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

3968
Total Resources
1910
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.

3968 resources

Assessing sustainability knowledge for undergraduate students in different academic programs and settings

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)
  • University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (WI)

Purpose: As sustainability teaching and learning rises in importance, an increasing number of higher education institutions (HEIs) are assessing the effectiveness of their approach to sustainability education. However, most assessments …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Bibliometric Analysis and Benchmarking of Life Cycle Assessment of Higher Education Institutions

  • University of Coimbra

Higher Education Institutions (HEI), such as Universities and Institutes worldwide, are making efforts and setting goals to assess and minimise their environmental impacts, and to become more sustainable. Life Cycle …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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From food access to food sovereignty: Striving to meet university student needs

  • Western Washington University (WA)

The ongoing neoliberalization of higher education has meant that college and university students at state institutions face declining state support for their education, increasing debt, precarious post-graduation job opportunities, and …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Emergentist education and the opportunities of radical futurity

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • Uppsala University
  • University of the Sunshine Coast

Higher education has been criticised for its instrumental character, which constrains possibilities for meaningful change towards sustainability. Drawing on the concept of radical futurity, we develop a conception of education …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Benefit-cost analysis of becoming certified pollinator friendly

  • Louisiana State University (LA)
  • The Ohio State University (OH)

Despite significant drop in pollinator abundance, no studies exist on the benefits and costs of pollinator conservation in the public domain. An in-person survey was conducted at three large, public …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Research on sustainability leadership in higher education: a scoping review

  • Mahidol University (Bangkok)

Purpose: Despite the centrality of leadership to the successful transformation of universities toward sustainability, the literature on the role and practices of sustainability leadership in higher education remains poorly developed. …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Six critical questions for teaching justice-based environmental sustainability (JBES) in higher education

  • Beijing Normal University
  • Universidade Federal de Sergipe

In this short article, we pose six key questions that we argue as essential to critically problem-pose in achieving teaching for justice-based environmental sustainability (JBES) in higher education (HE). We …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The sustainable development goals in a Bachelor of Design course; current integration and benefits, constraints and opportunities for deeper integration

  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Purpose: Universities’ unique position within society means they have an important role to contribute to sustainability and to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are one of the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Active methodologies and curricular sustainability in teacher training

  • University of Jaén
  • Universidad de Granada

Purpose: Changes in society, the economy and health require a response from higher education regarding the training of professionals, specifically, future teachers. In this sense, active methodologies constitute, in line …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Alignment among environmental programs in higher education: What Food-Energy-Water Nexus concepts are covered in introductory courses?

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)
  • Rider University (NJ)
  • University of South Dakota (SD)
  • University of Northern Colorado (CO)
  • Whitman College (WA)
  • United States Department of Energy (DC)

Interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability (IES) programs are different from other fields because they focus on a complex integration of humanities, social, and natural sciences concepts centered on the interactions of …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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A case study of sustainable hospitality education relating to food waste from the perspective of transformative learning theory

  • Shih Chien University

This study applies a critical tourism approach and transformative learning theory to examine the factors influencing students to take a food design course and the relationships among students' learning intentions …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Fostering students’ systems thinking competence for sustainability by using multiple real-world learning approaches

  • Wageningen University
  • Addis Ababa University

For a sustainable future, equipping sustainability change agents with relevant sustainability competencies is crucial. Among these competencies is system thinking competence – the understanding of complex interrelationships among the dimensions …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainability Initiatives for Management Education: A Roadmap for Institutional Integration

  • University of San Francisco (CA)
  • Zambuling Institute for Human Transformation (DC)
  • Sustainable Capacity International Institute

What are the best ways to integrate sustainability concepts into higher education institutions and management education? Sustainability, global responsibility, and social innovations are increasingly accepted worldwide as part of a …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Universities and the Doughnut Strategy: Comparative analysis of university strategies and the integration of planetary and social boundaries and the general concept of sustainable development

  • Linkoping University

The 21st-century climate crisis and human development are placing a burden on the planet and society and require strategic integration as well as education about sustainable development. Universities are educational …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Connecting curricula and competence through student learning journeys

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

This research examines the connection between higher education curricula for sustainable development and student development of key competencies for sustainability. The authors conducted a comparative case study that followed ten …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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CUB Plastic Shipping Bag Recycling Program

  • Gettysburg College (PA)

We implemented a plastic shipping bag recycling program at Gettysburg College. Recycling bags contribute towards contamination within the college's single-stream recycling or end up directly in the landfill via traditional …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Footprints in Action: How UVA Is Managing Its Sustainability Stewardship

