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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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The Applied Student Research Toolkit

  • McGill University (QC)

This Applied Student Research (ASR) toolkit is designed to help students complete an impactful ASR project. ASR related to sustainability is an opportunity for students to address the needs of …

Integral inclusion of sustainability to the curriculum

  • The Universidad Tecnologica Metropolitana (Metropolitana Region)

It shows how the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana de Chile integrated sustainability throughout the curriculum for all its programs

Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals

  • AASHE (MA)
  • University College London (London)
  • University of London

The challenges the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) go deeper than did those of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They require a rethink of the …

  • Posted May 18, 2018
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Dismantling a local School to Prison Pipeline with Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

UTRGV’s collaboration with an alternative school and its subsequent integration of education for sustainable development has been transformative for the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized youth.

Armed guards stand at …

Dimensions of professional competences for interventions towards sustainability

  • Open University of the Netherlands
  • University of Derby
  • The Open University

This paper investigates sustainability competences through the eyes of professional practitioners in the field of sustainability and presents empirical data that have been created using an action research approach. The …

Enhancing Ecoliteracy through Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Proverbs

  • Seoul National University

Proverbs can be regarded as pithy axioms of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), which can be useful for sustainability education. By using an exploratory sequential mixed method, we analyzed TEK and …

Frontiers in Environmental Education: Philosophical Reflections on the Impact of Power Epistemology and Consumerist Pedagogy in Environmental Education

  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)
  • East China Normal University

In this paper we argue that an educational ideology, based on an epistemology of power and consumerism, has become embedded within the structural foundations of Western Education. The combination of …

Building student capacity to lead sustainability transitions in the food system through farm-based authentic research modules in sustainability sciences (FARMS)

  • Dartmouth College (NH)
  • Montana State University (MT)

Undergraduate courses provide valuable opportunities to train and empower students with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to advance society in more sustainable directions. This article emphasizes the value of bridging …

Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: An enabling role for accounting research

  • University of St Andrews (Scotland)
  • University of London

The purpose of this paper is to establish and advance the role of academic accounting in the pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are regarded as …

Using experiential marine debris education to make an impact: Collecting debris, informing policy makers, and influencing students

  • University of Hartford (CT)

The Shore to Statehouse project supported the creation of an open-source, replicable, undergraduate experiential course on marine debris. Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the course allowed undergraduate …

Urban sustainability education: Challenges and pedagogical experiments

  • Stanford University (CA)
  • Tsinghua University

The twenty-first century will witness massive urban expansion and growth of the urban population, which has global implications for future pathways of sustainable development. Addressing new and heightened demands on …

ProjectSustainability Team: Chetan, Josh, Farheen

Students' Perception of and Engagement with Sustainability at Humber College

  • Humber College (ON)

ProjectSustainability aims to explore Humber College students’ perception of sustainability, and their engagement with the Office of Sustainability - including the effectiveness of current sustainability initiatives, as well as improvement …

Undergraduate Learning through Engaged Scholarship and University-Community Partnerships

  • College of William & Mary (VA)
  • University of Georgia (GA)

The impact of university–community partnerships and involvement in engaged scholarship on student learning was examined through in-depth interviews with undergraduate members of a student-led, community-based research organization at a selective …

Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities

The most comprehensive review of place-based education – its pedagogy and its practice – yet to appear, by the author of the highly influential book Beyond Ecophobia. Through academic research, …

Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions—A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria)

  • University of Marburg

The potential of universities to become ‘change agents’ for sustainability has increasingly been highlighted in the literature. Some largely open questions are how universities get involved in regional sustainability transitions …

Equity-Minded Faculty Development: An Intersectional Identity-Conscious Community of Practice Model for Faculty Learning

  • California State University, San Bernardino (CA)

Equity-minded institutional transformation requires robust faculty learning. Research has shown that the single most important factor in student success is faculty interaction. Positive, supportive, and empowering faculty interaction is particularly …

Environmental Literacy of Undergraduate College Students: Development of the environmental literacy instrument (ELI)

  • Texas Tech University (TX)
  • University of Texas at San Antonio (TX)

As the world population continues to increase and natural resources become limited, environmental education (EE) in universities play an essential role in developing environmentally literate. This study measured the environmental …

Retrofitting the Ivory Tower: Engaging Global Sustainability Challenges through Interdisciplinary Problem-Oriented Education, Research, and Partnerships in U.S. Higher Education

  • Western Illinois University (IL)

Various experts and institutions, including the United Nations, have stressed the complexity of the 21st century’s global sustainability challenges. Higher education institutions should be at the center of research and …

