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Research

Introduction

Conducting research is a major function of many colleges and universities. By researching sustainability issues and refining theories and concepts, higher education institutions can continue to help the world understand sustainability challenges and develop new technologies, strategies, and approaches to address those challenges.

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Handbook of Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development

  • University of Malta (Northern Harbor District)

This book focuses on lifelong learning for sustainable development, an aspect that has been rarely explored in great detail. It also discusses methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2017
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Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research

In this handbook social science researchers who focus on sustainability present and discuss their findings, including empirical work, case studies, teaching and learning innovations, and applied projects. As such, the ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2017
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The Sustainability in Science Museums program has developed the sustainABLE® Activity Kits to engage families in sustainability practices and principles. More than 70 kits have been distributed worldwide, engaging more than 40,000 guests.

Sustainability in Science Museums sustainABLE (R) Activity Kits

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

The Sustainability in Science Museums program has developed the sustainABLE® Activity Kits to engage families in sustainability practices and principles. More than 70 kits have been distributed worldwide, engaging more ...

Science Museums Fellows participate in a week-long workshop that culminates in a proposal for a sustainability project or program that will be implemented at their home institution. Since 2016, 43 projects have been completed, reaching more than 1 million guests globally.

Sustainability in Science Museums

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

The Sustainability in Science Museums program, one of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives at Arizona State University, invites professionals from science museums and centers from around the ...

Summit series participants explore five broad and urgent global themes: conflict resolution, human rights, sustainability, global education, and religious/cultural understanding.

JMU’s Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series Promotes Transformative Teaching and Learning in Research and Practice

  • James Madison University (VA)

The Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series has brought together leading scholars, educators, and practitioners from around the world to address the crucial problems facing modern society.

https://www ...

Lia Bobay works with mentor Adam Fudickar to band and measure birds to track bird migration affected by climate change.

2020 Sustainability Scholar in the Field

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)

Lia Bobay works with mentor Adam Fudickar to band and measure birds to track bird migration affected by climate change.

CV Theis Groundwater Observatory

CV Theis Groundwater Observatory

  • University of Cincinnati (OH)

The University of Cincinnati has completed the construction of the Great Miami Groundwater Observatory to continuously monitor water quality for over two million Ohio residents who rely on the Great ...

Adult Atlantic salmon raised at the Fleming College Frost campus in the Salmonid Hatchery. This is a state of the art RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture System), designed to reuse over 90% of the water required for rearing tanks. Atlantic salmon are stocked into Lake Ontario tributaries in support of the Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program.

The Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program at Fleming College, Lindsay, Ontario

  • Fleming College (ON)

The Fleming College Salmonid Hatchery aims to ensure the future sustainability of Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario by maximizing genetic diversity in stocked fish. The Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program has ...

Teachers Attend a Training Course for Integrating STEM Kits in National Parks

STEM Kit for National Park Service

  • Colorado State University (CO)

The Education and Outreach Center in the College of Natural Sciences at Colorado State University has been contracted by the National Park Service to develop hands-on STEM kits for 4th-12th ...

Kurt Borth Sustainability Scholar 2015 - Presenting approaches for successful household efficiency upgrade program.

Sustainability Scholar 2015 - University of Alberta

  • University of Alberta (AB)

Research Report - Executive Summary

The Sustainability Scholars program provides University of Alberta graduate students opportunities to work on applied research projects with the City of Edmonton, campus units and other ...

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): The turn away from ‘environment’ in environmental education?

  • Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

This article explores the implications of the shift of environmental education (EE) towards education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of environmental ethics. While plural perspectives on ESD are ...

University Reputations and the Public: A Roadmap for Higher Education Leaders

Edelman, a public relations firm, surveyed academics and the general public to understand how the U.S. public evaluates the reputations of higher education institutions, and how these reputational drivers ...

  • Posted Sept. 18, 2017
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Publication Cover

Getting Started with the SDGs in Universities: A guide for universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sector

The guide from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Australia/Pacific aims to accelerate action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It highlights the role universities specifically in Australia, New Zealand ...

  • Posted Sept. 18, 2017
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Higher Education Paving the Way to Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective

The International Association of Universities (IAU), a membership organization, which brings together about 650 higher education institutions and organizations from some 130 countries, launched its first Global Survey on the ...

  • Posted Sept. 18, 2017
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AASHE Award Winner Webinar – Generating and Maintaining Hope and Agency through Sustainability Education

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)
  • AASHE (MA)

Indigenous educator Gregory Cajete articulates the motivations and questions that drive the presenter’s research. For Cajete, effective education entails ‘finding heart,’ an active process within and beyond the person ...