  • University of New Hampshire (NH)
  • University of Virginia (VA)
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC)

Evaluating sustainability stewardship at higher educational institutions is essential to working towards improving our environment. Many institutions have used environmental footprint indicators as a way to evaluate, track, and improve …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Who will save the world if the profit is too low?: A single case study on a Swedish business school, investigating their work toward responsible management education

  • Jönköping University

Background: Business schools are one of society’s most influential institutions as they contribute to transforming and influencing the way the business world works. Hence, business schools bear responsibility for the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Empowering Future Leaders to Advocate Sustainable Action: A comparative analysis between two university programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability in Sweden and Germany

  • Malmö University

Sustainability must be integrated into our everyday world. To achieve that, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established. Some scholars agree that the SDGs are not enough. So, a new strategy …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Agents for sustainable futures? The (unfulfilled) promise of sustainability at leading business schools

  • Budapest Business University
  • Eötvös Loránd University

Present and future business leaders might be amongst the most important actors in initiating and managing a transition towards a sustainable economy and society in general. Preparing them for such …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teacher Education for Sustainable Development: A Review of an Emerging Research Field

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Leibniz Universität Hannover
  • University of Vechta
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD) is a niche innovation in teacher education that empowers teachers to prepare learners to address global socio-environmental challenges. To advance the diffusion of this …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Green Stormwater Infrastructure Planning in Midwestern Higher Education Institutions

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is an innovative approach to stormwater management that has the potential to provide a variety of operational, environmental, and human benefits beyond those offered by more …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The Contribution of Higher Education to Sustainability: The Development and Assessment of Sustainability Competences in a University Case Study

  • Imperial College London

Universities can make a significant contribution to sustainability, and the development of sustainability competences in their graduates should be a key outcome of their courses. We propose an assessment framework …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Developing interdisciplinary consciousness for sustainability: using playful frame reflection to challenge disciplinary bias

  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

A major challenge for interdisciplinary teamwork on complex sustainability issues is the often-conflicting disciplinary perspectives and underlying values and assumptions among collaborators. Interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and practitioners therefore requires …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The intellectual structure of the literature on sustainability leadership in higher education: an author co-citation analysis

  • Mahidol University (Bangkok)

This review aims to identify the intellectual structure or key theoretical themes that comprise the emerging field of sustainability leadership in higher education. The Scopus index was used to identify …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Improving Energy Stewardship at Michigan Technological University's Athletic Complexes

  • Michigan Technological University (MI)

Athletics departments are showcases for universities, serving as a public face and recruitment outlet that communicates university identity to the world. This applied research project examines the state of electrical …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Connection to nature of university students in the environmental field — An empirical study in 41 countries

  • Goethe University Frankfurt

People's personal relationships with nature are seen as essential factors influencing environmental behavior. Although human-nature relationships have been a recurring research topic in a wide range of disciplines, there has …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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A New Curriculum for Sustainable Fashion at Textile Universities in Europe – Preliminary Results of the European Project Fashion Diet

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
  • Friedrich Schiller University Jena
  • Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi (Iași)
  • University of Freiburg (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)
  • Trakia University
  • Hochschule Reutlingen

The strong demand for a transformation of the textile and fashion industry towards sustainability requires a continuous implementation of the guiding principle of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in education …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Techno Futurist, sustained inequalities and Eco-utopia: Speculative imaginaries of Business Education in 2050

  • Fundação Getulio Vargas

The legitimacy of business education and its impact on society have been debated in the context of the economic and climate crises, with curricula, learning spaces and pedagogy being the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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What can Sustainability Schools Learn from the Career Services Offered at Business Schools?

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Increasingly, the importance of sustainability as a goal for different sectors in society is becoming paramount. Given the importance and urgency of this, the objective of this paper is to …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Incentives and penalties tied to sales volume in contracts between beverage companies and public universities in the United States

  • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MD)
  • Center for Science in the Public Interest (DC)

To assess whether and how beverage companies incentivize universities to maximize sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) sales through pouring rights contracts. Cross-sectional study of contracts between beverage companies and public U.S. universities …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Campus sustainability plans: past, present and future

  • Texas State University, San Marcos (TX)

Purpose: This study aims to describe the different elements included in campus sustainability plans (CSPs) in colleges and universities across the USA.