Learning for Biosphere Security in a Crowded, Warming World

  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)

Among all the pressing needs for educational innovations that humanity faces today, arguably the most imperative is the need to elicit the learner's active involvement in a 'Great Transition' that …

The Personal Context of Student Learning for Sustainability: Results of a multi-university research study

  • Victoria University (Victoria)

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005–2014) was an important framework and catalyst for increasing Sustainable Development (SD) efforts within academic institutions, worldwide. Tertiary institutions began to …

Pathways to cleaner production in the Americas I: bridging industry-academia gaps in the transition to sustainability

The transition to sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is hindered by low demand for environmentally-benign industrial development strategies, and a limited supply of professionals to enact such …

Transdisciplinarity in higher education for sustainability: How discourses are approached in engineering education

  • Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya

There exists a general agreement on the need to reform scientific expertise by developing new ways of knowledge production and decision-making able to cope with the challenges sustainability poses. In …

Teaching sustainable entrepreneurship to engineering students: the case of Delft University of Technology

  • Technische Universiteit Delft

This article outlines the increasing importance of the education of engineering students on sustainability, social aspects of technology and entrepreneurship. The authors demonstrate how sustainability education is possible and outlines …

Graduate Certificate in Energy

  • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)

The Graduate Certificate in Energy is offered by the Rutgers Energy Institute to graduate students in a large variety of graduate programs at Rutgers. During the program, students are required …

  • Posted May 8, 2018
  • Academic Programs
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Certificate of Graduate Study in Sustainable Development

  • University of Southern Maine (ME)

The Certificate requires students to complete four courses, mainly from the Policy, Planning, and Management (PPM) department of the Graduate program at USM, in order to attain the certificate either …

  • Posted May 8, 2018
  • Academic Programs
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Environmental and Energy Systems Management Graduate Certificate Program

  • George Washington University (DC)

Offered through the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, the graduate certificate in Environmental and Energy Systems Management is designed to help students understand and implement environmental and energy …

  • Posted May 8, 2018
  • Academic Programs
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JGC Permaculture Garden and class lecture

Permaculture and Community at WCSU

  • Western Connecticut State University (CT)

The Jane Goodall Center for Excellence in Environmental Studies is a unique partnership between Western Connecticut State University and The Jane Goodall Institute, a private non-profit organization dedicated to wildlife …

From Basic Research to Applied Solutions: are two approaches to sustainability science emerging?

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Duke University (NC)

Despite its widespread emergence and adoption, sustainability science continues to suffer from definitional ambiguity within the academe. A review of efforts to provide direction and structure to the science reveal …

Developing a Framework for Sustainability Meta-Competencies

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • Stanford University (CA)

Sustainability is a critical issue in higher education curriculum development and organisational culture, yet its contested nature necessitates a shared understanding to support a distinct mission across institutional efforts. Therefore, …

  • Posted April 25, 2018
  • Publications
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Presentations in Action

World's Challenge Challenge: Local University at Buffalo Competition

  • University at Buffalo (NY)

The World's Challenge Challenge calls on students to solve some of the problems facing the world. In teams of three, students from diverse backgrounds will choose one idea and relate …

  • Posted April 25, 2018
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Identifying and Overcoming Obstacles to the Implementation of Sustainable Development at Universities

  • National Taiwan Normal University
  • Universidade Aberta
  • University of Passo Fundo
  • University of Aveiro

Although there have been proven and successful developments in the field of Higher Education for Sustainable Development over the past 15 years or so, there are still numerous challenges to …

  • Posted April 24, 2018
  • Publications
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Evaluating Core Competencies Development in Sustainability and Environmental Master's Programs: An empirical analysis

  • Boise State University (ID)
  • Global Council Science and the Environment (DC)
  • University of Tokyo
  • Hokkaido University (Hokkaido)
  • Tohoku University

Interest in and understanding of the various competencies that university sustainability and environmental graduate degree programs should aim for has increased in recent years. Yet empirical efforts that assess the …

  • Posted April 24, 2018
  • Publications
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The place of content and pedagogy in shaping sustainability learning outcomes in higher education

  • University of Haifa

This research investigates the ways in which undergraduate courses dealing with the environment address sustainable development (SD), and contribute to the development of sustainability learning outcomes (SLO). The participants in …

  • Posted April 18, 2018
  • Publications
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The personal context of student learning for sustainability: Results of a multi-university research study

  • Victoria University (Victoria)

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005–2014) was an important framework and catalyst for increasing Sustainable Development (SD) efforts within academic institutions, worldwide. Tertiary institutions began to …

