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

Framing for sustainability: the impact of language choice on educational outcomes

  • University of Utah (UT)

Because what people do is not based entirely on what they know, the way educators frame sustainability concepts is critical. Framing influences recognized antecedents of pro-environmental behavior such as attitudes ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Language Fouls in Teaching Ecology: Why Traditional Metaphors Undermine Conservation Literacy

  • University of Utah (UT)
  • Utah State University (UT)

We believe that the language commonly used in teaching actually hinders the creation of conservation literacy. We examined four frequently used ecology and environmental studies textbooks and considered the ways ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Disrupting neoliberal discourse in critical sustainability education: a qualitative analysis of intentional language framing

  • Davidson College (NC)
  • University of Utah (UT)

While education for sustainability is a critical task that is gaining ground in a plethora of educational contexts, it is frequently rendered ineffective in the face of neoliberal practice and ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Exploring a transformative orientation to sustainability in universities: a question of loose and tight framings

This review essay examines three new books on higher education and sustainability. It explores a number of the issues raised in the books, in particular, the meaning of a transformative ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Measuring the linkage between strategies on sustainability and institutional forces: an empirical study of Spanish universities

Policy documents are commonly identified as key outcomes that guide initiatives directed by senior university leaders towards sustainability through plans and policies. Many studies have called for a more integration ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Factors influencing the presence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic planning of Spanish universities

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy-makers in recent decades. Many studies have called for greater integration of sustainability ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Canadian Higher Education

  • McMaster University (ON)
  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

This paper reviews representations of sustainability in the strategic plans of Canadian higher education institutions (HEIs). A content analysis of the strategic plans of 50 HEIs was undertaken to determine ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)
  • Mount Saint Vincent University (NS)

How do we equip learners with the values, knowledge, skills, and motivation to help achieve economic, social and ecological well-being? How can universities make a major contribution towards a more ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Energy Efficiency Jobs in America

This report finds that energy efficiency is a massive employer with 1.9 million jobs nationwide and thousands of jobs in each and every state. The report, based on U ...

  • Posted Jan. 30, 2017
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Clean Jobs America: A comprehensive analysis of clean energy jobs in America

In this comprehensive analysis of clean energy and clean transportation jobs, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) finds that more than 2.5 million Americans now work in clean energy at businesses across ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America

  • The Pew Charitable Trusts (DC)

Despite a lack of sustained policy attention and investment, the emerging clean energy economy has grown considerably - extending to all 50 states, engaging a wide variety of workers and generating ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance Issues Into Institutional Investment: A Handbook for Colleges and Universities

  • Responsible Endowments Coalition (PA)
  • Amnesty International

The purpose of this handbook is to assist colleges and universities in implementing investment policies that consider environmental, social, and governance issues. Each section of the handbook supports the development ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Student Interest for Environment/Sustainability Undergraduate Programmes: Recent Australian Experience

  • RMIT University

Increasingly, employers are seeing the need to have employees who have capabilities in sustainability. The hope is that there will be a sufficient number of appropriately educated people to enter ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Educating for Sustainability: 2017 Sustainable Campus Best Practices from ISCN and GULF Universities

  • International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) (MA)

This report, which was released in conjuction with the 2017 World Economic Forum, contains case studies on educating for sustainability provided by 30 members of the International Sustainable Campus Network ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Business sustainability and undergraduate management education: an Australian study

The academic literature arguing that there is an urgent requirement for businesses to become more sustainable is rapidly expanding. There is also a demonstrated need for managers to develop a ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Case study for evaluating campus sustainability: nitrogen balance for the University of Minnesota

  • Carleton College (MN)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

American ecologists recently began to address the ecology of cities. Concurrently, higher education institutions have developed sustainability education programs and instituted sustainability policies and projects. This paper draws together these ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Towards a vision of a sustainable university

  • Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Sustainable development is the biggest challenge to universities in the twenty‐first century. As many different definitions and interpretations of the concept exist, it is not surprising that the strategies ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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Benchmarking presidents’ compensations in institutions of higher education relative to sustainability and other institutional practices

  • Rowan University (NJ)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategic effects of academic institutional factors including environmental, social, and economic sustainability indices on the compensation of the president of ...

