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

The participatory process of planning social and environmental responsibility at a Brazilian university

  • University of Passo Fundo

Universities have an important role in articulation of the transformation of society, in the formation of individuals capable of acting in the processes that enable sustainable development goals (SDGs), in ...


Sustainability-as-flourishing: teaching for a sustainable future

  • Auckland University of Technology
  • Kenvale College of Hospitality, Cookery & Events (NSW)

Purpose In a recent article, Schaefer et al. (2015) argue that cultivating appropriate beliefs and values, cultivating systems thinking and encouraging responsibility are the stages to be followed to achieve ...


Engineering Education for Sustainable Development: The European Project Semester Approach

  • Universitat Politècnica de València (Valencia)
  • Polytechnic University of Catalonia
  • Instituto Politécnico do Porto (Porto)

Contribution: An analysis of the extent to which sustainability is present in the syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and student final reports of the three Iberian European project semester (EPS ...


Incorporating Sustainability Principles Into Architectural Design Education: Results of an Experimental Design Studio

  • Middle East Technical University
  • Izmir Institute of Technology (IYTE) (İzmir)

Design is a structured process or a tactical guideline to accomplish a unique expectation of a product, while a design studio is the environment where students are taught the skills ...


A comparative study of approaches towards energy efficiency and renewable energy use at higher education institutions

  • University of Beira Interior
  • University of Passo Fundo
  • Universidade Federal Fluminense
  • University of Campinas
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) (Perak Darul Ridzuan)
  • American University of Central Asia
  • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

The potential for energy efficiency and for the deployment of renewable energy at universities is substantial, and they represent promising ways to meet an institution's energy needs on the ...


Understanding facility management decision making for energy efficiency efforts for buildings at a higher education institution

  • University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
  • Institut Teknologi Bandung (Jawa Barat)

Education buildings, as the third highest consumer of energy in the United States, provides significant opportunities to lower greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency (EE). Higher education institutions (HEIs ...


Ecological footprint: a tool for environmental management in educational institutions

  • Universidad Icesi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, as few universities have assessed their ecological footprint (EF), a benchmark for Colombian universities is presented. Second, a practical calculation tool ...


Improving the attractiveness and accessibility of campus green space for developing a sustainable university environment

  • City Planning & Design Institute of Yiwu China
  • University of Kitakyushu (Fukuoka)

A growing body of research has investigated the vital effects of urban greening. However, the green space on campus, also recognized as an important element of urban greening and providing ...


A study of energy literacy among nursing students to examine implications on energy conservation efforts in Taiwan

  • National Taiwan Normal University
  • Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology
  • Ming Chi University of Technology

Nurses' energy literacy should be developed during schooling to ensure their involvement in sustainable healthcare. In this study, we explored nursing students' energy literacy and the relationships among knowledge, affect ...


The Bridge Between Education for Sustainable Development and Transformative Learning: Towards New Collaborative Learning Spaces

  • Vienna University of Economics and Business

Recent research has become increasingly interested in the concepts of education for sustainable development (ESD) and transformative learning (TL). However, even as ESD can be described as holistic and transformational ...


UVM's Roadmap to Zero Waste

  • University of Vermont (VT)

This senior thesis seeks to provide effective strategies for enhancing Zero Waste management goals at the University of Vermont by incorporating the needs of campus stakeholders. As the global garbage ...


Sustainability and procurement practices in higher education institutions: Barriers and drivers

  • Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
  • University of Passo Fundo
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Universidade federal de Santa Maria
  • University of Winchester
  • University of the Aegean (Lesvos)

A review of the literature reveals the scant research on sustainable procurement in the public sector, and in particular higher education institutions (HEIs). In this context, this paper aims to ...


Mapping of sustainability policies and initiatives in higher education institutes

  • University of Limerick

Higher Education Institutes are being called upon to integrate sustainable development into their organisation, driven by national and international events, policies and environmental targets. This paper maps sustainability policies and ...


Designing a Sustainable Marketing Class to Be Relevant: Fostering Engagement and Active Learning

  • Morehead State University (KY)

This paper discusses the activities and assignments of a sustainable marketing course that have been designed to show the personal as well as societal relevance of the course content to ...


Sustainability science in education: analysis of master’s programmes’ curricula

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

Sustainability science is an emerging, free-standing scientific discipline. It has introduced a new approach to both sustainability research and educational programmes, while evoking novel perspectives to stronger societal contextualization. Among ...


Bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education: A teaching framework based on content analysis

  • Nord University
  • Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) - Campus Viamão (RS)

Research on sustainability education has neglected to integrate entrepreneurial skills into other relevant competences such as foresight, complex problem-solving, and interdisciplinarity. Previous research highlights possible convergences between sustainability education and ...