  • Posted April 18, 2018
  • Publications
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The glocal curriculum: A model for transnational collaboration in higher education for sustainable development

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

Transnational collaborations between universities provide an underutilized opportunity to teach sustainability competencies emphasizing the global and local nature of (un)sustainability. This article asks: what kind of curricula and teaching-learning environments …

  • Posted April 18, 2018
  • Publications
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The efficacy of real-world experiences and service learning for fostering competences for sustainable development in higher education

  • KU Leuven

One of the main challenges for teachers of higher education is to design learning activities that will allow students to effectively acquire sustainability competences. Education therefore needs to be re-oriented …

  • Posted April 18, 2018
  • Publications
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The ecological domain in the sustainability science research and education

  • University of Tokyo

A single disciplinary approach fails to tackle problems threatening the sustainable development. Thus, the sustainability science – focused on the problem, normative, and covering many disciplines – has been developed …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Teaching Environmental Sustainability Across the Sport Management Curriculum

  • University of South Carolina (SC)

The push to engage in the “green movement” has now shifted from a passing thought to a central focus of higher education. Environmental sustainability has the capacity to be an …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Systems Structure of Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education Institution

  • National University of Malaysia

To understand the enactment of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education institution (HEI) and why very unequal ESD activity that mostly focused on campus greening rather than on …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Sustainability education: how evolving STEM benefits underserved populations

  • Evergreen State College, The (WA)

This research explores ways in which sustainability education efforts can create an advantageous learning environment for women and underrepresented minority students in STEM. By drawing on key literature that discusses …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Sustainability competencies in teacher education: Making teacher education count in everyday school practice

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

The need for sustainable development and societal transformation is gaining more and more relevance. Social learning processes will be needed to contribute to real change which is why the 2030 …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Teaching Sustainability Using an Active Learning Constructivist Approach: Discipline-Specific Case Studies in Higher Education

  • Kennesaw State University (GA)

In this paper we present our rationale for using an active learning constructivist approach to teach sustainability-related topics in a higher education. To push the boundaries of ecological literacy, we …

  • Posted April 17, 2018
  • Publications
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Integration of Sustainability into Architectural Education at Accredited Korean Universities

  • Korea University
  • Seoul National University
  • University of Seoul
  • Chungbuk National University
  • Sungkyunkwan University
  • Hongik University

This paper examines the integration of sustainability principles into architectural education programs at South Korean Universities that have been accredited by the Korea Architectural Accrediting Board (KAAB). Accreditation requires the …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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Connecting Competences and Pedagogical Approaches for Sustainable Development in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Framework Proposal

  • Tecnológico de Monterrey (Nuevo Leon)
  • Gävle University College
  • University of Toulouse

Research into and practice of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) have been increasing during the last two decades. These have focused on providing sustainability education to future generations of …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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‘The Camels are Unsustainable’ Using Study Abroad as a Pedagogical Tool for Teaching Ethics and Sustainable Development

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Michigan State University (MI)

Sustainable development (SD) has contested meanings, and perspectives vary within and across societies. Emphases can range dramatically from recycling advocacy to eradication of poverty. Assumptions and approaches to sustainable development …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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Individual Sustainability Competences for Eco-design Infrastructure

  • Open University of the Netherlands

Sustainability in the broadest sense of the term has become an undeniable aspect of corporate dealings this day and age. The advent of Corporate Social Responsibility as a morally sound …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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‘Education for sustainability’ in the business studies curriculum: a call for a critical agenda

  • Massey University

The critical theorization of education for sustainability developed from the earlier political conception of ‘education for the environment’. This critical perspective underpins the theory of education for sustainability that the …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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Enhancing Education for Sustainable Development in Environmental University Programmes: A Co-Creation Approach

  • Universitat Politècnica de València (Valencia)
  • National Polytechnic University

The purpose of this study is to analyse co-creation approach as a strategy at HE as a prerequisite for a successful implementation of sustainable development (HESD), while considering student collaboration …

  • Posted April 16, 2018
  • Publications
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Sustainable Agriculture Minor

  • University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)

Students who select this minor will learn about sustainable agriculture in its broadest sense, including issues related to maintaining and/or improving crop and animal productivity, preserving environmental resources for future …

  • Posted April 12, 2018
  • Academic Programs
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Agroecosystems Management (MS)

  • Colorado State University (CO)

Major research emphases are precision crop and nutrient management and management systems that improve efficiency of crop water use. Additional research emphases include soil carbon and nutrient dynamics in cropping …

  • Posted April 12, 2018
  • Academic Programs
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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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