Publications

Introduction

AASHE’s publications library is the leading repository of reports, journal articles, books, and student research on sustainability in higher education. Certain publication types are entered in the annual AASHE Awards Program.

At a Glance

3944
Total Resources
1903
Organizations
99
Countries
58
U.S. States & Territories
12
Canadian Provinces

Bars in graphs can be clicked to view resources that align with a particular category. Because a resource may be listed under multiple topics and disciplines, graph data may include higher total counts than what is indicated in total resources above.

3944 resources

Envisioning planetary health in every medical curriculum: An international medical student organization’s perspective

  • University Hassan II (Casablanca-Settat)
  • Federal University of Roraima
  • University of Dhaka
  • University of Khartoum
  • International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
  • University of Delhi (Delhi)
  • University Tunis El Manar (El Omrane Superieur)
  • University of Barcelona

Background With deteriorating ecosystems, the health of mankind is at risk. Future health care professionals must be trained to recognize the interdependence of health and ecosystems to address the needs ...


Fulfilling a new obligation: Teaching and learning of sustainable healthcare in the medical education curriculum

  • Imperial College London

Aims: Leading the growing international recognition of the need for sustainability in healthcare delivery, the UK medical regulator has mandated that newly qualified doctors must be able to apply the ...


Rethinking health professions’ education leadership: Developing ‘eco-ethical’ leaders for a more sustainable world and future

  • Bond University (Queensland)
  • Swansea University

In this commentary, we discuss health professions’ education (HPE) leadership in relation to planetary health emergencies, suggesting that an ‘eco-ethical leadership’ approach is highly relevant. Building on both traditional and ...


Building an environmentally accountable medical curriculum through international collaboration

  • University of Tasmania (TAS)
  • University of Hull
  • University of Cape Town
  • University of British Columbia (BC)
  • University of East Anglia
  • Georgetown University (DC)
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Aarhus University
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Background: Global environmental change is associated with significant health threats. The medical profession can address this challenge through advocacy, health system adaptation and workforce preparedness. Stewardship of health systems with ...


12 tips for teaching environmental sustainability to health professionals

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Background: As recognition of the health impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges increases, so too does the need for health care professionals to practice healthcare sustainably. Environmental sustainability ...


Faculty development and partnership with students to integrate sustainable healthcare into health professions education

  • Georgetown University (DC)
  • University of California, San Francisco (CA)
  • Imperial College London

There is an urgent need for health professionals to address the impacts of accelerating global environmental change. Healthcare faculty therefore have to educate the rising generation of health professionals in ...


Mandate for the Nursing Profession to Address Climate Change Through Nursing Education

  • MGH Institute of Health Professions (MA)
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (MA)
  • Villanova University (PA)

Purpose The adverse health effects from climate change demand action from the nursing profession. This article examines the calls to action, the status of climate change in nursing education, and ...


Implementing AACN's Recommendations for Environmental Sustainability in Colleges of Nursing: From Concept to Impact

  • Washington State University, Spokane (WA)

In 2011, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) released a guidance report titled Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Academic Enterprise: An AACN Guide for Nursing Education. The report was ...


A cohort study of sustainability education in nursing

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of scenario-based learning aimed at raising awareness of sustainability in health-care practitioners. The Lancet Countdown on Climate Change calls ...


Integrating Environmental Sustainability Content Into an RN-to-BSN Program: A Pilot Study

  • University of Michigan-Flint (MI)

BACKGROUND: The link between environmental sustainability, climate change, and health outcomes makes environmental sustainability an important topic for educators to include in nursing curricula.

METHOD: Students completed a sustainability in ...


Decarbonising academia: confronting our climate hypocrisy

  • University of Otago (Otago)
  • University of Surrey

Academia is generally carbon intensive. Many academics are highly aeromobile to an extent that is now being framed as a form of ‘climate hypocrisy’. Technological advances are not enough to ...


Charting students’ exposure to promising practices of teaching about sustainability across the higher education curriculum

  • Columbia University (NY)
  • Michigan State University (MI)

Although policymakers have advocated for infusing sustainability throughout the higher education curriculum, we know little about how to teach students this complex subject matter. Therefore, using data from a sustainability ...


Putting sustainable campuses into force: Empowering students, staff and academics by the self-efficacy Green Office Model

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose The lack of change structures can be seen as an important reason why sustainability continues to suffer a niche existence in most higher education organisations. This is a problem ...


A framework for mapping sustainability within tertiary curriculum

  • UNSW Sydney (NSW)

Purpose Sustainability within tertiary curriculum is hard to measure and often perceived to be illusive in nature. Existing higher education sustainability assessment tools rarely focus on the curriculum. This paper ...


