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Integration of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Study with International Perspectives

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Abstract

This study examined the impact of a procedure implemented and used at one Swedish university to promote integration of the concept of sustainability into courses. The study is based on a literature study and a case study at the University of Gävle in Sweden, where faculty members are asked to classify their courses and research funding applications regarding the contributions thereof to sustainable development. The results of the study indicated that this procedure can indeed stimulate faculty members to integrate sustainable development in their courses. It is clear that the reported changes in courses were also influenced by other factors such as the increased general awareness of environmental issues.

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Notes

  1. The ecological footprint is defined as the land that would be required to support a certain activity, for instance a specified group’s lifestyle, forever. Included in ecological footprint calculations are both the extraction of raw materials and the absorption of pollution in a long term sustainable way.

  2. An environmental management system (EMS) is part of an organization’s overall management system and is used to develop and implement its environmental policy. EMS can be certified according to the international standard ISO 14001. Today more than 100, 000 organizations, mainly industries, but also a growing number of other types of organizations, have achieved such a certification. The president of the university has the overall responsibility for the EMS and its results, but delegates the responsibilities within the regular university organization so that the objectives can be met. In Sweden the implementation of EMS as a way to work towards sustainable development was initiated by government directives to all public agencies, including the 35 public universities, during the period of 1998–2001.

  3. Every college at the University has appointed a staff member to act as environmental coordinator. These persons together with the vice-president (acting as chairperson) and student representatives form the Environmental Council of the university. The coordinator is responsible for collecting information about the environmental and sustainability performance of the institution, reporting to the Environmental Council, and giving advice to faculty and staff in the college.

  4. More detailed information about the environmental program, for instance the policy, the environmental management system, and the course and research classification forms can be found at: www.hig.se/miljo/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank the faculty at the University of Gävle, who in various ways have contributed to this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology and Built Environment, University of Gävle, S-801 76, Gävle, Sweden

    Kaisu Sammalisto

  2. International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Thomas Lindhqvist

Authors
  1. Kaisu Sammalisto
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  2. Thomas Lindhqvist
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Correspondence to Kaisu Sammalisto.

Additional information

Kaisu Sammalisto

holds the Licentiate of Technology from Lund University and the M.B.A from Uppsala University, the M.Sc. Eng. from Åbo Akademi University; and she is a doctoral student at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University. She was working as Dean for Environmental Management and Education at the University of Gävle in Sweden during the implementation of a certified Environmental Management System (EMS) in 2001–2005. She has previously studied environmental management system implementation in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and continues her studies of the same in university settings.

Thomas Lindhqvist

is Associate Professor in Cleaner Product Systems at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Lund University. He has a B.A. in languages, a B.A. in Business Administration, a M.Sc. in Engineering Physics, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Environmental Economics, all from Lund University.

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Sammalisto, K., Lindhqvist, T. Integration of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Study with International Perspectives. Innov High Educ 32, 221–233 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-007-9052-x

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