development

  • University of Limerick

Purpose Goal 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly frames education as an enabler of change and a means to achieve all SDGs. This study aims to explore the …

  • Posted April 29, 2022
  • Publications
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Transforming Barriers into Opportunities: Teaching Environment and Sustainability Service-Learning Courses During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Central Connecticut State University (CT)
  • University of Maine at Farmington (ME)

In response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions of higher learning locked down their campuses and altered their ways of teaching. This article discusses changes made to …

  • Posted April 29, 2022
  • Publications
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Skill development using interdisciplinary problem solving in a natural resources capstone course

  • North Dakota State University (ND)

Post-secondary curriculum is designed to prepare students for their careers following graduation, which traditionally revolves around technical aspects of their respected career field. Capstone courses were introduced to help ease …

  • Posted April 29, 2022
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Environmental Health (BS)

  • University of Rochester (NY)

The BS in Environmental Health is designed for students with an interest in the environment as well as public health. Students who complete this program will understand how anthropogenic and …

  • Posted April 29, 2022
  • Academic Programs
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Embedding Sustainability in Learning and Teaching: Lessons Learned and Moving Forward—Approaches in STEM Higher Education Programmes

  • University of Glasgow
  • University of Peradeniya

Embedding sustainability into pedagogical approaches is a key priority in higher education. Equipping students with knowledge, understanding, and skills, and developing the next generation of innovators and leaders, can potentially …

  • Posted April 28, 2022
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Learning to Embed Sustainability in Teacher Education

  • Southern Cross University

This book offers an accessible guide to understanding the importance of a systems approach to embedding sustainability into teacher education practice, providing a practical resource for teacher education academics and …

  • Posted April 28, 2022
  • Publications
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Developing Interpersonal Competence Through Projectbased Sustainability Courses – Material from a Comparative Study

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

As part of the Educating Future Change Agents project, one case study investigated three project-based sustainability courses regarding the link between learning outcomes, i.e. what students learn in such courses, …

  • Posted April 28, 2022
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A Core Curriculum for Sustainability Leadership

  • Stanford University (CA)

In response to the scale, complexity, and urgency of the sustainability challenges societies face, there has been both rapid growth in the broad field of sustainability science and technology, as …

  • Posted April 28, 2022
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Towards sustainable development: a systematic review of the past decade’s literature on the social, environment and governance and universities in Latin America

  • Universidade federal de Santa Maria

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse through a systematic literature review the evolution of the theme of environmental social and governance (ESG) in universities, correlating variables and …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
  • Publications
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How Can Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Be Effectively Implemented in Teaching and Learning? An Analysis of Educational Science Recommendations of Methods and Procedures to Promote ESD Goals

  • Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has been a task assigned to schools and universities since the mid-1990s. This global movement spawned ESD research in numerous fields, including, among others, didactics …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
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Sustainability in Higher Education

  • University of Aveiro

Support in higher education is an emerging area of great interest to professors, researchers and students in academic institutions. Sustainability in Higher Education provides discussions on the exchange of information …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
  • Publications
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Storytelling for Sustainability in Higher Education

  • University of Southampton
  • Nottingham Trent University
  • Liverpool John Moores University

To be a storyteller is an incredible position from which to influence hearts and minds, and each one of us has the capacity to utilise storytelling for a sustainable future. …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
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Sustainability Curriculum in UK University Sustainability Reports

  • Oxford Brookes University

One of the major barriers to incorporating sustainability in the HE curriculum is its absence from the university sustainability strategy, the annual reflection of which is the annual sustainability report. …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
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The Application of Ecological Footprint Analysis to Distance Learning University Contexts: A Case Study of the College of Education, University of South Africa

  • University of São Paulo

The Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis can be considered as an indicator for assessing the environmental impact of universities, since it indicates flow of natural resources consumption and waste generation caused …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
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What Can Sustainability Do for Anthropology?

  • University College London (London)

This chapter asks not what anthropology can do for sustainability, but what a more nuanced examination of ‘sustainability’ might do for the reinvigoration of anthropology. By questioning what it is …

  • Posted April 25, 2022
  • Publications
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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.

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