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

Managing Organizational Sustainability: Demonstrating the Business Case for Sustainability Professionals in the Workplace

  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • U.S. Green Building Council (DC)
  • McGraw-Hill (NY)

The report provides a preliminary exploration of the relationship between the fast-growing new job class of sustainability professionals and performance. The report uses original research and literature review to find ...

  • Posted Dec. 19, 2016
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Towards a Sustainable University: The Ca’ Foscari Experience

Towards a Sustainable University tackles the challenge of sustainability in universities. Universities are a working environment and an organization in which sustainability can be experienced. This book shows how a ...

  • Posted Dec. 16, 2016
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A new taxonomy for examining the multi-role of campus sustainability assessments in organizational change

  • Université du Québec à Montréal (Québec)

The role of higher education institutions in the transition to a more sustainable society has been highlighted for almost three decades and the role of environmental management accounting and control ...

  • Posted Dec. 16, 2016
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Do sustainability projects stimulate organizational learning in universities?

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the preparation of a sustainability report and a large‐scale energy‐saving campaign with regards to their role for organizational learning ...

  • Posted Dec. 16, 2016
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Systemic Structural Constellations and Sustainability in Academia: A New Method for Sustainable Higher Education

This book argues that to create truly sustainable universities, we require new methods of visualising and interpreting them holistically as institutions built on complex relationships and systems, rather than as ...

  • Posted Dec. 16, 2016
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A Green Purchasing Policy Roadmap

  • National Association of Educational Procurement (MD)

This document describes the results of a decision-making exercise conducted by attendees at NAEP's first Sustainability Institute in 2007. Groups of participants were asked to formulate a plan to ...

  • Posted Dec. 12, 2016
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2013 NAEP Green Purchasing Study

  • National Association of Educational Procurement (MD)

This report describes the results of a 2013 survey of members of the National Association of Educational Procurement on green purchasing. Findings include:

  • 47% of respondents have a formal a ...
  • Posted Dec. 12, 2016
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Curricular Innovation for Sustainability: The Piedmont/ Ponderosa Model of Faculty Development

  • Emory University (GA)
  • Northern Arizona University (AZ)

Curricular innovation is at the center of the challenges many colleges and universities face as they seek to help students address more successfully than previous generations the complex, multi-faceted, systemic ...

  • Posted Dec. 12, 2016
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Greener Cleaning Playbook: A guide to help sports venue operators develop a greener cleaning program

  • Green Sports Alliance (OR)

This Playbook is designed to help sports facilities reduce the health and environmental threats associated with cleaning sports venues. Beyond protecting health, the cleaning industry uses significant quantities of chemicals ...


Integration of Business Sustainability Education into the Business Curriculum

  • University of Memphis (TN)

Business sustainability in all dimensions of economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) performance is gaining acceptance as many global stock exchanges either encourage or require their listed companies to ...


A geographic approach to facilitating local climate governance: From emissions inventories to mitigation planning

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

It is increasingly recognized that municipal and regional scale governments play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. While universities possess many resources that ...


Municipal collaboration for carbon footprinting: Syracuse, New York case study

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

Purpose

The City of Syracuse, New York, has undertaken energy conservation measures over the past decade. In 2011, the city completed a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory that serves as the ...


Universities and Climate Change Mitigation: Advancing Grassroots Climate Policy in the US

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)
  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)
  • ICF International (VA)

While US climate change mitigation policy has stalled at the national level, local and regional actors are increasingly taking progressive steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Universities are poised ...


Does the Gown Help the Town? Examining Town–Gown Relationship Influence on Local Environmental Sustainability in the United States

  • Missouri State University (MO)

A US municipality environmental sustainability index, the OSSPI (Opp-Saunders Sustainability Practices Index), found an overwhelming percentage of top-ranked sustainable cities were home to higher education institutions. While this may be ...


Community support for campus approaches to sustainable energy use: The role of “town–gown” relationships

  • American University (DC)
  • Cornell University (NY)

Across the United States, universities are grappling with challenges associated with adopting approaches to more sustainable energy use. One approach has been to develop energy-related projects in their local, host ...


Realization of a Low Emission University Campus Through the Implementation of a Climate Action Plan

The Climate Action Plan (CAP) experience started a few years ago with the aim to manage carbon and energy more efficiently. CAP is a roadmap to get Universities to the ...