  • Posted Sept. 14, 2017
  • Videos & Webinars
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Solar Energy Technology Licensed

  • University of California, Davis (CA)

A new licensing deal between the University of California, Davis and Q1 NanoSystems has established terms for exclusive licensing of a package of jointly-owned intellectual property stemming from inventions both ...

  • Posted Sept. 11, 2017
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A review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Achieving the goal of sustainability requires understanding and management of unprecedented and interconnected challenges. A transdisciplinary approach is a key component of sustainability science. However, there are considerable barriers to ...

  • Posted Aug. 31, 2017
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Comparing different measures of affective attributes relating to sustainability

  • University of Otago (Otago)
  • Otago Polytechnic (Otago)

A survey was developed to benchmark the affective sustainability characteristics of an incoming cohort of students in a Polytechnic in New Zealand, with the intention to monitor changes in these ...

  • Posted Aug. 28, 2017
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Natural Herbicides Project

Natural Herbicides Project

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
  • Engineers for a Sustainable World (CO)

First experiment (for Google Science Fair 2012). Weedy check (control plot in which no natural herbicides were applied) shown to left; treated areas shown to right.

Asian deals for UNSW solar technology

  • UNSW Sydney (NSW)

This press release describes three new technology licensing agreements between and the University of New South Wales and solar cell manufacturers in Asia. The first, a $1.7million licensing agreement ...

  • Posted Aug. 14, 2017
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UNL technology powers Nebraska solar panel startup

  • University of Nebraska - Lincoln (NE)

This press release describes an exclusive licensing agreement between University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Rare Earth Solar, a Nebraska solar panel manufacturer. The technology licensed by the University replaces the typical ...

  • Posted Aug. 14, 2017
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Clean Energy Patent Growth Index - 2015 Year in Review

The Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) tracks the growth of patents in the clean energy sector from 2002 to the present. Among other things, it includes a ranking of ...

Key trends in IEA public energy technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) budgets

This analysis of public funding for energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) in member countries of the International Energy Agency shows that the share of energy RD&D budgets spent on ...

Participants in Dickinson College's Valley and Ridge 2017 workshop got out into the field to learn how to weave sustainability into education.

Setting a Sustainability Standard

  • Dickinson College (PA)

Dickinson takes leadership role in helping faculty across a wide-range of disciplines prepare students to tackle tomorrow's sustainability challenges.

Strengthening Knowledge Co-Production Capacity: Examining Interest in Community-University Partnerships

Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action to address sustainability challenges. Communication research can play a critical role in fostering more effective research ...

  • Posted June 20, 2017
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Research on energy savings opportunities in university libraries

Purpose – Mechanical systems in library environments are typically designed to run continuously in order to maintain the desired environmental conditions for preservation purposes, often resulting in a high cost in ...

  • Posted June 20, 2017
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Essential Ecoliteracy, or “earth smarts”: Defining and validating a pragmatic educational construct based on quality of life.

This study began with an attempt to find a definition of ecological literacy that was flexible enough to be useful in variety of contexts, but also included components that were ...

  • Posted June 19, 2017
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Rethinking Thinking about Sustainability Curriculum

  • AASHE (MA)

“You cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.” Albert Einstein

If a snap of the fingers could reverse the environmental destruction of the past ...

  • Posted June 9, 2017
  • Videos & Webinars
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Climate Change Research at Universities: Addressing the Mitigation and Adaptation Challenges

This book provides a multidisciplinary review of current, climate-change research projects at universities around the globe, offering perspectives from all of the natural and social sciences.

Numerous universities worldwide pursue ...

A persuasive feedback support system for energy conservation and carbon emission reduction in campus residential buildings

There is a need for energy conservation mechanisms, especially in university campuses, as students do not have any direct feedback on their energy consumptions, which leads to excess usages. There ...

Personal authenticity and political subjectivity in student deliberation in environmental and sustainability education

This study problematizes what is meant when one talks about classroom activities concerning environmental and sustainability issues as being authentic or not. It reports excerpts from three classroom discussions which ...

Examining Interdisciplinary Sustainability Institutes at Major Research Universities: Innovations in Cross-Campus and Cross-Disciplinary Models

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • University of Arizona (AZ)
  • Cornell University (NY)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • Duke University (NC)
  • Columbia University (NY)
  • Northwestern University (IL)
  • Stanford University (CA)
  • Princeton University (NJ)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
  • Brown University (RI)
  • Boston University (MA)
  • Texas A&M University (TX)
  • Vanderbilt University (TN)
  • Johns Hopkins University (MD)
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (IL)

This is a study of the disctintive characteristics, activities, challenges and opportunities of a specific type of sustainability institute, one that spans the many disciplines of the university and, to ...

University of California, Climate Lab, Video Series Episode Five: The fight to rethink (and reinvent) nuclear power

  • University of California, Office of the President (CA)

This is the fifth episode of Climate Lab, a six-part series produced by the University of California in partnership with Vox. Hosted by Emmy-nominated conservation scientist Dr. M. Sanjayan, the ...