Towards a sustainable future with education?

  • Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies

The call for a kind of education which can contribute to a sustainable future has resulted in the “education for sustainable development” (ESD) campaign. What is implied here is that ...


Building new foundations: the future of education from a degrowth perspective

  • Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie

Considering education in the context of making and unmaking sustainable futures, a growing relevance is attributed to the role of shared beliefs or mental infrastructures which shape the way people ...


Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university

  • State University of New York at Plattsburgh (NY)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

We examined The University of Vermont’s new sustainability requirement for undergraduates through the lens of just sustainability. We found that sustainability courses are proposed in diverse disciplines. Regardless of ...


Engineering education and the development of competencies for sustainability

  • Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • University of Campinas
  • Universidade Federal Fluminense

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to ...


A whole‐person approach to educating for sustainability

  • University of Sydney (NSW)
  • University of Brighton

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of a whole‐person approach to educating for sustainability (EfS), with a focus on persons' identity, motivation and higher ...


Carbon Footprint of Academic Air Travel: A Case Study in Switzerland

  • École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Relatively low travel costs and abundant opportunities for research funding in Switzerland and other developed countries allow researchers large amounts of international travel and collaborations, leading to a substantial carbon ...


Worthy of debate: discursive coherence and agreement in the formation of the field of sustainability in higher education

  • Northwestern University (IL)

This article explores the development of shared understanding in the field of environmental sustainability in higher education—a field that began with social movement pressure surrounding contentious issues and evolved ...


A Case Study of Sustainability and Civic Engagement in a Sociology of Food Course

  • Florida Gulf Coast University (FL)

This article presents a case study of a ‘Sociology of Food’ course premised on issues of social justice and ethical and sustainable food practices. Through sustainability-inspired service-learning projects, students learn ...


Community capacity-building for sustainable development: Effectively striving towards achieving local community sustainability targets

  • UNSW Sydney (NSW)
  • United Nations University

Purpose Although the value of community capacity building is widely accepted within scholarly literature, these initiatives thus far appear to have achieved very little impact in the achievement of community ...


Governing the university in the perspective of the United Nations 2030 Agenda: The case of the University of Bologna

  • Università di Bologna

Purpose Starting from the experience of the University of Bologna, this paper provides an innovative framework to analyse how universities are rethinking courses and curricula, teaching, research programmes, campus operation ...


Training tomorrow's environmental journalists: Assessing the extent of environmental-themed training in college-level journalism programs

  • Penn State Brandywine (PA)

While the scale of the environmental problems facing the planet mean that effective environmental journalism is now more important than ever, the environmental beat can be extremely challenging for journalists ...


Challenges in the teaching of environmental journalism

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • University of Maine (ME)
  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

The birth of the modern environmental movement in the 1970's sparked more extended and in-depth news coverage of ecological issues and awakened interest among journalism educators and prospective journalists ...


Integrating sustainability across the computer science curriculum

  • Furman University (SC)

Issues of sustainability have received considerable attention on college campuses over the last decade. However, actions taken in support of sustainability generally take the form of changing the practices of ...


Designing and Assessing Learning Outcomes: A Framework for Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs

  • Portland State University (OR)

In recent years, Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs (CoCSPs) have been established at many higher education institutions. However, few such programs have developed learning outcomes or assessment processes to measure the types ...


Implementing sustainability as the new normal: Responsible management education – From a private business school's perspective

  • CBS International Business School

Globally, societies face enormous social, economic and environmental challenges, such as scarcity of resources, demographic developments, climate change, inequality, etc. The degree of success in coping with these complex issues ...


Beyond criminal justice: connecting justice and sustainability

  • Edinburgh Napier University

The potential of higher education in advancing sustainability has been widely accepted and even partly realised, although a wholesale reorientation of core activities and curricula toward and embedded with sustainability ...


When Legitimacy Shapes Environmentally Responsible Behaviors: Considering Exposure to University Sustainability Initiatives

  • Emory University (GA)
  • Oberlin College (OH)
  • University of Chicago (IL)

This study examines how perceptions of the legitimacy of university sustainability efforts—support by the administration (authorization) or from students’ peers (endorsement)—as well as the physical context in which ...


Critical Sustainabilities: Negotiating Sustainability’s Discursive Maze in the Classroom

  • Texas State University, San Marcos (TX)

“Sustainability” features in numerous discourses, each of which frames the issue according to its particular worldview(s). Thus there is no singular sustainability conception, but multiple sustainabilities that compete with ...


How interdisciplinary is sustainability research? Analyzing the structure of an emerging scientific field

  • Columbia University (NY)
  • University of Michigan (MI)

Sustainability research is expected to incorporate concepts, methods, and data from a diverse array of academic disciplines. We investigate the extent to which sustainability research lives up to this ideal ...


