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Green buildings have gained increasing relevance and market share in recent decades. Also, higher education institutions are progressively incorporating the conceptualisation of sustainable development by greening campuses. Thus, given the construction sector relevance in climate change mitigation and the role universities have to play as models for society, the purpose of the present paper is twofold. First, the authors develop a baseline study to determine the extent to which green buildings' features and certifications are being incorporated in public Chilean higher education institutions, as a first of its kind effort in the higher education sector in Chile. Second, the authors explore the opportunities that can support the advancement of campus greening through green buildings deployment on university campuses in Chile. This study follows a qualitative strategy approach in the form of a survey design based on the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking that was administered through an online questionnaire to representatives who hold the position of Sustainability or Infrastructure Heads in public universities, which are united in the Chilean State Universities Consortium. The main findings suggest a general maturation process of green building features´ incorporation on campuses at Chilean public higher education institutions in early or transitional stages. The leading indicators relate to open space, pedestrian paths, and efficient appliances, whereas the reported performance is lower with respect to sustainability budget, zero emission vehicles, and greenhouse gas emission reduction programmes. The opportunities identified for promoting the implementation of green buildings relate to three entrenched dimensions: research, promotion, and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As climate change is posing a major threat to the progress of the sustainable development agenda (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/), transformed effort of ecosystem conservation is needed as part of climate action and sustainable development. The effectiveness of climate change mitigation plays a critical role in upholding the interaction loops because both successful ecosystem conservation and sustainable development depend on climate stability. Ecosystem conservation, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development are closely interrelated, and can formulate interaction loops: improved ecosystem conservation helps enrich ecosystem services, including climate control; enriched and stabilized ecosystem services support sustainable development; and social and economic sustainability endows the improvement of ecosystem conservation (Figure 1). [Extracted from the article]

Abstract Climate Change is one of the most important threats in the world today and it is driven by the human-induced build-up of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. Despite worldwide policy efforts from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement, global emissions of GHG have continued to steadily increase over the past decade. Against this backdrop, many higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world began to engage in sustainable practices implementing green initiatives on their campuses. Using the waste disposal and the associated GHG emissions data from the academic community, this study describes how HEIs can assume a leadership role in climate mitigation through the implementation of a carbon pricing initiative. Specifically, this study estimates the economic costs of carbon emissions from waste and conceptualizes how revenues generated from carbon pricing can be rechanneled to support carbon reduction efforts in HEIs. By this approach, HEIs not only create incentives for campus users such as students and employees to choose cleaner options but also be able to understand their own carbon footprint and adjust strategy accordingly. While carbon pricing has long been regarded as an alternative approach to tackle carbon pollution, it has not been much discussed in the area of waste management. In this regard, this study attempted to fill this research gap by finding emission reduction potentials in waste management using carbon pricing as a mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]