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

Defining Social Change as Social Action: HE's Role in Addressing Social Change

  • University of Greenwich

Recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the world is a reminder for HE institutions that we have a key role to play in enabling that our graduates ...


The effect of information source on higher education students’ sustainability knowledge

  • Michigan State University (MI)
  • University of Michigan (MI)

When it comes to what higher education students know about sustainability, where they learn matters. In this study, we explore the extent to which students’ level of sustainability knowledge differed ...


Sustainable Development at L'Université De Montréal: Transition to Sustainable Campuses

  • Université de Montréal (QC)

On March 15, 2021, Université de Montréal's first-ever strategic plan for sustainable development was presented to the university’s assembly. The strategy was drawn up by the Sustainable Development ...


Undergraduates in a Sustainability Semester: Models of social change for sustainability

  • Michigan State University (MI)

This was a qualitative case study aimed to understand the impact of sustainability education on undergraduate students after one term of course enrollment. It was found that while students’ models ...


Financing university sustainability initiatives in China: actors and processes

  • Central University of Finance and Economics
  • China University of Political Science and Law

This paper aims to study the mechanism of how the public universities have funded the campus sustainability projects in China, by identifying key actors and examining the processes.


Farming on the Campus Quad

  • Duke University (NC)
  • Green Mountain College (VT)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

This article covers how universities have promoted local and organic farming by giving their students land to grow their own gardens on campus.


Motivators of Attendance at Eco-Friendly Events

  • Iowa State University (IA)

This study identifies the factors that attract U.S. residents to eco-friendly events. To achieve our research objective, we obtained data (N = 1,115) from a cross-national, web-based survey distributed ...


Will We Learn from COVID-19? Ecopedagogical Calling (Un)heard

  • Beijing Normal University

‘(Un)heard’ in the title questions if we will learn from experiencing COVID-19 to counter unrestrained environmental devastation occurring, or will we remain largely untaught? I argue the need for ...


Zero-Waste Planning at Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of Western Kentucky University

  • Western Kentucky University (KY)

Over the past two decades, the number of universities that pursue zero-waste strategies has steadily increased. However, more study is required on several interrelated factors, policy barriers, and infrastructural fundamentals ...


What's in Your Paper? Organizational Fiber Consumption and the Purchasing Decisions that Drive it

  • Pennsylvania State University (PA)

Institutions of higher education (HEI) today often pursue sustainability in a holistic manner, integrating sustainability into their day to day operations as well as their long-term strategic plans. One challenge ...


What makes an effective campus climate action plan?

  • Montana State University (MT)

Over the course of Spring Semester 2021, eight undergraduate students from a wide variety of majors and disciplines enrolled in a 3 credit directed independent study course in Human Geography ...


Mitigating Carbon Emissions While Staying In Business: A Case Study of Longview Farm

  • Smith College (MA)

Smith College has aggressive goals for greenhouse gas emissions reduction and local food procurement. In an effort to understand supply chain emissions associated with food, students in the Environmental Science ...


Implications of Massachusetts Climate Policy for Smith College

  • Smith College (MA)

Smith College has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. To meet this goal, Smith is considering transitioning its district energy system from steam heat generated with natural gas to ...


Signaling sustainability: impact that learning how to report has on enrollment, endowment and emissions of North American higher education institutions

  • Robert Morris University (PA) (PA)
  • Connecting Environmental Professionals Ottawa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model assessing the frequency and timing between reports on the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education ...


"Worry and Hope: What College Students Know, Think, Feel, and Do About Climate Change"

  • University of Hawaii System Office (HI)

There is an urgent need for a comprehensive assessment of climate literacy across higher education institutions in the United States. In addition, there is a need for both research and ...


Turnaround Leadership for Sustainability in Higher Education

  • Western Sydney University (NSW)
  • Australian National University

Higher Education around the world is at a cross-road as a wide range of change forces bear down upon it. These include a complex, interlocked and rapidly unfolding set of ...


The Futility and Fatality of Incremental Action: Motivations and Barriers among Undergraduates for Environmental Action that Matters

  • Ithaca College (NY)

Monty Hempel was deeply engaged with the impact of sustainability education on student values and behavior. An important question that he posed was How can sustainability education provide a sound ...


