Curriculum

Introduction

One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.

7988 resources

Putting sustainability research into practice on the university campus: An example from a Caribbean small island state

  • University of Zurich
  • University of Aruba

Despite increasing efforts to incorporate sustainability in curricula and practices of institutions of higher education, effective implementation remains challenging. The purpose of this study is to present an approach to ...


Unveiling the path towards sustainability: scientific interest at HEIs from a scientometric approach in the period 2008-2017

  • Carlos III University of Madrid

Humanity has experienced the impact of an unsustainable economic model at all levels. This topic has crystallized in different summits and conferences during the 20th century. As a result of ...


Questionnaire survey on consciousness and behavior of students to achieve SDGs in Kyoto University

  • Kyoto University

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets regarding the economic, social and environmental objectives to achieve global sustainable development by 2030, have received considerable attention not ...


Pitt Hydroponics

  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)

Pitt Hydroponics is a student group that is dedicated to the education of Pitt students in hydroponic practices, the outreach to local communities, and the research and creation of small-scale ...


The James Madison University Student Assessment Initiative

  • James Madison University (VA)

Between 2009 and 2020, JMU implemented a comprehensive collection of student assessments and used the results to significantly advance sustainability efforts. Three question sets were, and continue to be, administered ...


EchoWorks: An Electronics Recycling Community Partnership

  • Western Dakota Technical College (SD)

EchoWorks is a social enterprise that recycles electronic waste and employs people with disabilities. Located on the campus of Western Dakota Tech, a community college in Rapid City, South Dakota ...


Loyola University Chicago's Student-run Biodiesel Lab

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)

The Searle Biodiesel Lab is a student-run initiative within Loyola University Chicago’s Institute for Environmental Sustainability (IES). Since 2007, the lab has produced biodiesel and BioSoap(Loyola’s all-natural ...


Sustainability Activation Program at the University of Dayton

  • University of Dayton (OH)

The Sustainability Activation Program (SAP) is a peer-to-peer education program which takes a holistic and human rights oriented approach to sustainability education on campus and in the community. It began ...


PSRF Final Project Report: Climate Community

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Mission

The Climate Community President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship (PSRF) project is dedicated to generating an engaged and purposeful climate community at Swarthmore College. This means breaking the mold of ...


Infusing Sustainability into the Curriculum at Swarthmore College

  • Swarthmore College (PA)

Note that the full final report for this project is attached as a file at the end of this report. Please view for full in depth explanation of the project ...


BCIT Wood-Waste-to-Energy Project

  • British Columbia Institute of Technology (BC)

In pursuit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, showcasing environmentally-sustainable projects for widespread use, and incorporating sustainability more broadly in curriculum, British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) has created a closed-loop ...


Kent State University Textile Reuse and Recycling Programs Divert 441,610 pounds (221 tons) From Landfill to Benefit Community and Campus Over Past 5 Years

  • Kent State University (OH)

Kent State University has reduced the amount of materials sent to landfills while providing benefits to the local community, campus, and our students. For the past 5 academic years, 2014-2015 ...


Teaching and mindsets regarding sustainable development – a Mexican case study

  • Universidad de Sonora (Sonora)

Aim: The world has become increasingly interconnected and complex. This represents a very serious problem for sustainable development; therefore, the development of instruments that reduces ignorance as well as fragilities ...


Critical Pedagogy and Eco-pedagogy: Discussing Ethics and Radical Environmentalism at Business School

  • The Hague University of Applied Science

This article discusses critical pedagogy and ecopedagogy, which stimulate active citizenship through the lessons of environmentalism, exposing students to the critique of the underlying power structures of society. This article ...


The Smart Classroom as a Means to the Development of ESD Methodologies

  • Rovira i Virgili University

Educational institutions are envisioned as principal agents for addressing the current sustainability challenge that society is facing. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is transformational and concerns learning content and outcomes ...


Sustainability in management education: a Biggs’ 3P model application

  • Loyola University Maryland (MD)
  • Centro Universitário da FEI

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the main factors that contribute to teaching and learning sustainability in management education (SiME), which is defined as a body of ...


Graduate ability to show workplace sustainability leadership: demonstration of an assessment tool

  • RMIT University

Information associated with the assessment of graduate attributes, in the workplace, is limited. Yet if the many environmental and social problems that confront communities are to be managed, we need ...


Using sustainability audits to enhance responsible management education and develop personally and professionally responsible work-ready graduates

  • University of Worcester

It is widely held that responsible management education within UK business schools is lagging behind the needs of graduates in the changing world of work, leaving a UK-wide skills shortage ...


Learning to be an interdisciplinary researcher: incorporating training about dispositional and epistemological differences into graduate student environmental science teams

  • University of Nebraska - Lincoln (NE)
  • University of Texas at El Paso (TX)
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • Vincent Evaluation Consulting (OK)

The interdisciplinary research (IR) that is necessary for the creation of innovative solutions for the many complex environmental challenges facing society requires collaboration and the sharing and integration of knowledge ...


