Energy Sustainability at Universities and Its Contribution …
31
in a more sustainable way: institutional transformation is necessary, with more active
participation by the members of the academic community, increasingly valuing the
contribution of education and the curriculum for sustainable development (Lipschutz
et al. 2017).
As stated by Lozano et al. (2015), many universities have engaged in and continue
to engage in sustainability efforts; however, the implementation of sustainable development has been compartmentalised instead of holistically integrated throughout the
institutions, demanding new choices and innovative ways of thinking (Waheed et al.
2011).
According to Leal Filho (2011), universities can contribute to sustainable development with concrete actions in one or more of the following areas: curriculum
greening, campus operations, research, extension and concrete projects. However, as
all educational strategies, sustainable development in universities can only succeed
by aligning information and mobilisation of people to relevant structural measures
(including campus greening, robust sustainability research programmes or a set of
practical demonstration projects), and the SDGs are supposed to help in this sense
as well.
The guide “Getting started with the SDGs in Universities” (SDSN Australia/Pacific 2017) presents how the SDGs and universities can help each other,
as showed in Table 2. These opportunities for university engagement in the SDGs
can be observed in many recent publications (O’Keeffe 2016; Clifford and Zaman
2016; Albareda-Tiana et al. 2018; Nottingham Business School 2017), through learning and teaching practices, studies on the potential for universities to address cities’
challenges, rethinking traditional education approaches, inclusion of SDGs in university reports and in the formal curriculum for all courses, amongst others.
Although sustainability in universities has been investigated through many
approaches, with attention to sustainable energy applications, there is a lack of comprehensiveness in identifying and categorising the university role in energy sustainability and efficiency and how it can contribute to the SDGs. In this context, the aim
of this paper is to perform a systematic review on this topic and to relate the univerTable 2 University engagement in the SDGs
SDGs help universities by
Universities help SDGs by
Creating increased demand for SDG related
education
Providing knowledge, innovations and
solutions to the SDGs
Providing a comprehensive and globally
accepted definition of responsible university
Creating current and future SDG
implementers
Offering a framework for demonstrating
impact and creating new funding streams
Demonstrating how to support, adopt and
implement SDGs in governance, operations
and culture
Supporting collaboration with new external and
internal partners
Developing cross-sectoral leadership to guide
the SDG response
Source SDSN Australia/Pacific (2017)
31
in a more sustainable way: institutional transformation is necessary, with more active
participation by the members of the academic community, increasingly valuing the
contribution of education and the curriculum for sustainable development (Lipschutz
et al. 2017).
As stated by Lozano et al. (2015), many universities have engaged in and continue
to engage in sustainability efforts; however, the implementation of sustainable development has been compartmentalised instead of holistically integrated throughout the
institutions, demanding new choices and innovative ways of thinking (Waheed et al.
2011).
According to Leal Filho (2011), universities can contribute to sustainable development with concrete actions in one or more of the following areas: curriculum
greening, campus operations, research, extension and concrete projects. However, as
all educational strategies, sustainable development in universities can only succeed
by aligning information and mobilisation of people to relevant structural measures
(including campus greening, robust sustainability research programmes or a set of
practical demonstration projects), and the SDGs are supposed to help in this sense
as well.
The guide “Getting started with the SDGs in Universities” (SDSN Australia/Pacific 2017) presents how the SDGs and universities can help each other,
as showed in Table 2. These opportunities for university engagement in the SDGs
can be observed in many recent publications (O’Keeffe 2016; Clifford and Zaman
2016; Albareda-Tiana et al. 2018; Nottingham Business School 2017), through learning and teaching practices, studies on the potential for universities to address cities’
challenges, rethinking traditional education approaches, inclusion of SDGs in university reports and in the formal curriculum for all courses, amongst others.
Although sustainability in universities has been investigated through many
approaches, with attention to sustainable energy applications, there is a lack of comprehensiveness in identifying and categorising the university role in energy sustainability and efficiency and how it can contribute to the SDGs. In this context, the aim
of this paper is to perform a systematic review on this topic and to relate the univerTable 2 University engagement in the SDGs
SDGs help universities by
Universities help SDGs by
Creating increased demand for SDG related
education
Providing knowledge, innovations and
solutions to the SDGs
Providing a comprehensive and globally
accepted definition of responsible university
Creating current and future SDG
implementers
Offering a framework for demonstrating
impact and creating new funding streams
Demonstrating how to support, adopt and
implement SDGs in governance, operations
and culture
Supporting collaboration with new external and
internal partners
Developing cross-sectoral leadership to guide
the SDG response
Source SDSN Australia/Pacific (2017)