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.
Featured Resources
New Resources
Embedding sustainable development in teacher education in the central region of Ghana
- University of Iceland
Policy practitioners have acknowledged the imperative of reshaping education. Despite the campaign on the need to embed sustainability principles in education, there still exist gaps in studies which investigate teacher ...
- Posted April 17, 2020
- Publications
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The Effects of Energy Dashboards and Competition Programming on Cyclic Electricity Consumption on a College Campus
- Western Michigan University (MI)
This report examined issues pertaining to the efficacy and cost effectiveness of energy dashboards in the effort to influence electricity-related behavior change on college campuses. Given the increasing popularity of ...
- Posted April 17, 2020
- Publications
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Shifting Education Towards Sustainability – How Degrowth Can Transform Education for Sustainable Development
- University of Zurich
Economic growth was identified as a main cause of ecological damage and social exploitation more than four decades ago (Carson, 1962; Meadows et al, 1972; Gorz, 1980; WCED 1987; 14 ...
- Posted April 17, 2020
- Publications
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Pre-service Teachers’ Knowledge and Perceptions of the Impact of Mitigative Climate Actions and Their Willingness to Act
- Lappeenranta University of Technology
- University of Eastern Finland
A 44-item questionnaire was created to examine pre-service teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of the impact of mitigative climate change actions and how willing they are to undertake these actions. Responses ...
- Posted April 16, 2020
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Integrating sustainability into project-based undergraduate design courses
- Istanbul Technical University
Although the methods and approaches of sustainable design have been developing for more than 20 years, their application in design education and the design process is still under-examined. This study ...
- Posted March 6, 2020
- Publications
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Spanish Universities’ Sustainability Performance and Sustainability-Related R&D+I
- Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)
- Carlos III University of Madrid
For its scope and the breadth of its available resources, the university system is one of the keys to implementing and propagating policies, with sustainability policies being among them. Building ...
- Posted March 6, 2020
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Participation of students in the project Valorbio: A case study to accelerate the implementation of sustainability principles in the curriculum
- Instituto Politécnico de Tomar
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of the Valorbio research project, in which students of different high-level programs were involved in the experimental work and ...
- Posted March 6, 2020
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An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology
- Auckland University of Technology
- University of Canterbury
- University of Auckland
- Massey University
There is a growing need for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in addressing global ecological challenges, and early career researchers (ECRs) often play a vital role in such ventures. But despite ...
- Posted March 5, 2020
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Constellations of Transdisciplinary Practices: A Map and Research Agenda for the Responsible Management Learning Field
- University of Nottingham
- Leuphana University of Lüneburg
- University of Liverpool
- KEDGE Business School (Bordeaux)
- University of Manchester (Lancashire)
The emerging field of responsible management learning is characterized by an urgent need for transdisciplinary practices. We conceptualize constellations of transdisciplinary practices by building up on a social practice perspective ...
- Posted March 5, 2020
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Bringing the Circular Economy to Research
- Rheaply, Inc (IL)
It is estimated that 2% of the world's global plastic waste is linked to laboratory waste- some 6 million tons of waste annually. Given the the existing tools available ...
- Posted Dec. 6, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Annual SDGs Report 2018
- National University of Sciences and Technology (Federal)
Realizing the importance of United Nations 17 SDGs, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) , Pakistan has adopted UN SDGs framework to monitor and improve the impact of contribution of ...