University Students Harvesting the Benefits of a Garden Laboratory

  • Mount Saint Vincent University (NS)

Community gardens (CG) are areas of land where individuals or groups grow food in single or shared plots, typically in an urban setting, providing fresh produce, urban greening, and opportunities ...


Adventuring into Complexity by Exploring Data: From Complicity to Sustainability

  • West Chester University of Pennsylvania (PA)

Problems of sustainability are typically represented by major present-day challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental and social injustice. Framed this way, sustainable lives and societies depend on ...


Embedding Sustainability in Interdisciplinary Pedagogy for Planning and Design Studios

  • Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels Region)
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Sustainability literacy should be embedded in built environment higher education. We explored the contribution of interdisciplinary studios to students’ sustainability literacy. We ran a studio with Urban Planning and Landscape ...


Exploring the consistency of ethical perceptions by business and economics higher education students: Looking from academia towards the corporate world

  • Universidade do Porto
  • University of Minho

Understanding how business and economics higher education students ethically appraise corporate behaviour nowadays may contribute to anticipating how they will behave in the future as corporate actors and leaders. At ...


Sustainability in Brandenburg Study Programs. Perspectives for Anchoring Sustainability in Higher Education Curricula

  • Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development/Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (Brandenburg)

The study investigates the extent to which sustainability is anchored in university curricula of a federal state (Brandenburg, Germany). (1) It provides a baseline for identifying opportunities for sustainability-related curriculum ...


Teaching wicked problems in higher education: ways of thinking and practising

  • University of Edinburgh
  • Wageningen University

This paper reports on teachers’ perspectives on preparing students for working with ‘wicked’ problems (Rittel and Webber [1973]. ‘Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.’ Policy Sciences 4 (2): 155 ...


“A new understanding and appreciation for the marvel of growing things”: exploring the college farm’s contribution to transformative learning

  • Eastern Kentucky University (KY)

Campus farms and gardens can play a vital role in offering experiential and transformative learning opportunities for students in higher education. Many faculty believe that experiential education in food systems ...


Campuses as living labs for sustainability problem-solving: trends, triumphs, and traps

  • Princeton University (NJ)

Colleges and universities around the world are increasingly using their campuses as living laboratories for sustainability problem-solving and engagement. “Campus-as-lab” (CAL) projects emphasize experiential learning and campus sustainability through the ...


Educated professionals of sustainability and the dimensions of practices

  • University of Helsinki
  • Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (Uusimaa)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to expand the competence-led structuring and understanding of sustainability education by analysing the practices of professional individuals who have completed university education geared ...


Evaluation of a tertiary sustainability experiential learning program

  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

This paper aims to describe the development, promotion and evaluation of sustainability learning experience database (SLED), a university-curated database of sustainability experiences to augment formal student learning. Its purpose was ...


Toward a Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Campus Food Environment: A Scoping Review of Postsecondary Food Interventions

  • University of Waterloo (ON)

Interventions are urgently needed to transform the food system and shift population eating patterns toward those consistent with human health and environmental sustainability. Postsecondary campuses offer a naturalistic setting to ...


A study of development mode in green campus to realize the sustainable development goals

  • Zhejiang University
  • University of Kitakyushu (Fukuoka)

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the way to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Through the introduction and learning of a specific case, this paper summarizes ...


Sustainability worldviews of marketing academics: A segmentation analysis and implications for professional development

  • University of Canterbury
  • University of Auckland

The epistemology of the business school has been argued to be a large barrier towards the integration of sustainability in education and research. This research aims to shed light on ...


Educating for transitions: ecovillages as transdisciplinary sustainability “classrooms”

  • University of Brasilia

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pedagogical tools that can enhance transdisciplinarity in higher education and stimulate sustainability transitions, based on the case study of a partnership ...


The university went to ‘decolonise’ and all they brought back was lousy diversity double-speak! Critical race counter-stories from faculty of colour in ‘decolonial’ times

  • University of Sheffield
  • University of Manchester (Lancashire)
  • Sheffield Hallam University (Yorkshire)

UK Higher Education is characterised by structural and institutional forms of whiteness. As scholars and activists are increasingly speaking out to testify, whiteness has wide-ranging implications that affect curricula, pedagogy ...


Reimagining global citizenship education for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

In this article, I propose the need to reimagine global citizenship education for a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. In this context, it remains unclear what kind of ...