Exploring and expanding transdisciplinary research for sustainable and just natural resource management

  • Dundalk Institute of Technology
  • Rhodes University
  • ​The Agricultural Research Council (Pretoria)

Transdisciplinarity is gaining acceptance in sustainability science research as an approach to work across disparate types of knowledge and practices in order to tackle complex social-ecological problems. On paper, transdisciplinarity ...


Assessment of Competences in Sustainability Management: Analyses to the Construct Dimensionality

  • University of Göttingen
  • DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education/DIPF Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation (Darmstadt)

The paper discusses an examination of the dimensions of a competence model for sustainability management. A central assumption is that the dimensions of the competence model differ according to knowledge ...


Education for advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: A systematic approach

  • Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul (SP)

The research presented systematically reviewed the literature on education for advancing implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify important bibliometric patterns and evidence in this relatively new, but ...


Building Leadership Competencies for the SDGs through Community/University Experiential Learning

  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • The Strongest Oak Foundation (AB)

This research provides a case study of how experiential learning opportunities provided by a Master of Science program in Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) helped to achieve four Sustainable Development Goals ...


Diversity Content in STEM? How Faculty Values Translate into Curricular Inclusion Unevenly for Different Subjects in Environmental and Sustainability Programs

  • University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
  • University of Virginia (VA)
  • Vincent Evaluation Consulting (OK)

While addressing racial inequality in the higher education curriculum and promoting an inclusive curriculum in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) remain contentious issues, little is known about the processes ...


Curriculum gaps for adult climate literacy

  • Smith College (MA)
  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)
  • Delta Stewardship Council (CA)

Conservation scientists need to advance climate literacy so that people understand how climate affects all of life, acquire the skills to communicate about climate change, and become aware of ways ...


Transactional learning and sustainability co-creation in a university – business collaboration

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

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the learning outcomes of the project-based learning in a Master Class programme on sustainability carried out in collaboration by the University ...


Best practices for teaching green invention: Interviews on design, engineering, and business education

  • Dartmouth College (NH)
  • Alula Consulting (MT)

This study investigated best practices in teaching environmental responsibility to inventors and innovators. Because successful invention includes engineering, design, and business, best practices in all three disciplines were investigated, as ...


The real meal deal: assessing student preferences for “real food” at Fort Lewis College

  • Fort Lewis College (CO)

Fort Lewis College committed to purchasing 20% real food by 2020 as part of a national campaign called the Real Food Challenge, an initiative on college campuses that aims to ...


Empirical evidence that concept mapping reduces neurocognitive effort during concept generation for sustainability

  • Virginia Tech (VA)

Sustainable development is a systems problem that requires a shift in thinking from individual parts to the relationships between them. Enabling those involved in the development process to more quickly ...


Phosphorus – a “political” element for transdisciplinary chemistry education

  • University of California, Davis (CA)
  • Universität Bremen

The paper describes a curriculum innovation project for integrating the sustainability-oriented socio-scientific issue of phosphate recovery into undergraduate chemistry education. Justification for the topic is derived from the importance of ...


Links between sustainability-related awareness and behavior: The moderating role of engagement

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Purpose Sustainability literature has cited the influential role of both awareness and engagement in facilitating increases in pro-environmental behaviors. The purpose of this study is to compare these links across ...


Towards an Education for the Circular Economy (ECE): Five Teaching Principles and a Case Study

  • Utrecht University

The circular economy (CE) concept is seen by many as a novel pathway to sustainable development. A few scholars have started outlining educational approaches and tools that lecturers can use ...


“Future-proof your Degree”: Embedding sustainability and employability at Nottingham Business School (NBS)

  • Nottingham Trent University

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how a UK business school has explicitly linked sustainability to employability and embedded these into all levels ...


Student-led environmental management system in Chiba University

  • Chiba University

Purpose This paper aims to explain the student-led environmental management system (EMS) based on ISO14001 which Chiba University has continued for 15 years. It describes its structure “Chiba University Method ...


Classroom collaborations: Enabling sustainability education via student-community co-learning

  • De Montfort University

Purpose This study aims to explore co-learning classes, a novel approach to leveraging universities’ capacity to contribute to the local sustainable development agenda whilst enhancing students’ learning. These participatory classes ...


Measuring Up: a Case For Redrawing the System Boundaries of Sustainability At the University of Kentucky

  • University of Kentucky (KY)

The primary goal of this paper is to examine the role that sustainability assessment and reporting plays in creating a sustainable campus for academic excellence. A prototype sustainability assessment and ...