The Green Eating Project: web-based intervention to promote environmentally conscious eating behaviours in US university students

  • University of Rhode Island (RI)

To investigate the effectiveness of an online, interactive intervention, referred to as the Green Eating (GE) Project, to motivate university students to adopt GE behaviours.

The study was quasi-experimental and ...


Written Messages Improve Edible Food Waste Behaviors in a University Dining Facility

  • Kansas State University (KS)

Background

Sustainability and going green have become popular trends among foodservice organizations. Despite this interest, foodservice operations still produce large amounts of edible food waste and contribute significantly to waste ...


Garnering input for recycling communication strategies at a Big Ten University

  • Michigan State University (MI)

With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are trying different approaches for minimizing their adverse environmental impacts. Among the approaches being used to revitalize campus sustainability efforts ...


Teaching with trash: archaeological insights on university waste management

  • University of Idaho (ID)

The archaeological study of modern trash on an American university campus can yield valuable insight into how both human and environmental processes contribute to the accumulation and distribution of litter ...


Implementation of a zero waste program at a university campus

  • Massey University

A zero waste program was established at a university campus in response to grassroots student concern over environmental management issues. The implementation procedure consisted of initial discussions with academic and ...


Reducing solid waste in higher education: The first step towards ‘greening’ a university campus

  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)

Comprehensive solid waste management programs are one of the greatest challenges to achieving campus sustainability. Conducting a waste characterization study is a critical first step in successful waste management planning ...


An Economic Analysis of a University Educational Cafeteria Composting Program—Bobcat Blend

  • Texas State University, San Marcos (TX)

At Texas State University, a cafeteria-composting pilot program was established in which students source-separated their organic waste at one of the food courts while the program educated students on the ...


An overview of life cycle assessment (LCA) and research-based teaching in renewable and sustainable energy education

Engineers working as designers, managers and policy-makers play a key role in decision-making got sustainable energy solutions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a key decision-making and benchmarking tool used for ...


The Environmental Benefits of Trees on an Urban University Campus

  • University of Pennsylvania (PA)

The University of Pennsylvania is situated on a rapidly growing and highly urbanized campus that, as of the summer of 2015, contained over 6,000 trees. Trees play an important ...


Sustainability in Higher Education: An Assessment of Washington State Colleges and Universities, 2005-2016

  • Evergreen State College, The (WA)

The purpose of this research project was to assess the integration of sustainability in Washington State higher education from 2005 to 2016. Both the extent of integration and the focus ...


Factors encouraging sustainability integration into institutions of higher education

  • University of Malaya

In view of the mountainous evidence on destruction of environmental quality and societal well-being as a consequence of rapid economic development, sustainability has gained vast attention from the community and ...


Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Volume 2

  • RMIT University

This Handbook offers an overview of what universities around the world are doing to implement sustainable development (e.g., via curriculum innovation, research, activities, or practical projects) and how their ...


Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Volume 1

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)

This Handbook offers an overview of what universities around the world are doing to implement sustainable development (e.g., via curriculum innovation, research, activities, or practical projects) and how their ...


Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Volume 3

  • University of Malta (Northern Harbor District)
  • Bournemouth University (Dorset)

This Handbook offers an overview of what universities around the world are doing to implement sustainable development (e.g., via curriculum innovation, research, activities, or practical projects) and how their ...

  • Posted Nov. 17, 2016
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Engaging Undergraduates in Soil Sustainability Decision-Making Through an InTeGrate Module

  • Santa Rosa Junior College (CA)
  • Virginia Tech (VA)
  • Wittenberg University (OH)

Continued agricultural productivity hinges on understanding how to manage soil resources. A 2-week undergraduate introductory-level module: A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources Through Local Decision Making was collaboratively developed through ...

  • Posted Nov. 17, 2016
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Transdisciplinary Research and Practice for Sustainability Outcomes

  • University of Technology Sydney
  • University of Southern Queensland

This book examines the role of transdisciplinarity - a form of research and practice that synthesises knowledge from a range of academic disciplines and from the community - in the transformations needed ...

  • Posted Nov. 17, 2016
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Engaging Investment Managers on Proxy Voting & Other Forms of Shareholder Engagement

  • Intentional Endowments Network (MA)

The Intentional Endowments Network's "Engaging Investment Managers on Proxy Voting & Other Forms of Shareholder Engagement" document outlines potential questions for investment managers on their proxy voting and other ...

