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
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)
- Université de Montréal (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
- Publications
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MCURC: Universities Scaling Up Sustainability Together
- The Culinary Institute of America (NY)
- Stanford University (CA)
- AASHE (MA)
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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CU Boulder Animal Bedding Compost
- University of Colorado Boulder (CO)
Animal vivariums on college campuses generate a significant amount of animal bedding waste every day. CU Boulder houses only small animal vivariums (mice, rats, etc.). The animal bedding generated at ...
- Posted May 20, 2019
- Case Studies
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Rheaply AxM: Making Assets Happy Again
- Rheaply, Inc (IL)
A one minute video depicting the state of resource management in academia, and how circular thinking can be applied to asset management with Rheaply's AxM.
Rheaply’s Asset Exchange ...
- Posted May 20, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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A Six Mile-Long Living Laboratory: Publishable Student Research to Foster Sustainability and Resilience in Austin’s Waller Creek
- University of Texas at Austin (TX)
Over the past decade, a comprehensive approach to research in Waller Creek—the urban stream that bisects The University of Texas at Austin—was developed by faculty in the College ...
- Posted May 17, 2019
- Publications
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The Fear of Not Flying: Achieving Sustainable Academic Plane Travel in Higher Education Based on Insights from South Australia
- The University of Adelaide (SA)
Universities are both disseminators and producers of the climate knowledge needed to institute the social and cultural change required for climate adaptation and mitigation to occur. They also have the ...
- Posted May 15, 2019
- Publications
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Mobilizing transdisciplinary collaborations: collective reflections on decentering academia in knowledge production
- California State University, Long Beach (CA)
- University of Calgary (AB)
- Massey University
- The Nature Conservancy (VA)
Global sustainability challenges and their impact on society have been well-documented in recent years, such as more intense extreme weather events, environmental degradation, as well as ecosystem and biodiversity loss ...
- Posted May 13, 2019
- Publications
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Sustainability Demonstration House Project
- Michigan Technological University (MI)
The goal of the Sustainability Demonstration House (SDH) project is to retrofit the former president’s residence, built in 1953, titled the Kettle-Gundlach Building, into a sustainability demonstration house. The ...
- Posted May 7, 2019
- Publications
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Sul Ross State University Undergraduate and Graduate Research Symposium - Earth Day 2019
- Sul Ross State University (TX)
Sul Ross State University's second annual undergraduate and graduate research symposium was held on Earth Day, April 22, 2019, with special recognition awarded to those presenting on sustainability-related topics ...
- Posted May 5, 2019
- Photographs
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The Biomimicry Institute
- Biomimicry Institute (MT)
The Biomimicry Institute utilizes sustainable models from nature to develop creative solutions to modern sustainability issues. The institute offers educational resources to educators, organizations, and individuals. The Institute offers aims ...
- Posted May 5, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies
- Montclair State University (NJ)
The PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies supports transdisciplinary research and community projects that grow more resilient communities worldwide. From climate change research in New Jersey, to energy studies in Vietnam ...
- Posted May 5, 2019
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Learning to Navigate (in) the Anthropocene
- KU Leuven
Over the last decades, the extent of human impact on Earth and the atmosphere has been the subject of large-scale scientific investigations. It is increasingly argued that this impact is ...
- Posted April 29, 2019
- Publications
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International perspectives on the pedagogy of climate change
- Purchase College - State University of New York (NY)
- University of Massachusetts Lowell (MA)
- Prince Sultan University (Riyadh)
- Universidad de Sonora (Sonora)
- University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz
Education is key to the advancement of environmental sustainability. Climate change education is a complex topic where a number of factors play key roles. One such factor, namely the ongoing ...
- Posted April 29, 2019
- Publications
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"A Sustainable Second Century "
- American University in Cairo (Cairo)
The Office of Sustainability kick off AUC’s EarthWeek, an annual event celebrating international Earth Day. This year’s theme is EarthWeek: A Sustainable Second Century, focusing on the Past ...