Teaching Sustainability via the Environmental Humanities: Studying Water, Studying Ourselves

  • College of Charleston (SC)

The dawning anthropocene requires innovation and organizational change across all types of institutions, including in higher education. One area where innovation can occur is in curricula building, and the offering ...


From Linear Industrial Structures to Living Systems: A Design Shift in Education for Sustainability

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

If sustainability is to be an integral part of rethinking education organization, it is necessary to redesign mental models that shape present curricular structures. Assumptions underlying the design of most ...


Using Systems Thinking to Educate for Sustainability in a Business School

  • University of Hull

This paper explores what it means for a business school to embed systems thinking and sustainability into the curriculum by looking at both the application of systems thinking to the ...


Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Academic Enterprise: An AACN Guide for Nursing Education

  • Adelphi University (NY)
  • Emory University (GA)
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore (MD)
  • Washington State University, Spokane (WA)

In Fall 2009, the AACN Deans/Directors passed a motion in support of AACN taking a leadership role on issues addressing environmental sustainability in nursing education. The following spring the ...


Changing roles of universities in the era of SDGs: rising up to the global challenge through institutionalising partnerships with governments and communities

  • American University of Beirut

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers a wide range of interrelated goals, including poverty eradication and economic growth, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and peace for all people by 2030 ...


Teaching Psychology for Sustainability: The Why and How

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)
  • Willamette University (OR)

The behavioral sciences can make vital contributions to environmental sustainability efforts, as relevant basic and applied psychological research has grown considerably over the past dozen years. Recently, conservation biologists, environmental ...


Sustainability education in textile and apparel programs in higher education: A web-based content analysis

  • University of Delaware (DE)
  • Keimyung University

Sustainability is a composite view of diverse and interwoven themes related to human welfare, economic growth, and the natural environment. Inclusion of education for sustainable development is a crucial paradigmatic ...


State-of-the-art practices being reported by the PRME champions group: A reference to advance education for sustainable development

  • São Paulo School of Business Adminstration (FGV EAESP)

This study aims to offer a diagnostic of the “state-of-the-art” practices being reported throughout the Sharing Information Process (SIP) by the Champions Group, a group of schools that are signatories ...


The use of the theory of planned behaviour to assess graduate attributes for sustainability

  • RMIT University

Higher Education plays an influential role in societal transformation towards sustainability. An understanding of the application of sustainability learning from degree programs in a graduate’s professional practice can serve ...


Carbon pricing approaches for climate decisions in U.S. higher education: Proxy carbon prices for deep decarbonization

  • Princeton University (NJ)
  • Smith College (MA)

Given the slow policy response by governments, climate leadership by other institutions has become an essential part of maintaining policy momentum, driving innovation, and fostering social dialogue. Despite growth in ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Impact of “healthier” materials interventions on dust concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and organophosphate esters

  • Harvard University (MA)
  • New York University (NY)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organophosphate esters (OPEs) are found in building materials and associated with thyroid disease, infertility, and impaired development. This study’s ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Building capacity for societally engaged climate science by transforming science training

  • University of Arizona (AZ)
  • University of Washington, Seattle (WA)

A major barrier to achieving wide-spread progress on planning for impacts from climate change is the lack of trained scientists skilled at conducting societally-relevant research. Overcoming this barrier requires us ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Funding community sustainable development using zero energy buildings

  • Millersville University (PA)

This paper aims at bridging the gap between theoretical frameworks for community sustainable development and descriptive-only case studies by using a case study to demonstrate a conceptual model or framework ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Approaches to Incorporating Green Chemistry and Safety into Laboratory Culture

  • University of Georgia (GA)

A systems thinking approach to incorporating green chemistry and safety into laboratory culture is vital, as chemists will be at the molecular level of the innovative solutions to our global ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Willingness to pay for green buildings: A survey on students’ perception in higher education

  • University of Delaware (DE)
  • University of New Haven (CT)
  • TED University

For most students in higher education, a green residence hall could form their first impressions regarding green buildings. As these students may be expected to make decisions regarding their place ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Beyond “Saddle Bag” Sustainability for Business Education

  • University of Vermont (VT)

Revisiting the historical evolution of the corporation helps explain how the challenge of sustainability has been addressed in business education. Business schools emerged toward the end of the 19th century ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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Management of University Social Responsibility in business schools. An exploratory study

  • Comillas Universidad Pontificia (Madrid)
  • IE Business School
  • Loyola Universida Andalucía

Social Responsibility (SR) has become a key issue in higher education. The objective of this investigation is to reflect on the adoption of SR in universities. This paper explores how ...

  • Posted Jan. 12, 2021
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