  • Posted Nov. 17, 2016
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The Business Case for ESG Briefing Paper

  • Intentional Endowments Network (MA)

The Intentional Endowments Network's "Business Case for ESG Briefing Paper" was developed to help endowment stakeholders understand what Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing is, how ESG investing and ...

  • Posted Nov. 17, 2016
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White Paper: Investing in Clean Energy: Campuses and Endowments

  • Intentional Endowments Network (MA)

The Intentional Endowments Network's new report titled “Investing in Clean Energy: Campuses and Endowments” was designed to encourage conversation about the financial and societal benefits of clean energy investments ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2016
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Obama, Bill Gates to lead major effort to spur spending on climate research

  • The Washington Post (DC)

This article describes the launch of two separate initiatives to invest billions of dollars in clean energy research and development. "Mission Innovation” is a commitment by countries - including United States ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016

  • United Nations Environment Programme

This report tracks private and public investments in renewable energy, including research and development funding. Key findings in relation to R&D funding include:

  • Research and development spending on renewable energy ...
  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Implementing Sustainability in Higher Education: Learning in an age of transformation

In a time of unprecedented transformation as society seeks to build a more sustainable future, education plays an increasingly central role in training key agents of change. This book asks ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Assessing sustainability in university curricula: exploring the influence of student numbers and course credits

  • University of Leeds (West Yorkshire)

As more universities become interested in, and engaged with, sustainability, there has been a growing need to assess how their curricula addresses sustainable development and its myriad issues. Different tools ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Effective change management, governance and policy for sustainability transformation in higher education

  • Western Sydney University (NSW)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose

Numerous policy announcements and articles have been produced over the past 20 years calling for higher education institutions to give greater focus to social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Education for sustainable development and global citizenship: An evaluation of the validity of the STAUNCH auditing tool

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of the curriculum auditing tool Sustainability Tool for Auditing University Curricula in Higher Education (STAUNCH©), which was designed to ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Organisational learning towards sustainability in higher education

  • University of Southampton

Purpose

Research on sustainability in higher education has focused on environmental management of the university campus, case studies and examples of good practice. Although the value and contribution of these ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Sustainable university research and development: inspecting sustainability in higher education research

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Sustainability in higher education is dominated by practical ‘greening the campus’ programs and initiatives. This paper examines sustainable university research and development projects as part of the ‘greening the campus ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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The INDICARE-model – measuring and caring about participation in higher education's sustainability assessment

The implementation of sustainability in higher education has been advanced over at least the last two decades and brought sustainability assessment on the research agenda of Education for Sustainable Development ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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‘The Biophilic University’: a de-familiarizing organizational metaphor for ecological sustainability?

  • Oberlin College (OH)
  • Universiti Sains Malaysia

A new primary, root metaphor the ‘Biophilic University’, is introduced here, underpinning a potential de-familiarizing human-nature narrative and heuristic to contest and break free of what is conceptualised as the ...

  • Posted Nov. 14, 2016
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Embodying Tao in the ‘Restorative University’

  • Universiti Sains Malaysia
  • Schumacher College

This paper proposes a new generative metaphor, the ‘Restorative University’ which embodies an associated Taoist human–nature narrative. It aims to counter what is contextualized here as the bio-cultural disconnection ...

  • Posted Nov. 10, 2016
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Participatory processes in sustainable universities – what to assess?

Purpose

This paper aims to connect participatory sustainability implementation with sustainability assessment, exploring learning theories, the principles of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) and respective indicators applied in the ...

  • Posted Nov. 10, 2016
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Sustainable Campus Development: Campuses Go Green: Colleges and universities take environmentally responsible design to new levels

  • Society for College and University Planning (MI)
  • AASHE (PA)

Three projects profiled here exemplify that next level: a new campus designed for sustainability from first principles, an academic building now proving itself under the Living Building Challenge, and a ...

  • Posted Nov. 10, 2016
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Developing the concept of sustainability in nursing

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Sustainability, and the related concept of climate change, is an emerging domain within nursing and nurse education. Climate change has been posited as a serious global health threat requiring action ...

  • Posted Nov. 10, 2016
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The disappearance of cooperatives from economics textbooks

Discussion of cooperatives abounded in early twentieth century economics textbooks, but is virtually absent from their modern counterparts. In this paper, I assemble a dataset of economics textbooks used at ...