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

3958
Total Resources
1908
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.

3958 resources

Integrated management systems for enhancing education for sustainable development in universities: a memetic approach

  • University of Turku

There is a need for new approaches for enhancing education for sustainable development in universities. Memetics, which is about effective pathways of communication, could be such a new, promising approach. …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Diffusion of sustainability reporting in universities: current situation and future perspectives

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)

Universities play a key role in the development of society, and their involvement in sustainable development will be crucial in changing current practices in society towards sustainable development. Thus, information …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Roles for university researchers in urban sustainability initiatives: the UK Newcastle Low Carbon Neighbourhoods project

  • Kingston University London

There is considerable debate regarding the contribution to be made by higher education institutions and the researchers they employ in realising environmentally sustainable urban spaces, and the relationship between academic …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Carbon management at universities: a reality check

  • University of Southampton

Carbon dioxide emissions from the higher education sector are globally significant. This study compares the performance of 20 institutions in English research-intensive universities to their self-set targets, using three key …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Carbon footprint analysis of student behavior for a sustainable university campus in China

  • Drexel University (PA)

Sustainable urban design, systems-level organizational planning, and human behavior have all been recognized for their potentially important roles in helping to reduce energy costs and associated environmental impacts, including greenhouse …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Academic staff engagement in education for sustainable development

  • University of Southampton

The research presented in this paper emerged from the need to identify the factors influencing academic staff members when engaging in Education for Sustainable Development in real practice. The aims …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

The role(s) of universities in dealing with global wicked problems through multi-stakeholder initiatives

  • Wageningen University
  • University of Cape Town

Multi-stakeholder initiatives have emerged as collaborative partnerships to deal with wicked problems, particularly in the global food system. This article analyzes the role that academics play in these initiatives at …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Encouraging sustainability in the workplace: a survey on the pro-environmental behaviour of university employees

  • Wageningen University

In order to enhance more sustainable behaviour in households, recent research focuses on the identification of factors that have an impact on sustainable or pro-environmental behaviour. The aim of this …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

An approach to the implementation of sustainability practices in Spanish universities

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy makers in recent decades. A number of previous studies have called for …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Sustainability in higher education: a systematic review with focus on management education

  • HEC Montréal (QC)
  • Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS

Sustainability has received increasing attention in management education over the past ten years. This article reviews a decade's worth of research in a systematic analysis of 63 articles published in …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Sustainable universities – a study of critical success factors for participatory approaches

Participatory approaches can be seen as a requirement, but also as a benefit to the overall paradigm change towards sustainable development and contribute towards the integration of sustainability concept into …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Changing Norms by Changing Behavior: The Princeton Drink Local Program

  • Princeton University (NJ)

Unprecedented levels of global bottled water consumption present a major challenge for the environment and water conservation initiatives. Educational institutions are in a unique position to promote conservation behavior by …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Implementation of sustainability in universities as perceived by faculty and staff – a model from a Swedish university

Education for sustainable development creates new challenges for universities where faculty and staff are expected to prepare students to meet complexities in society and take responsibility for sustainability, which scientists …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Comparing Sustainable Universities between the United States and China: Cases of Indiana University and Tsinghua University

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
  • Temple University (PA)

It is widely accepted that universities can play critical roles in promoting sustainability. In the United States and China, many universities have initiated sustainability programs. Employing Indiana University, Bloomington, the …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Participatory Development of Key Sustainability Concepts for Dialogue and Curricula at The Ohio State University

  • The Ohio State University (OH)

The Ohio State University (OSU) is one of the many universities committed to sustainability within its operations, traditions, and university framework. The university continues to evolve in relation to its …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: Interconnecting the Reporting Process and Organisational Change Management for Sustainability

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)
  • Utrecht University
  • KU Leuven

Although there has been a considerable increase in the publication of sustainability reports in the corporate world in the last decade, sustainability reporting in higher education institutions is still in …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Learning about Sustainability—What Influences Students’ Self-Perceived Sustainability Actions after Undergraduate Education?