- Posted April 29, 2019
- Photographs
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Connecting Sustainability Competences and Pedagogical Approaches
- AASHE (MA)
- Tecnológico de Monterrey (Nuevo Leon)
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 March 11, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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Universities responding to the call for sustainability: A typology of sustainability centres
- University of Helsinki
Universities worldwide are experiencing a growing trend to respond to the need for sustainability. Sustainability centres are one key aspect in the sustainability transitions of universities. Until currently, these centres ...
- Posted March 4, 2019
- Publications
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The Challenges of Sustainability Education
- St. Thomas University (FL)
Abstract: Sustainability has become a growing imperative in higher education in the United States of America (Calder [HTML_REMOVED] Dautremont-Smith, 2009). This paper examines sustainability education as it continues to emerge ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2019
- Publications
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Changing evangelical minds on climate change
- Dallas Baptist University (TX)
- Houghton College (NY)
- Tyndale University College & Seminary (ON)
One quarter of Americans self-identify as evangelical and a strong majority of these reject human-induced climate change. Can one lecture on climate science from a Christian perspective change their minds ...
- Posted Feb. 25, 2019
- Publications
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Creating an academic landscape of sustainability science: an analysis of the citation network
- University of Tokyo
Sustainability is an important concept for society, economics, and the environment, with thousands of research papers published on the subject annually. As sustainability science becomes a distinctive research field, it ...
- Posted Feb. 25, 2019
- Publications
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Campus Energy and Sustainability Podcast Episode 16: Reducing Waste and Increasing Reuse in Labs at Northwestern University
- Northwestern University (IL)
- Rheaply, Inc (IL)
Julie Cahillane, Sustainability Associate Director at Northwestern University and Dr. Garry Cooper, adjunct professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and CEO/Co-founder of Rheaply, Inc..
In this conversation ...
- Posted Feb. 14, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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Mascaro Research SEED Grants
- University of Pittsburgh (PA)
The Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) at the University of Pittsburgh provides annual SEED grants for interdisciplinary sustainability education and research initiatives. The goals of the grants are: (1 ...
- Posted Feb. 7, 2019
- Green Funds
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About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education
- Università degli Studi di Torino
- Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Humans are at the center of global climate change: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are igniting sustainability with proactive, global, social goals, moving us away from the Brundtland ...
- Posted Jan. 25, 2019
- Publications
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Actions speak louder than words: designing transdisciplinary approaches to enact solutions
- University of Maine (ME)
- University of New Hampshire (NH)
Sustainability science uses a transdisciplinary research process in which academic and non-academic partners collaborate to identify a common problem and co-produce knowledge to develop more sustainable solutions. Sustainability scientists have ...
- Posted Jan. 25, 2019
- Publications
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STARS Data Quality Boot Camp Webinar Series: Academics
- AASHE (MA)
Expanded from last year, the STARS Data Quality Boot Camp Series will help you gain the insights you need to submit a high-quality STARS report in time for the 2019 ...
- Posted Jan. 25, 2019
- Videos & Webinars
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Network Analysis of Goal 14 Within the PD4SDG Database
- Tarleton State University (TX)
Research is being done to analyze how networks promote regime formation. The goal of the project is to understand if an increase in cooperation will lead to sustainable development transforming ...
- Posted Dec. 21, 2018
- Conference Presentations
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It’s a Hit! Mapping Austrian Research Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
- University of Graz
- University of Innsbruck
- University of Leoben
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a global agenda addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges in a holistic approach. Universities can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs by ...
- Posted Dec. 21, 2018
- Publications
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St. John's University Academic Center for Equity and Inclusion
- St. John's University, New York (NY)
The Academic Center for Equity and Inclusion (or “Academic Center”) organizes scholarly and pedagogical activities that advance St. John's University's commitment to an inclusive and equitable University community ...