  • Posted Jan. 27, 2017
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A review of commitment and implementation of sustainable development in higher education: results from a worldwide survey

  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Madrid)
  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)
  • Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Monterrey
  • UC Leuven-Limburg
  • KU Leuven
  • Utrecht University

During the last two decades, many higher education institutions have become involved in embedding sustainable development into their academic systems. The research for this paper was built upon discussions on ...

  • Posted Jan. 23, 2017
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Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Students' Perspectives on an Innovative Approach to Educational Change

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Problem statement: With Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) being an innovative approach to educational change, its principal objective is students’ development of transformation competencies. However, HESD evaluations hardly consider ...

  • Posted Jan. 23, 2017
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Corporate Identity of a Socially Responsible University – A Case from the Turkish Higher Education Sector

  • Istanbul Bilgi University

Facing increased competition, universities are driven to project a positive image to their internal and external stakeholders. Therefore some of these institutions have begun to develop and implement corporate identity ...

  • Posted Jan. 23, 2017
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A conceptual synthesis of organisational transformation: How to diagnose, and navigate, pathways for sustainability at universities?

  • Maastricht University

Universities will play a profound role in a century in which society will be judged by its capacity for self-transformation in response to pandemic crises of climate change and capitalism ...

  • Posted Jan. 23, 2017
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Should we quit our jobs? Challenges, barriers and recommendations for interdisciplinary energy research

  • University of Southern California (CA)
  • University College Dublin, National University of Ireland

Many plea for a better integration of social sciences in energy research, which would imply more comprehensive interdisciplinary energy research. We argue that in order to achieve this, institutional barriers ...

  • Posted Jan. 23, 2017
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A Methodology for Sustainability Evaluation and Reporting in Higher Education Institutions

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology that allows higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote, to evaluate and to report on sustainability. The ultimate goal of the ...

  • Posted Jan. 20, 2017
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Engaging sustainability good practice within the curriculum design and property portfolio in the Australian higher education sector

  • Deakin University

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which universities’ strategic plans affect the level of incorporation of sustainability within the curriculum design and property portfolio ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Sustainable imaginaries: a case study of a large suburban Canadian university

  • York University

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the concept of sustainability imaginaries – unifying core assumptions on what sustainability entails held by stakeholders – set within a large suburban Canadian university. The study ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Energy challenges: isolating results due to behavior change

  • Allegheny College (PA)

Purpose

Approximately 700 colleges and universities have committed to climate neutrality, which will require significant reductions in energy consumption. This paper aims to explore the effectiveness of an Annual Energy ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Transdisciplinary learning and teaching as answers to urban sustainability challenges

Purpose

This paper aims to explain the relevance of science-society interfaces and their potential for higher education institutions to engage stakeholders in supporting sustainable change in cities, via the transdisciplinary ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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University’s multi-scale initiatives for redefining city development

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the varied roles played by the University of Lódz (UL) in maintaining and restoring the natural capital of a city as ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Environmental awareness raising through universities – city authorities’ cooperation

Purpose

This paper aims to the environmental awareness raising as a key issue of education for sustainable development. Youth Environmental Volunteers Movement in the area of coastal oil response operations ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Greening transportation and parking at University of Coimbra

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the potential contribution of integrated traffic and parking management strategies to ensure more rational use of available parking spaces and to reduce fuel consumption ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Quest for a sustainable university: a review

Purpose

The paper aims to deliver a general review of the methods used to pursue the concept of a “sustainable university”.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was Internet based, and ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Assessing the Infusion of Sustainability Principles into University Curricula

  • The Hashemite University
  • Universita degli Studi di Padova

The current paper presents the assessment of the infusion of sustainability principles into university curricula at two Jordanian universities. The peer review process of revising the curricula infusing sustainability principles ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning?