Incorporating the sustainable development goals in engineering education

  • Tecnológico de Monterrey (Nuevo Leon)

This paper aims to open the discussion on the incorporation of sustainable development goals (SDG) in the curricular plans of engineering programs. The United Nation has recognized the development SDG ...


Knowledge management, the missing piece in the 2030 agenda and SDGs puzzle

  • University of São Paulo

Purpose This paper aims to analyze some knowledge management (KM) frameworks that sustainable development goals (SDGs) can apply to such a challenging implementation.

Design/methodology/approach To accomplish this, a ...


Using Vertically Integrated Projects to embed research-based education for sustainable development in undergraduate curricula

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
  • University of Strathclyde

Purpose This paper aims to share the University of Strathclyde’s experience of embedding research-based education for sustainable development (RBESD) within its undergraduate curricula through the use of an innovative ...


Improvement of a Sustainable World through the Application of Innovative Didactic Tools in Green Chemistry Teaching: A Review

  • Wrocław University of Science and Technology
  • War Studies University/Akademia Sztuki Wojennej (Warszawa)

This article aims to analyze the potential of new technologies in the area of green chemistry didactics. When viewed through the lens of systems thinking, the use of these ubiquitous ...


Using a Solutions Lens to Engage Students on the UN Global Goals

  • AASHE (MA)
  • Babson College (MA)

Today more than ever, students need to learn not only how society is working to solve its most challenging problems, but also how to think critically and creatively about solutions ...

  • Posted May 14, 2020
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Application of the Modified College Impact Model to Understand Chinese Engineering Undergraduates’ Sustainability Consciousness

  • Beihang University
  • University of Science and Technology Beijing
  • Beijing University of Technology

The college impact model provides a valuable framework for explaining various college student learning outcomes. However, few quantitative studies have examined the effectiveness of college impact model in explaining engineering ...


Transgressing Boundaries between Community Learning and Higher Education: Levers and Barriers

  • Wageningen University
  • Corporación Nuh Jay
  • Aldeafeliz ecoaldea (Cundinamarca)
  • Alianzas para la Abundancia
  • Fundación Mentes en Transición

In times of global systemic dysfunction, there is an increasing need to bridge higher education with community-based learning environments so as to generate locally relevant responses towards sustainability challenges. This ...


Effective Teaching and Activities of Excellent Teachers for the Sustainable Development of Higher Design Education

  • National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (Yunlin)
  • Tainan University of Technology

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is regarded as a key element of high-quality education. Hence, the United Nations proposed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, in an attempt to ...


Mangrove forest ecotourism: Participatory ecological learning and sustainability of students’ behavior through self-efficacy and self-concept

  • Universitas Negeri Surabaya

Self-efficacy and self-concept were deduced to be able to develop sustainable behavior in students. One potential approach is participatory ecological learning in mangrove forest ecotourism. This study aims to determine ...


Investigation of the Relationships between Individual Innovation and Sustainable Education Beliefs

  • Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi

The concept of sustainable education has seven main features: being holistic and interdisciplinary, focusing on values, directing to critical thinking and problem solving, requiring the use of multiple teaching methods ...


Construction and validation of a knowledge, attitudes and practices scale related to sustainability in university students

  • Universidad de Antioquia
  • Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia

Purpose The objective of this study was to build and validate a scale to analyze the knowledge, attitudes and practices on the sustainability of university students.

Design/methodology/approach Psychometric ...


The relationship between moral competences and sustainable consumption among higher education students

  • NEOMA Business School (Rouen)
  • Comillas Universidad Pontificia (Madrid)

Despite claims of the importance of students developing moral competences in the context of Education for Sustainable Consumption, the literature lacks a systematic perspective that empirically assesses the association between ...


Systematic Review of Sustainable-Development-Goal Deployment in Business Schools

  • Universidad de Deusto (Bizkaia)

In 2015, more than 190 countries pledged to meet by 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030 that aim to ensure sustainable global social and economic development, and to strengthen ...


Assessing awareness of green chemistry as a tool for advancing sustainability

  • Universidad San Jorge

The importance of Green Chemistry (GC) in improving sustainability is growing. Nevertheless, GC is quite unknown area outside the chemical field. A good way to promote GC is through education ...


Making Future Teachers More Aware of Issues Related to Sustainability: An Assessment of Best Practices

  • Universidad de Granada

The aim of the present research was to uncover the opinions of future teachers about whether the formative knowledge of education for sustainability received in seminars during their practicums improved ...


A Multi-Perspective Reflection on How Indigenous Knowledge and Related Ideas Can Improve Science Education for Sustainability

  • Universität Bremen
  • Malmö University

Indigenous knowledge provides specific views of the world held by various indigenous peoples. It offers different views on nature and science that generally differ from traditional Western science. Futhermore, it ...