Changing societies’ minds about sustainability requires knowledge about the situation, awareness of what needs to be done and actions to change today’s unsustainable behaviors. Universities are challenged to develop students’ …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Commuting Behavior and Transportation Preferences of the CSUN Community

  • California State University, Northridge (CA)

In 2010 California State University, Northridge (CSUN) conducted its first complete survey of the commuting habits of its staff, faculty and students. Here we report on the results of our …

  • Posted June 10, 2016
  • Publications
  • View more

Development of a Novel Food Waste Collection Kiosk and Waste-to-Energy Business Model

  • University of Toledo (OH)

The US generates more than 37 million metric tons of food waste each year and over 95% of it is disposed of at US landfills. This paper describes the development …


Doubling Energy Efficiency at the University of Michigan by 2030

  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • Johnson Controls, Inc (WI)

Approximately 84 million Americans spend their days in colleges, universities, and public or private primary and secondary schools. The commercial building sector, which includes educational institutions, accounts for 18.44 percent …


Permaculture in higher education: Opportunities and challenges

  • University of Victoria (BC)

There is growing agreement that integrative “whole person” approaches promoting transformative learning are important aspects of sustainability education. Increasingly, universities are using permaculture in teaching sustainability. Permaculture is an ecological …


Bringing KTH’s Environmental Performance to an Internationally Leading Level

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology

This report analyses the types of international ratings/rankings available for universities to measure their sustainability performance. Sustainability has become an increasing topic of interest for universities to attract students as …


The EcoRep Program at the University of South Carolina: How to Engage Students in On-Campus Environmental Activities

  • University of South Carolina (SC)

This senior thesis focused on determining how much the undergraduate student population is aware about current environmental problems, their impression of them, and how they act accordingly. In addition, through …


Framing a Turkish Campus Sustainability Assessment System

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Sustainable campus design and planning in Higher Education requires an entire action plan and coordination of physical, educational, and social systems. Many institutions in the world are defining their sustainable …


Campus sustainability efforts: A study of the long-term impact of college and university sustainability programs

  • University of Colorado Colorado Springs (CO)

The topic of this study is a new approach to understanding the effectiveness of campus sustainability efforts at American colleges and universities. A series of national sustainability organizations rate effectiveness …


Making a difference by marking the difference: constituting in-between spaces for sustainability learning

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Transdisciplinarity as a mode of addressing sustainability challenges was a guiding principle in establishing Germany's first Faculty of Sustainability at Leuphana University of Lüneburg in 2010. The different study programs …


Student participation in the co-creation of knowledge and social experiments for advancing sustainability: experiences from the University of Tokyo

  • Clark University (MA)
  • University of Tokyo
  • University College London (London)

Universities around the world are increasingly engaging in multi-stakeholder collaborations for the co-creation of knowledge, tools and experiments with social and technical systems for advancing societal sustainability. With much of …


Living labs and co-production: university campuses as platforms for sustainability science

Living labs and co-production are increasingly popular strategies for universities to address sustainability challenges and yet the links between them remain largely implicit. This paper discusses the potential of living …


Embedding sustainability learning pathways across the university

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

The University of British Columbia's (UBC) long-term vision is to embed sustainability in all of its undergraduate teaching programs. The University has described four student sustainability attributes — Holistic Systems …


Love Food, Hate Waste: Analyzing Food Waste and Reduction at Rice University

  • Rice University (TX)

It is known that about 30% of food produced worldwide is ultimately wasted (Gunders 2012). Rice University is not immune to this phenomenon, and past research has shown that Rice …


Transformative, transgressive social learning: rethinking higher education pedagogy in times of systemic global dysfunction

  • Wageningen University
  • University of Gothenburg

The nature of the sustainability challenges currently at hand is such that dominant pedagogies and forms of learning that characterize higher education need to be reconsidered to enable students and …


Quantifying the components of the mass and energy balance of a black soldier fly (BSF) food waste composting system

  • Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)

Project Description:

An academic institution represents a constrained system that generates a consistent amount of waste. Bioconversion of organic food waste with Black solider fly (Hermetia illucens;Diptera: Stratiomyidae) larave …


Sustainability in Higher Education: Analysis and Selection of Assessment Systems

  • Technische Universiteit Delft

There is a noticeable increase in interest with regards to sustainability in higher education. As institutions investigate, implement and market sustainability efforts, there is a myriad of sustainability assessment methodologies …