- Posted Dec. 6, 2019
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7th Workshop on Research for Sustainability: Investigating Mass Timber as Green Alternative
- University of Arkansas (AR)
Wood is an age-old construction material, first used around ten centuries ago in the building of Neolithic long houses with crude joints that barely held up a roof. Today wood ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Psychedelics and Sustainability - Tools for Worldview Remediation
- Naropa University (CO)
This presentation will broach the subject of psychedelics as tools to assist in accomplishing the aims of sustainability. At the same time that worldviews are calcifying on both sides of ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Climate Anxiety, Environmental Grief, and Pretraumatic Stress on Campus and in the College Classroom
- University of Hawaii System Office (HI)
- University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
Emerging research in higher education shows that students carry an emotional response of fear, anger, frustration, and sadness. Campus environments and college personnel, including faculty, can learn strategies to acknowledge ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Closed-Loop Mechanical Recycling of Polylactic Acid Filament in 3D Printing Labs
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
3D Printing has furthered innovation at UC Berkeley by providing access to new research methods and tools. However, considering the benefits of 3D printing, the large amount of plastic waste ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainable Economy in Labs: I2SL's Landfill Diversion Working Group Pursues Upstream Dysfunction
- Emory University (GA)
- University of Georgia (GA)
Researcher time is for research! Join us in calling for upstream innovations to build a circular economy and protect valuable scholar time! Achieving sustainability in laboratory settings with regard to ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Benefits of Technology Platforms for Improving Alternative Transit Modeshare
- University of Denver (CO)
Biking is one of the most efficient, environmentally-friendly, and economically sustainable ways to travel in an urban environment. Not only does it have huge financial and environmental benefits by eliminating ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Using Sustainability Principles to Impact Library Education: Information Literacy, Resources and Services
- Sul Ross State University (TX)
Libraries are the ultimate hubs of sustainability on academic campuses. Libraries are built for everyone, provide services to everyone, and seek to house information - physically and digitally - on every topic ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Green Behaviors and Preferences Among College Students
- Manhattan College (NY)
Our article contributes to the literature by investigating college students' environmental preferences and behavior by investigating their recycling attitudes and frequencies, their preference between tap versus bottled water, their willingness ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Questions that Need Answers: Resolving Data Gaps as an Opportunity for Communities and Universities
- United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (NY)
As research deepens around the sustainable economy, theoretical and analytical gaps in knowledge are becoming clearer. Universities can use this information, and their position as interdisciplinary institutions, to direct their ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Native Bee Conservation: Bridging the Gap Between Research, Sustainability, and Educating the Public
- Central College (IA)
Approximately 85% of flowering plants depend on animals for pollination. Bees, one of the most important pollinator groups, not only enable reproduction of most wild flowering plants, but also play ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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The Best Worst Way to Pick a Sustainability Culture Instrument, and How to do Better Next Time
- University of Northern Colorado (CO)
Sustainability culture can't be measured using using meters or gauges, so community members and researchers need a different kind of instrument. The go-to instruments are surveys to support a ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Research Findings from the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN)
- University of Saskatchewan (SK)
The Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), an international research network, has spent the last six years examining the uptake of sustainability in higher education policy and practice across Canada ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Bees : How UTSA is Connecting Sustainability and Undergraduate Research Opportunities
- University of Texas at San Antonio (TX)
The University of Texas at San Antonio's newly established Office of Sustainability awarded the department of Environmental Science and Ecology funding for a 3 year program to facilitate the ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Menus of Change University Research Collaborative: Collaboration to Change the Food System
- Boston College (MA)
The MCURC is a working group of scholars and campus dining leaders from invited colleges and universities interested in accelerating efforts to move American consumers-and college/university students, scholars, and ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Harvard University's Holistic Approach and Model for a Sustainable Food System
- Harvard University (MA)
The Harvard Office for Sustainability (OFS) convened a multi-disciplinary committee of world-renowned faculty to translate their research into action on campus to create a more sustainable food system that contributes ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Pursuing Sustainability in Education Abroad: Tools & Techniques
- The Education Abroad Network (IL)
Well-designed education abroad programs expose students to the many ways other cultures prioritize and pursue sustainability. Foreign approaches to sustainability, biodiversity, and social justice reveal to students abroad the culturally ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Faculty Sharing Success Stories of Teaching with Paul Hawken's Book DRAWDOWN
- Fort Hays State University (IL)
- Project Drawdown (CA)
CALLING ALL FACULTY: Have you taught with Paul Hawken's best-seller book 'Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming'?? Bring your stories to share during this ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Curriculum for (re)Conceptualizing the University Campus as an Ecosystem
- University of Utah (UT)
Can the planning and operations of a university campus be reconceptualized with an ecological and systems approach, viewing the campus environment as analogous to an ecosystem? If so, then an ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Learning to Change the Game: What Should Management Education for Sustainability Look Like?
- Bard College (NY)
- Swarthmore College (PA)
Sustainability requires business to radically reimagine how to keep the lights on, put food on the table, and provide housing, transportation, and education for a population that is headed for ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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How to Measure Success of Sustainability Initiatives Without Traditional Data Sources
- Barnard College (NY)
Have you ever avoided or been turned away from a project because you cannot quantify the results? Or have you implemented initiatives but have no way of determining if they ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Surfacing Unheard Voices: Expressive Invitations for Encouraging Diversity and Creativity in Circles of Innovation
- Prescott College (AZ)
Social incubators, writing circles, and college sustainability curricula all benefit from vibrant diversity for greater innovative power. What are effective ways to invite and liberate expressive diversities? Experience a set ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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The Power of Small Steps: Making Psychology Accessible to Practitioners Through Small Experiments
- University of Michigan (MI)
Campus sustainability offices are often expected to create sustainable, durable cultural change without inconveniencing the students, faculty, or staff at the universities and colleges at which they work. This task ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Collecting Actionable Data Using the Sustainability/Climate Change Survey
- University of Hawaii System Office (HI)
To better understand the campus community's perspectives on climate change, sustainability, and resilience issues, the sustainability office, and the institutional research office administered the first Earth Day Survey in ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Role of Higher Education in the Transition to a Circular Economy
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation
The transition to a circular economy requires us to transform the way we create products, services and systems and this is necessarily dependent on how individuals, teams and organisations learn ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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How Sustainable & Integrated Design Supports the Vital Mission of the Knight Cancer Institute
- Oregon Health & Science University (OR)
- SRG Partnership, Inc (WA)
- Brightworks Sustainability (OR)
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) is one of the only universities in the U.S. devoted exclusively to educating medical and public health professionals. The ambitious mission of their ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2019
- Conference Presentations
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Slow Conferencing: A Recipe for Connection in Troubled Times
- University of Toronto (ON)
The international conference comes at a cost in terms of our carbon footprint, but it also comes at a cost in terms of building broad communities of interest - particularly for ...