Design/methodology/approach: It examines the contents and specific areas …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Reducing students’ ecological footprints through self-developed interventions

  • Nelson Mandela University (Eastern Cape)
  • University of Pretoria

An increasing emphasis on taking personal responsibility for making changes to address climate change and support sustainable development is hindered by the limited tools and guidance available that enable the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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A self-Identity-development approach to higher business education for sustainability

  • University of Manitoba (MB)

This study is focused on reorienting conventional educational approaches in higher education, particularly in higher business education, that tend to link unsustainable inner values with economic and analytical skills. Higher …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Post-Pandemic Lessons for Destination Resilience and Sustainable Event Management: The Complex Learning Destination

  • Texas A&M University (TX)

This paper aims to share post-pandemic lessons for destination resilience and the sustainability of events. It offers a new perspective that reimagines the space and place of events as learning …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Understanding urban sustainability from Mode 2 Science and transdisciplinary education: how Master Thesis Ateliers of the Ghent Stadsacademie tackle wicked issues

  • Ghent University

The wicked sustainability problems that we are increasingly facing not only require new ways of knowledge production, but also challenge our traditional educational system. More and more importance is attached …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Social Capital, Indigenous Storytelling, and Fish Diversity: Learning Together Through Community-university Partnerships in Downeast Maine

  • University of Maine (ME)

Not only can community-university partnerships be vehicles for mobilizing community resources and affecting change, they also have high potential to produce useful, nuanced research and enable renewed visions of trust. …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Some Reflections on the Role of the Eco-Schools Program in the Promotion of Sustainable HEIs: A Case Study in Portugal

  • Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra (Coimbra)

Currently, the Eco-Schools program plays a key role in the application of the concepts of environmental education and management in the daily life of schools. This program is considered the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Incorporating collaborative learning in teacher education to foster self-efficacy to implement environmental citizenship: an action research

  • Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts (Tel Aviv District)

Purpose: Engaging students in environmental citizenship to promote education for sustainability (EfS) as an explicit goal of academic courses is not common, notwithstanding wide consensus on its importance. Collaborative learning …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The college campus as a living laboratory for meaningful food system transformation

  • University at Albany (NY)
  • Johnson & Wales University, Providence (RI)

As has become abundantly clear to the social scientists, agriculturalists, policymakers, and food justice advocates who have taken up the fight, progress toward more resilient, fair, and effective food systems …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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How to increase students' motivation to engage in university initiatives towards environmental sustainability

  • Universitat de València
  • Universidad Tecnica del Norte

Nowadays, it is of vital importance to make students aware of the problems that can be generated by the deterioration of the environment. The purpose of this study is to …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Towards Sustainable Dietary Change: An Exploration of Norwegian University Student's Attitudes toward Meat Reduction

  • University of Agder

The current food system is associated with various environmental implications. The meat the industry has been recognized as a substantial contributor to these environmental implications and places enormous strain on …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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How organizational constraints undermine sustainability actions in a university's campuses: A case study

  • University of Coimbra

Higher Education Institutions frequently struggle between the urgency to advance toward more sustainable campuses and the slow pace of their transformation. Although several stimuli and barriers are identified in the …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Education for Sustainability: Understanding Processes of Change across Individual, Collective, and System Levels

  • Lund University
  • Karolinska Institutet

Researchers and practitioners increasingly emphasise the need to complement dominant external, technological approaches with an internal focus to support transformation toward sustainability. However, knowledge on how this internal human dimension …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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At the moment of disposal: how messaging techniques at university public outdoor waste receptacles can improve the solid waste stream

  • University of Florida (FL)

Purpose: This study aims to test how waste disposal behaviors can be changed such as higher recycling diversion and lower contamination rates using signage and messaging techniques at public outdoor …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Science|Environment|Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Sustainability, and Education for Sustainable Development: How Do They Connect in Health Teaching?

  • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
  • Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern

In this paper, we explore Science|Environment|Health, One Health, Planetary Health, and Sustainability/Education for Sustainable Development in the context of the 2030 Agenda as four major frameworks that take a step …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Systems thinking for systems leadership: promoting competency development for graduate students in sustainability studies

  • Virginia Tech (VA)

Purpose: This paper aims to offer a case study for teaching specific systems thinking competencies that promote leadership for systems change. It uses leadership as a novel way to identify …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The importance of the Sustainable Development Goals to students of environmental and sustainability studies—a global survey in 41 countries

  • Goethe University Frankfurt

To fight the global problems of humanity, the United Nations has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve these goals, it is necessary that future decision-makers and stakeholders in …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainable Development Goals in Higher Education Institutions: A systematic literature review

  • Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are important actors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. As agents of …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Understanding the Research Interlinkages Between Anthropocene, Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals: A Global Bibliometric Analysis

  • Presidency University
  • Guangzhou University

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are impacted by the Anthropocene's onset, hence critical actions must be taken to develop tailored policies for these goals. This research aims to understand the interaction …

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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