‘Attuning-with’, affect, and assemblages of relations in a transdisciplinary environmental education

  • Deakin University

In these Anthropocene times humans are vulnerable through the effects of socio-ecological crises and are responsible for attending to past, present and future socio-ecological injustices and challenges. The purpose of ...


The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions

  • San Jose State University (CA)

Strategies to mitigate climate change often center on clean technologies, such as electric vehicles and solar panels, while the mitigation potential of a quality educational experience is rarely discussed. In ...


Addressing food insecurity in Australia through education for sustainability

  • Deakin University

Within Australia food insecurity affects an estimated 4 million people annually. Health promotion degrees traditionally prepare pre-service graduates to address food insecurity from a social determinants perspective, little consideration of ...


Education for the future? Critical evaluation of education for sustainable development goals

  • University of Amsterdam

Building on the Millennium Development Goals, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) were established. Despite the willingness of many educational institutions worldwide to embrace ...


A transformative university learning experience contributes to sustainability attitudes, skills and agency

  • University of Nairobi
  • University of Vienna/Universität Wien
  • National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)
  • Bahir Dar University
  • (FINASP) Facilitation for Innovations and Sustainable Productivity
  • University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
  • HORIZONT3000
  • Makerere University
  • University of York

Given that graduates of higher education institutions will be the future decision makers addressing sustainability challenges, this study assesses the effects of a transdisciplinary university learning program on sustainability attitudes ...


Nurturing environmental citizenship by mapping the field of action

  • Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts (Tel Aviv District)
  • Dead Sea and Arava Science Center (ADSSC)

Purpose Students' simplistic observations and uninspired solutions for social-ecological dilemmas were the motivation for this study. The purpose of this paper is to foster systemic thinking in students and study ...


Skills and knowledge management in higher education: how service learning can contribute to social entrepreneurial competence development

  • University of Vechta
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • Montpellier Business School (Montpellier)
  • ESCE International Business School/École Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on how service learning approaches are able to foster social entrepreneurship competences. The aim of the paper is to formulate a ...


The relationship between self-rated naturalness of university green space and students’ restoration and health

  • University of British Columbia (BC)
  • Xiamen Haicang Urban Construction Group
  • Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

A growing body of evidence indicates that university green space can promote students’ restoration and health. Nonetheless, only a few studies have focused on the relationship that exists among perceived ...


Attention Restoration Space on a University Campus: Exploring Restorative Campus Design Based on Environmental Preferences of Students

  • Harbin Institute of Technology (Heilongjiang)

Students studying for a long time frequently suffer from attentional fatigue; however, campuses lack specific spaces in which to restore attention. This study aimed to explore the significant perceptual factors ...


Project-Based Learning in a Transinstitutional Research Setting: Case Study on the Development of Sustainable Food Products

  • University of Graz
  • FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences (Steiermark)

Project-based learning (PBL) has been thoroughly integrated in university sustainable development curricula, but has not been well-established in curricula used at pre-university educational levels. Integrating real-world settings into the teaching ...


Green entrepreneurship inclination among the younger generation: An avenue towards a green economy

  • Shah Abdul Latif University (Khairpur Mirs)
  • Al Yamamah University
  • University of Sindh (Sindh)

The current study sought to predict the inclination toward green entrepreneurship among the younger generation. The study employed a deductive approach by collecting cross‐sectional data. Bachelor and Master's ...


Students’ green information technology behavior: Beliefs and personality traits

  • Universiti Putra Malaysia
  • Higher Education Institute of Al-Mahdi Mehr Isfahan
  • Ton Duc Thang University (Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh)
  • Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University
  • Ragheb Isfahani Institute of Higher Education

Adoption of green information technology (Green IT) as an initiative of pro-environmental behavior is quite sparse among Malaysian students. Due to the need to integrate personality traits in environmental behavioral ...


Higher education institutions as a driver of sustainable social development: Polish experience for Ukraine

  • Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University (Poltavska Oblast)

The basis for sustainable and environmentally friendly development is gradually becoming aware of the importance of working more ethically and transparently and in a more humanistic way, as well as ...


Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

  • Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
  • Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi (Iași)
  • University Politehnica of Bucharest
  • Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca (Cluj)

Without a doubt, we are living in interesting times, characterized by both continuous economic development and improved standard of living, but also uncertainty, increased pollution, and environmental degradation, which means ...


Sustainability of Indian management education institutions: Perspectives from leaders in academia

  • Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur (Rajasthan)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore perspectives of academicians in leadership positions in Indian business schools on the sustainability of management education institutions in India.

Design/methodology ...

This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

AC 1: Academic Courses

AC 2: Learning Outcomes

AC 3: Undergraduate Program

AC 4: Graduate Program

AC 5: Immersive Experience

AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses

AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

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