- Posted Dec. 2, 2019
- Publications
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The environmental footprint of academic and student mobility in a large research-oriented university
- McGill University (QC)
- Universite de Montreal (QC)
Academic mobility for field work, research dissemination and global outreach is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to the overall environmental footprint of research institutions. Student mobility, while less studied ...
- Posted Dec. 2, 2019
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MCURC: Universities Scaling Up Sustainability Together
- The Culinary Institute of America (NY)
- Stanford University (CA)
- AASHE (PA)
The Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC) is a working group of scholars and campus dining leaders from colleges and universities interested in accelerating efforts to move American consumers ...
- Posted Nov. 13, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research
- University of Florida (FL)
Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research ...
- Posted Nov. 6, 2019
- Publications
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Mapping Your Waste Stream and What to Do With It
- College & University Recycling Coalition (DC)
Part of the College and University Recycling Coalition's free webinar series designed to share technical knowledge between program managers, student interns and others involved with promoting waste reduction on ...
- Posted Aug. 19, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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Research & Innovation to Improve Small Wind Turbines
- Clarkson University (NY)
Ducted Wind Turbine Research - A Clarkson University aeronautical engineering professor, Ken Visser, received assistance from students and the entire campus community to develop and commercialize a ducted wind turbine. The ...
- Posted July 30, 2019
- Photographs
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The future of sustainability science: a solutions-oriented research agenda
- Arizona State University (AZ)
- Portland State University (OR)
- University of Massachusetts Lowell (MA)
- University of British Columbia (BC)
- Lund University
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
Over the last decade, sustainability science has been at the leading edge of widespread efforts from the social and natural sciences to produce use-inspired research. Yet, how knowledge generated by ...
- Posted July 19, 2019
- Publications
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Humanities for the Environment—A Manifesto for Research and Action
- Arizona State University (AZ)
- University of Oxford
- University of Sydney (NSW)
- Trinity College Dublin (The University of Dublin)
- National Sun Yat-sen University
- National Taiwan University
Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in the 21st century. It is crucial, therefore, to promote pro-environmental behavior. In order to accomplish this ...
- Posted July 19, 2019
- Publications
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Center for Environmental Futures (CEF)
- University of Oregon (OR)
The Center for Environmental Futures (CEF) is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students that reflects a longstanding investment in environmentalism and social justice at the University of Oregon and ...
- Posted June 5, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
- Yale University (CT)
The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale is an international multireligious project. With its conferences, publications, and website, it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in ...
- Posted May 22, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Institute for Sustainable Communities
- Texas A&M University (TX)
The Texas A&M Institute for Sustainable Communities serves as a focal point of interdisciplinary sustainable community research, engagement, and high-impact service learning. The Institute is the go-to place for Texas ...
- Posted May 22, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Sustainability Research Center (artec) at University of Bremen
- Universität Bremen
Sustainability Research Center (artec) at the University of Bremen is an interdisciplinary center for scientific research on sustainability issues. Researchers come from many different disciplines including Social Sciences, Production Engineering ...
- Posted May 22, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Arizona State University Global Institute of Sustainability
- Arizona State University (AZ)
The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability is the hub of Arizona State University’s sustainability initiatives. The ASU Wrigley Institute advances research, education and business practices for an ...
- Posted May 22, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides with Elizabeth Long
- The Ohio State University (OH)
This video provides valuable information about the significance of pollinators, the threats they face, and how individuals may assist in protecting these species. The video discusses the economic value of ...
- Posted May 22, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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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. Additional content and advanced benchmarking tools will be added to this tab over time.
Programs and Initiatives
The following links connect to specific Content Displays on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).
- Sustainability research inventories
- Methodologies used to complete a research inventory
- Open access policies
Scores
The following link connects to the Score Display on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).