  • Posted May 22, 2017
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Welding Hydroelectric Raceway

Modern Sustainability

  • University of Hawaii Kauai Community College (HI)

RECENT PROJECTS:

  • Beach Cleanup Caddy (complete - STEM grant award pending - awaiting field testing) - Assembled a cart system specifically designed for beach cleanups, outfitted with a detachable metal waste bin, wheel ...

Designing a Photovoltaic Array for Smith College

  • Smith College (MA)

The development of distributed solar energy is an opportunity for individuals and institutions to support the growth of the clean energy economy, lower their carbon footprint, promote energy security, and ...

Integration of interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability education and research and urban sustainability

  • Global Council Science and the Environment (DC)

This article explores the results of the National Council for Science and the Environment’s 2012 census of interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability (IES) baccalaureate and graduate degree programs and the ...

Wind Power Feasibility Study for Ball State University

  • Ball State University (IN)

Based on two years of site-specific wind speed measurements and actual power curve performance estimates of five commercial wind turbines, a feasibility study of wind-power potential near Ball State University ...

Oregon Climate Change Research Institute

  • Oregon State University (OR)

The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute is an institute underneath Oregon State’s Advancing the Science of Earth’s Ecosystems center. The institution was created by the Oregon Legislature and ...

  • Posted May 15, 2017
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Florida Gulf Coast University Emerging Technologies Institute

  • Florida Gulf Coast University (FL)

The FGCU Emerging Technologies institute is an off campus institute designed to facilitate projects and research in regards to sustainable technology. Projects will be geared towards environmental sustainability and renewable ...

  • Posted May 15, 2017
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Biofuels and Bioproducts Research Lab

  • University of South Florida (Tampa) (FL)

The focus of research at the Biofuels and Bioproducts research lab includes studying the chemical makeup of algae and the economic and physical feasibility of optimizing it as an alternative ...

  • Posted May 15, 2017
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Center for Integrative Conservation Research

  • University of Georgia (GA)

Established in 2007 after several years of planning and funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the CICR seeks to bring together conservation experts from across disciplines ...

  • Posted May 15, 2017
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technology (NUCRET)

  • Northeastern University (MA)

NUCRET leads the national and worldwide effort in developing the fuel cells of the future based on the platinum free catalysts, as well as novel chemistries for advanced rechargeable batteries ...

  • Posted May 15, 2017
  • Research Centers & Institutes
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Content trends in sustainable business education: an analysis of introductory courses in the USA

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)

Purpose - This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.

Design/methodology ...

The Urban Agriculture Community-based Research Experience (U-ACRE) Project

  • California State University, Fullerton (CA)
  • Fullerton College (CA)
  • Santa Ana College (CA)
  • University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)

In Orange County, 36% of low-income households experience hunger at least once a day and well over 1/3 are children. Engaging students in experiential learning that addresses sustainability in ...

Arts and humanities inquiry in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network: empathy, relationships, and interdisciplinary collaborations

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • Oregon State University (OR)
  • University of Alaska Fairbanks (AK)

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is a collection of 25 National Science Foundation-funded sites committed to long-term, place-based investigation of the natural world. While activities primarily focus on ecological ...

Enhancing and promoting interdisciplinarity in higher education

  • University of Florida (FL)

Interdisciplinarity represents an effort to achieve integrative knowledge in an age of increasing academic specialization. It is an intrinsic feature of the environmental sciences and the emerging field of sustainability ...

Distinguishing collaboration from contribution in environmental research

  • University at Buffalo (NY)
  • State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (NY)

In this paper, we distinguish contributory from collaborative approaches to interdisciplinary environmental research. A characteristic feature of the collaborative approach is that emphasis is placed on the process of collaborative ...

Shared place and space: a comparison of two interdisciplinary graduate programs

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)

Interdisciplinary training has an important role to play in environmental research, but what aspects of interdisciplinary training are most helpful for graduate students as they seek to define themselves as ...

A framework for collaborative climate change research

  • Colgate University (NY)

There is a growing understanding in the scientific community that the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of indigenous peoples and other local communities is both different from data collected by scientists ...

Scholarly motivations to conduct interdisciplinary climate change research

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)
  • Northern Illinois University (IL)
  • University of Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Boston University (MA)
  • Whitman College (WA)
  • Idaho State University (ID)

Understanding and responding to today’s complex environmental problems requires collaboration that bridges disciplinary boundaries. As the barriers to interdisciplinary research are formidable, promoting interdisciplinary environmental research requires understanding what ...

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 9: Research & Scholarship

AC 9: Support for Sustainability Research

AC 10: Open Access to Research

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

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