Special Issue "The Role of Higher Education Institutes in the Transition to Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Richard Moles
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
Interests: sustainability science; urban sustainability; community scale sustainability actions; organisational sustainability
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) play a crucial role in enabling a societal transition to greater sustainability both in developed and developing worlds. Essential to this is teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in a wide range of disciplines including, as examples, environmental science, psychology, sociology, bioscience, chemistry, engineering, agronomy, and ecology. Important learning can occur outside of classrooms, where students can see the implementation of actions by the HEI to enhance the sustainability of campus functioning. Outcomes include graduates with technical and professional understanding of sustainability, and hopefully, more with an understanding of sustainability-related challenges. Research in HEIs is crucial, again carried out in a wide range of disciplines, and in recent years, the available literature has become ever more extensive. HEIs frequently carry out this research in partnership with other organisations both on- and off-campus, including, as examples, industry, business, commerce, national and local state bodies and agencies, non-governmental organisations, and communities of many types and aims. While the environmental footprints of HEIs may not represent a major part of national-level footprints, the beneficial influence of HEIs is greatly increased through both the education of students and partnerships with off-campus organisations. Many HEIs own extensive campuses and land off-campus, so control space which can be used for living labs, where experiments in, for example, generating renewable energy, wastewater treatment, and growing organic food can be worked through, and infrastructure for energy generation and efficiency in consumption can be installed.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the many ways in which HEIs have been reported to address sustainability challenges both on- and off-campus, and to explore how a synthesis of actions might be employed to further enhance the role of HEIs in achieving society scale sustainability. We invite manuscripts from established researchers and final year doctoral students, and also, organisations that have relevant experience of partnership with HEIs. Researchers are also encouraged to submit “concept papers” which provide a synthesis of what we know now and how this might allow us to create a more sustainable future.

Prof. Dr. Richard Moles
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Higher Education Institute campus sustainability
  • HEI partnerships with sustainable communities
  • teaching sustainability at HEI level
  • HEI research on sustainability
  • HEI/greening industry partnerships
  • healthcare sustainability
  • HEIs and future sustainability

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Campus Decarbonization: Students’ Perceptions for Reducing Meat Consumption in a Portuguese University
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6048; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116048 - 27 May 2021
Viewed by 696
Abstract
This study is focused on perceptions regarding meat consumption, targeting university students. This is a timely topic in a context of climate change (CC), sustainability in agri-food systems and in universities. Recently, some universities adopted food-related CC mitigation measures, by removing some types [...] Read more.
This study is focused on perceptions regarding meat consumption, targeting university students. This is a timely topic in a context of climate change (CC), sustainability in agri-food systems and in universities. Recently, some universities adopted food-related CC mitigation measures, by removing some types of meat from their canteens. This research intended to find trends, at a Portuguese university, on consumption habits and on willingness to reduce meat. The methodology follows a quantitative and descriptive approach. The universe is the students’ community from the University of Aveiro, with a random sample of 876 valid questionnaires. Although results show that meat is a substantial part of students’ diet, most of them are willing to reduce this product, and mainly for environmental reasons. Undergraduate students have higher level of awareness in this matter, namely from Natural Sciences. Female students are more receptive to diet changes. Further studies and educational actions on Diet-CC should be promoted in all levels of Academy, especially in PhD, Social Sciences and with gender differentiation. Such results may support an effectively participatory discussion to better decide on decarbonization of the Campus through the diet. Full article
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Article
Developing a Practical Framework of Sustainability Indicators Relevant to All Higher Education Institutions to Enable Meaningful International Rankings
Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 629; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020629 - 11 Jan 2021
Viewed by 907
Abstract
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) sustainability assessments are receiving significant attention in the academic literature, with ever more complex grading and ranking systems being developed. This paper aims to provide national policy makers with a simple set of indicators to facilitate measuring progress towards [...] Read more.
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) sustainability assessments are receiving significant attention in the academic literature, with ever more complex grading and ranking systems being developed. This paper aims to provide national policy makers with a simple set of indicators to facilitate measuring progress towards sustainability for the HEI sector, within the context of national sustainability data collection efforts. Candidate indicators were identified and assessed from the two most subscribed to HEI sustainability assessments, namely, the UIGreenMetric and STARS, to develop a sector specific indicator set. This resulted in a final set of 12 indicators, covering on-site energy, greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste, water, travel, education, research, and governance. The proposed indicator set was then compared to publicly available data for Irish HEIs, to identify gaps in data collection, which found that direct campus energy use and associated Scope 1 and 2 emission data alone were collected with sufficient rigour. The described indicator set has the potential to be applied to guiding national sustainability transitions globally and offers a template for accelerating sustainability data collection efforts for the HEI sector. Full article
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