Learning for Transdisciplinary Leadership: Why Skilled Scholars Coming Together Is Not Enough

  • University of Calgary (AB)
  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)
  • Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) (ON)

Transdisciplinary research is an emerging new normal for many scientists in applied research fields, including One Health, planetary health, and sustainability. However, simply bringing highly skilled students (and faculty members ...


Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry into Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories: Closing and Assessing the Loop on the Basis of a Citrus Biorefinery Approach for the Biocircular Economy in Brazil

  • Universidade Federal de São Carlos
  • University of York

One of the keys to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is to introduce novel pedagogical strategies into university curricula in order to promote an ...


Who benefits from university–industry collaboration for environmental sustainability?

  • Universita degli Studi di Padova
  • Technische Universität Kaiserslautern

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the characteristics and performance of university–industry (U-I) collaboration for knowledge transfer in relation to environmental sustainability, considering for both parties of the collaborations ...


How mindfulness training cultivates introspection and competence development for sustainable consumption

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationship between introspection and key competencies for sustainable consumption (KCSCs). It investigates whether mindfulness training can cultivate the ability to introspect and stimulate ...


The assessment of graduate sustainability attributes in the workplace: Potential advantages of using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB)

  • RMIT University

Sustainability in higher education aims to educate learners, as both citizens and future professionals, to build capacity to bring about a more sustainable future. As such, sustainability education can be ...


Analysing the factors affecting the incorporation of sustainable development into European Higher Education Institutions' curricula

  • Gävle University College

There has been an increase in sustainable development (SD) integration into Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) curricula. Several tools have been developed to assess SD in HEIs; however, only a few ...


Implementation of SDGs at the University of South Africa

  • University of South Africa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how universities can play a pivotal role in implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). It recognises the advantage that universities have in ...


Teaching Urban Sustainability: A Study Abroad Perspective

  • Ohio University (OH)
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Exeter (Devon)

Since 2011 more than 100 students from Ohio University have travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study history, urban planning, and sustainability. In this paper we recount the genesis of this ...


Campus conservation initiatives: factors influencing student engagement, attitudes and behaviours

  • Davis & Elkins College (WV)
  • Marshall University (WV)

College campuses play a primary role in promoting and facilitating sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour. While many studies have focused on campus sustainability efforts, few have specifically focused on how students ...


The End of Simple Problems: Repositioning Chemistry in Higher Education and Society Using a Systems Thinking Approach and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as a Framework

  • University of Bristol
  • Technical University of Crete

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that a chemistry course could reposition itself by adopting interdisciplinary approaches based on systems thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs ...


Organizational hypocrisy in business schools with sustainability commitments: The drivers of talk-action inconsistency

  • University of Bath

Business schools are criticized for not walking-the-talk given their sustainability rhetoric and the expectation they educate future managers to act responsibly, balancing economic aims with the social and environmental impacts ...


Factors Affecting Environmental Activism, Nonactivist Behaviors, and the Private Sphere Green Behaviors of Thai University Students

  • King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi

University students are expected by the general public to be active in pro-environmental behaviors due to their environmental knowledge and relevant education. However, it is still unclear whether students only ...


Including aspects of sustainability in the degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics: An evaluation based on student perceptions

  • Universidad del Pais Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Bizkaia)

Education is progressing towards having a more sustainable outlook. Numerous approaches to sustainability teaching have been conducted at different educational stages, but few studies have used quantitative methods to measure ...


The importance of university, students and students’ union partnerships in student-led projects: A case study

  • Blekinge Institute of Technology
  • Keele University

Purpose This paper aims to explore a single-institution case study of partnership working between students, the University and Students’ Union, through four student-led sustainability projects. The paper analyses the role ...


Bridging sustainability science, earth science, and data science through interdisciplinary education

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)
  • University of Texas at El Paso (TX)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

Given the rapid emergence of data science techniques in the sustainability sciences and the societal importance of many of these applications, there is an urgent need to prepare future scientists ...


Systems thinking approaches for international green chemistry education

  • University of York

This overview outlines the recent progress made in addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through educators incorporating systems thinking approaches within green and sustainable chemistry education. A blend of ...


Integrating the Molecular Basis of Sustainability into General Chemistry through Systems Thinking

  • Iowa State University (IA)
  • Dalhousie University (NS)
  • The King's University (AB)
  • Imperial College London

The flow of materials and energy through society is an integral but poorly visible element of global sustainability agendas such as the Planetary Boundaries Framework and the UN Sustainable Development ...