Add Business and Stir: Finding New Markets for Your Religion and Ecology Courses

  • Alma College (MI)

This essay makes a case for teaching an interdisciplinary undergraduate course at the intersection of religion, ecology, and business. At a basic level, this approach gets students with diverse intellectual ...


A sustainability internship program: strategies for creating student stewards for sustainability

  • Western Michigan University (MI)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategies and an effective model for creating and implementing a sustainability internship program at a university campus.


The role of sustainability in media and communication studies’ curricula throughout Europe

  • University of Klagenfurt

This research aims to analyze to what extent sustainability and its related core aspects are integrated in media and communication's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe.


Fostering Sustainability Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours through a Tutor-Supported Interdisciplinary Course in Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Hamburg

Extant research into the efficacy of—especially interdisciplinary—higher education for sustainable development (HESD) is limited. A need exists to investigate students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Furthermore ...


Effective Community-Academic Partnerships on Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation: Results of a European Delphi Study

  • University of Vechta

The effects of anthropogenic climate change have become increasingly prevalent. There is thus a need both to prevent climate change or soften its effects (mitigation) and to address and deal ...


Creating Transdisciplinary Teaching Spaces. Cooperation of Universities and Non-University Partners to Design Higher Education for Regional Sustainable Transition

  • United Nations University
  • Universität Duisburg-Essen
  • Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Teaching formats involving non-university partners are increasingly gaining importance to deliver key competencies needed in higher education for sustainable development. Such teaching formats may also create new transdisciplinary spaces that ...


Framing the role of higher education in sustainable development: a case study analysis

  • Zayed University
  • Cairo University

Higher education institutions (HEIs) should play a fundamental role in achieving the international 2030 sustainable development (SD) agenda. Quality education is the fourth of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and ...


Integrating professional sustainability literacy into the master of public administration curriculum

  • University of North Carolina at Wilmington (NC)

Abstract Purpose Public administration, or the implementation of public policies by civil servants, will be central to implementing the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. And yet, few American master of ...


Redefining action competence: The case of sustainable development

  • University of Antwerp
  • Karlstad University

The concept of Action Competence (AC) has been interpreted in different ways in various domains of the educational sciences. Given the rising scholarly attention to AC, these diverse interpretations are ...


How Teaching Affects Student Attitudes towards the Environment and Sustainability in Higher Education: An Instructors’ Perspective

  • The American College of Greece (Aghia Paraskevi)

In the rapidly changing, 21st century globalized world, with increasing environmental pressures and challenges, education for the environment and sustainability is a priority at all levels; from kindergarten to higher ...


Place-based inquiry in a university course abroad: lessons about education for sustainability in the urban outdoors

  • James Madison University (VA)

This paper aims to present the case of a semester-long study-abroad education class in Italy. This course explored place-based methods that classroom teachers (K-12) might use to connect students’ outdoor ...


Curriculum integration of sustainability in engineering education – a national study of programme director perspectives

  • Snowflake Education
  • Linkoping University

This study aims to report on how programme directors address sustainability within engineering education at Swedish universities and engineering colleges.


Integrating and Assessing Student Perceived Sustainability Literacy in an Integrated Marketing Communications Course

  • Appalachian State University (NC)
  • University of the Pacific (CA)

This paper examines whether marketing educators’ efforts in integrating sustainability-related issues in an undergraduate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) course affect students’ perceived sustainability literacy. Using the Taxonomy of Significant Learning ...


Learning to survive: Wicked problem education for the Anthropocene age

  • University of South Florida (FL)

This article addresses major lacunae in higher education from the standpoint of Anthropocenic survival. Wicked problems transcend national, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Eco-survival, international migration, destabilized global markets, shifts in ...


First steps towards sustainability? University freshmen perceptions on nature versus environment

  • University of Bayreuth

The Global Earth Overshoot Day, the date when all annually available natural resources are consumed, is set for July this year. For densely populated European countries like Germany or Switzerland ...


Transformative Sustainability Education in Higher Education: Activating Environmental Understanding and Active Citizenship Among Professional Studies Learners

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

Transformative sustainability education (TSE) is an uncommon pedagogical practice in higher education, even though it has a positive impact on student learning and behavioral change. This qualitative case study explored ...


Guide to Estimating Multi-Modal Commuting Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  • University of Illinois Chicago (IL)

A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is emerging as the preferred tool used to address a climate action plan. It enables an institution to measure progress toward desired goals, including reducing ...