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Universities play an important role in shaping the future of the world society in terms of sustainable development by generating new knowledge as well as contributing to the development of ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Developing a Whole-of-University Approach to Educating for Sustainability: Linking Curriculum, Research and Sustainable Campus Operations

  • Australian National University

Institutions of higher education are poised to play a significant role in the search for a more sustainable future. Most universities are tackling sustainability issues in a compartmentalised manner, sustainability ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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An in-depth literature review of the evolving roles and contributions of universities to education for sustainable development

Universities have been consistently considered significant contributors to the pursuit of regional sustainability initiatives for over two decades. The composite nature of sustainable development (SD) has appointed Universities to critical ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Higher Education and Sustainable Development: Paradox and Possibility

Higher Education and Sustainable Development examines whether it is possible to mandate, plan, monitor and evaluate the higher education sector’s route to the production of educated, innovative, independent, self-determining ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Sustainable Behavior: Study Engagement and Happiness among University Students in South Korea

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships among sustainable behavior, study engagement, and happiness. The participants were 202 undergraduate students. The present study used structural equation ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education Institutions: Its Influence on the Pro-Sustainability Orientation of Mexican Students

The role that higher education plays in the promotion of sustainable development is evident in a variety of declarations on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and is also a research ...

  • Posted Jan. 18, 2017
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Civic Labors: Scholarly Activism and Working-Class Studies

Labor studies scholars and working-class historians have long worked at the crossroads of academia and activism. The essays in this collection examine the challenges and opportunities for engaged scholarship in ...

  • Posted Jan. 13, 2017
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Assessment tools’ indicators for sustainability in universities: an analytical overview

  • Technische Universiteit Delft
  • King Saud University

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse 12 assessment tools of sustainability in universities and develop the structure and the contents of these tools to be more intelligible ...

  • Posted Jan. 13, 2017
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Communicating sustainability: student perceptions of a behavior change campaign

  • University of Arizona (AZ)
  • University of Calgary (AB)

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of a science-based environmental communication campaign at a university dining hall. The impacts are assessed in terms of student attitudes toward sustainability ...

  • Posted Jan. 13, 2017
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Sustainable Development Research at Universities in the United Kingdom: Approaches, Methods and Projects

This book gathers inputs from a variety of researchers in the field of sustainable development across the UK, from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment and media ...


Sustainability at Central Oregon Community College

  • Central Oregon Community College (OR)

The paper of "Sustainable Development at Central Oregon Community College" was written to influence board members, faculty, and students who were enrolled or employed at the college to consider small ...


Top-Performing Institutions for Sustainability, 2016

  • Chronicle of Higher Education (DC)

The 2016 Sustainable Campus Index, published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or Aashe, recognizes top-performing colleges and universities in 17 distinct aspects of sustainability ...


Colorado State University: A Midscale Market Solar Customer Case Study

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory (CO)

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology experienced an unprecedented level of investment and deployment between 2005 and 2015. Driven by rapidly falling module costs, high consumer demand, and targeted state and local ...


UIC Aims for More Sustainable Campus

  • University of Illinois Chicago (IL)

The University of Illinois at Chicago is launching an ambitious effort to drastically cut energy use, water consumption and waste on its Near West Side campus in hopes of helping ...


The Future of Sustainability Leadership Rests with Higher Education

  • AASHE (PA)

Higher education institutions are poised to be leaders on the sustainability front. Not only are they able to develop responsible environmental policies and procedures for their campuses, but they are ...


Sustainability in Higher Education: How Does the Process of Campus Greening Trigger Adaptive Social Learning

  • North Carolina State University (NC)

The purpose of this dissertation was to answer the research question: Does the presence of a balance of social, economic, and ecological dimensions during an implementation of campus greening trigger ...

  • Posted Dec. 21, 2016
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Applied Sustainability Education with a Systems Science Emphasis at a STEM University

  • Florida Institute of Technology (FL)

In the southeastern U.S., the Sustainability Studies bachelors program at F.I.T. is one of the first of its type among STEM universities. A preliminary case study is ...

  • Posted Dec. 21, 2016
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