It’s What’s for Dinner: Furman University’s Sustainable Dining Initiative

  • Furman University (SC)

The majority of the food in the United States is produced via an industrial food production and distribution system, which is inherently unsustainable due to its widespread environmental (e.g., fossil …


A Model for Creating a Campus Sustainability Plan

  • California State University, Northridge (CA)

There are ample excellent reasons why all workplaces should create a sustainability plan, including most importantly the health of the planet. Climate change threatens the biosphere, ocean, atmosphere, our water, …


Promotion vs. Education in Choosing "Real Food"

  • University of Utah (UT)
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
  • Real Food Challenge (MA)

The global agro-industrial system contributes to an abundance of human and ecological health problems from social injustices and public health issues to global warming and ecological degradation. In response to …


Developing and Validating the Just Sustainability Inventory

  • University of Georgia (GA)

Assessment and evaluation of programs are core components of ethical professional practice for student affairs administrators in higher education. This paper reports on the author’s dissertation research designing and validating …


Map More, Waste Less: A Study in How GIS Helps Texas A&M Prevent Waste

  • Texas A&M University (TX)

Introduction:

During the Spring of 2016, the Texas A&M Geography Society, a student organization that performs undergraduate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research, set out to help SSC Services for Education …


Earning Capacity of Sustainable Education - A Review of Current Perceptions Regarding the Salaries, Under-employment and Over-education of Higher-Education Graduates and their Potential Application in Sustainability Assessments

  • University of Central Arkansas (AR)
  • Technische Universiteit Delft

There is a growing need to understand the economic returns of degrees as a function of a sustainable institution. The empirical data presented in this paper suggests that there is …


Should Academics Advocate on Environmental Issues?

  • University of Alberta (AB)

Academic advocacy involves advancing convincingly reasoned arguments that are supported by research results and academic expertise. However, academics must recognize that their notions of “good” are context dependent. Advocacy is …


What’s Wrong with the Tap? Examining Perceptions of Tap Water and Bottled Water at Purdue University

  • Saint Mary's University of Minnesota (MN)
  • Purdue University (IN)

The environmental impacts of bottled water prompted us to explore drinking water choices at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, IN. A random sample of 2,045 Purdue University students, staff, …


The Urgent Need for Universities to Comprehensively Address Global Climate Change Across Disciplines and Programs

  • Minot State University (ND)

I review the status of scientific, political, and moral problems of global climate change (GCC) and, based on lessons from environmental and sustainability programs in universities, demonstrate that universities have …


On Advocacy by Environmental Scientists: What, Whether, Why, and How

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • Michigan Technological University (MI)

Debate about the nature and appropriateness of advocacy by environmental scientists is important - it represents understanding the role of these citizens in our society. Much has been written about …


PhD Thesis: Sustainability reporting as a tool for management control and organisational change in higher education

The pursuit for a sustainable society has received increased attention over the last decades, due to global problems the world has been confronted with, such as population growth, climate change, …


Seeking learning outcomes appropriate for ‘education for sustainable development’ and for higher education

  • University of Otago (Otago)

This article shares and extends research-based developments at the University of Otago, New Zealand, that seek to explore how students’ worldviews change as they experience higher education with us. We …


Water Conservation at the University of Houston

  • University of Houston (TX)

A group of University of Houston students enrolled in Energy & Sustainability with similar interests in water conservation investigated a potential water-saving solution for the University of Houston.

Their research …


Finding Heart: Generating and Maintaining Hope and Agency through Sustainability Education

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

In his landmark book Native Science (2000), indigenous educator Gregory Cajete eloquently articulates the motivations and questions that drive this study. For Cajete, effective education of our time entails “finding …


The Contribution of Social Sciences to Sustainable Development at Universities

This volume presents contemporary, state-of-the-art examples of how social science theories, models, and findings can advance all aspects of campus sustainability, an area that has so far been largely neglected. …


Engaging Stakeholders in Education for Sustainable Development at University Level

This book discusses the role of ESD stakeholders at university level, involving civil society and the private sector and public sectors (including local, national and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it …


Study to Reduce Peak Electrical Demand Charges for the John C. Hodges Library

  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)

The goal of this project is to design electrical and thermal storage systems that will reduce electrical consumption during periods of peak demand and thereby save the University money in …