- Posted Dec. 21, 2018
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Assessing research trends related to Sustainable Development Goals: local and global issues
- Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
- University of Passo Fundo
- Manchester Metropolitan University
The Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the United Nations in September 2015 comprise 17 goals and 169 targets aimed at integrating matters related to sustainable development into the overall economic ...
- Posted Dec. 11, 2018
- Publications
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The role of transformation in learning and education for sustainability
- North-West University (North West)
- Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
- University of Campinas
- Universidade Federal Fluminense
- Damascus University
- University of Latvia
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
- University of Belgrade
Education research has acknowledged the value of transformation, which offers an opportunity for researching and rethinking how appropriate and successful educational practices may be. However, despite the role of transformation ...
- Posted Dec. 11, 2018
- Publications
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Scholarship and the SDGs: Connecting Yale teaching and research to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Yale University (CT)
In 2015, the Yale Office of Sustainability began looking at how teaching and research at Yale aligns with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted by 193 countries ...
- Posted Dec. 4, 2018
- Publications
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A critical realist inquiry in conducting interdisciplinary research: an analysis of LUCID examples
- Lund University
In recent years, a strong natural science hegemony has predominantly framed our understanding of sustainability challenges and, as a result, the production of solution strategies. In countering this, some academic ...
- Posted Nov. 13, 2018
- Publications
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Prefiguring Sustainability through Participatory Action Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Reflections and Recommendations for Student Development
- Arizona State University (AZ)
- Colorado State University (CO)
- University of Cincinnati (OH)
PAR-based UREs are undergraduate research experiences (UREs)—built into university-community partnerships—that apply principles of participatory action research (PAR) towards addressing community-defined challenges. In this paper, we advance PAR-based UREs ...
- Posted Nov. 13, 2018
- Publications
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Sustainable development concept in the chemistry curriculum: An exploration of foundation students’ perspective
- National University of Malaysia
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of foundation chemistry learners concerning the sustainable development concept.
Design/methodology/approach Qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted. Atlas ...
- Posted Nov. 13, 2018
- Publications
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Integrated Plastics Recycling and Research Facility at UC Berkeley
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
The Zero Waste Research Center at UC Berkeley is working to create the first Plastics Recycling Facility at UC Berkeley. This facility, located at the Global Bay Campus in Richmond ...
- Posted Nov. 5, 2018
- Conference Presentations
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Identifying Holistic Metrics to Redefine Zero Waste
- Post-Landfill Action Network (NH)
While diversion has been the go-to metric for evaluating our waste reduction efforts, it skips over several levels of the waste reduction hierarchy, resulting in the prioritization of recycling and ...
- Posted Nov. 5, 2018
- Conference Presentations
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University Zero Waste Research Center Networking Session
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
The student-led Zero Waste Research Center at UC Berkeley works to create circular economies on the UC Berkeley campus by investigating innovative upstream and downstream solutions to campus waste problems ...
- Posted Nov. 5, 2018
- Conference Presentations
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Living Housed, Healthily and Happily: Conceptualizing Disparaging Circumstances in Queer Communities
- College of Charleston (SC)
The data and implications aim to identify the meaning of social sustainability while highlighting issues within the field. LGBTQ communities are affected by many adverse circumstances and their lives can ...
- Posted Nov. 5, 2018
- Conference Presentations
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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 9: Research & Scholarship
- Percent of research employees that conduct sustainability research
- Percent of research departments that conduct sustainability research
- Sustainability research inventory (upload)
- Sustainability research inventory (description)
- Website URL - Sustainability research
AC 9: Support for Sustainability Research
- Description of the student sustainability research program
- Description of the academic staff sustainability research program
- Website URL - Support for sustainability research
AC 10: Open Access to Research
- Website URL - Open access repository
- Open access policy (upload)
- Open access policy (description)
- Description of the open access article processing charge (APC) fund
- Description of the open access journal hosting services
- Website URL - Support for open access
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.