742
M. F. C. Lemos et al.
only on the sustainability of society, but also on its specific and contextual challenges
of the sustainability of the Campus itself. It is the first strong indication of a positive
mutual impact among good governance for sustainability, teaching, research and
academic extension activities.
The incentive for research in the area of sustainability has already been given
by the university’s central management, which, for example, awards scientific initiation projects that deal with issues related to socio-environmental sustainability,
contributing as an opportunity to the success of the implementation of the Agenda
in PUC-Rio.
In addition, the research on campus-based sustainability and its local-specific
issues, associated with the growing supply of academic disciplines with the same subject, are the ingredients for the establishment of a living laboratory in the university,
or rather, the consolidation of the university as a living laboratory of sustainability.
This is another opportunity identified by the process of constructing the new
environmental agenda of PUC-Rio in the last two years of work, and it is one of the
most emphasized points by the group of students, teachers and staff who participated
in the preparation of the socio-environmental agenda.
A living sustainability laboratory, however, is not consolidated in a university
with the complexity and solidity of PUC-Rio without overcoming a set of obstacles,
among which are the rigidity of the curricula of several courses and the delay in
the modification of these curricula—when and if already dealing with any resistance
from the teaching staff.
Throughout the process of preparing the Agenda, the Interdisciplinary Center
for the Environment (NIMA) of PUC-Rio carried out a survey of subjects related
to sustainability offered in the 27 departments of the University. Most courses in
this area are elective, i.e., external to the compulsory curricula, and has remains so
for years, without being incorporated into those curricula, reinforcing the suspicion
of their high rigidity. On the other hand, the fact that 47 sustainability disciplines,
distributed among 20 undergraduate programs at the University, were identified in
a preliminary survey suggests a strong predisposition for adherence to the topic.
A movement that is almost counterculture is certainly a great opportunity. Another
positive factor to increase the environmental awareness of students in the classroom
was the implementation, in 2017, of the discipline on the topic Socio-environmental
Ethics and Human Rights of the Department of Theology, replacing the discipline
Professional Ethics in the obligatory curriculum of subjects of Religious Culture of
undergraduate programs.
Regarding research, the main obstacle seems to be the adaptation of the obligatory
interdisciplinary nature of this topic in the open calls for proposals of local institutions
that are still quite strict, as well as the criteria of national evaluation to which the
researchers are submitted in the country, according to information provided by several
teachers, directly influencing their topic options.
Obviously, the difficulties of fostering interdisciplinary research will be reflected
in the promotion and development of the university extension projects. Although
internally this can be more easily solved by the institution, the extension of this kind
of initiative beyond the structure of the University is essential to ensure the leading
M. F. C. Lemos et al.
only on the sustainability of society, but also on its specific and contextual challenges
of the sustainability of the Campus itself. It is the first strong indication of a positive
mutual impact among good governance for sustainability, teaching, research and
academic extension activities.
The incentive for research in the area of sustainability has already been given
by the university’s central management, which, for example, awards scientific initiation projects that deal with issues related to socio-environmental sustainability,
contributing as an opportunity to the success of the implementation of the Agenda
in PUC-Rio.
In addition, the research on campus-based sustainability and its local-specific
issues, associated with the growing supply of academic disciplines with the same subject, are the ingredients for the establishment of a living laboratory in the university,
or rather, the consolidation of the university as a living laboratory of sustainability.
This is another opportunity identified by the process of constructing the new
environmental agenda of PUC-Rio in the last two years of work, and it is one of the
most emphasized points by the group of students, teachers and staff who participated
in the preparation of the socio-environmental agenda.
A living sustainability laboratory, however, is not consolidated in a university
with the complexity and solidity of PUC-Rio without overcoming a set of obstacles,
among which are the rigidity of the curricula of several courses and the delay in
the modification of these curricula—when and if already dealing with any resistance
from the teaching staff.
Throughout the process of preparing the Agenda, the Interdisciplinary Center
for the Environment (NIMA) of PUC-Rio carried out a survey of subjects related
to sustainability offered in the 27 departments of the University. Most courses in
this area are elective, i.e., external to the compulsory curricula, and has remains so
for years, without being incorporated into those curricula, reinforcing the suspicion
of their high rigidity. On the other hand, the fact that 47 sustainability disciplines,
distributed among 20 undergraduate programs at the University, were identified in
a preliminary survey suggests a strong predisposition for adherence to the topic.
A movement that is almost counterculture is certainly a great opportunity. Another
positive factor to increase the environmental awareness of students in the classroom
was the implementation, in 2017, of the discipline on the topic Socio-environmental
Ethics and Human Rights of the Department of Theology, replacing the discipline
Professional Ethics in the obligatory curriculum of subjects of Religious Culture of
undergraduate programs.
Regarding research, the main obstacle seems to be the adaptation of the obligatory
interdisciplinary nature of this topic in the open calls for proposals of local institutions
that are still quite strict, as well as the criteria of national evaluation to which the
researchers are submitted in the country, according to information provided by several
teachers, directly influencing their topic options.
Obviously, the difficulties of fostering interdisciplinary research will be reflected
in the promotion and development of the university extension projects. Although
internally this can be more easily solved by the institution, the extension of this kind
of initiative beyond the structure of the University is essential to ensure the leading