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During the last decades several international initiatives have emphasised that education is an imperative for societies to become more sustainable. This special volume stream is comprised of 33 papers that illustrate some of the efforts being taken by higher education institutions to contribute to sustainability. The majority of the papers were presented at the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production – Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities conference in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. The papers address topics such as implementation of sustainable development, stakeholder engagement and participation, campus operations, sustainability reporting and assessment, organisational change management, and curriculum development. the papers in this special volume stream provide significant steps for the higher education for sustainable development discipline by exploring new and rethink theories, approaches, concepts, methods, and frameworks, as well as providing case studies and guidelines for practitioners. As the collection of papers shows, there have been many efforts in the implementation of sustainable development in higher education institutions; however, there are still many challenges to integrate sustainable development into their systems, and many opportunities for research in the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is transformative education aiming at developing participants’ understanding of sustainability issues and transforming their attitudes and behaviours regarding environment, society and economy. Sustainability consciousness, an expected outcome of ESD, is a complex of cognitive and affective learning. Development of sustainability consciousness requires transformative learning experiences. The study presented in this paper employed action research to enhance sustainability consciousness of the preservice teachers through inquiry based learning. The study was done in the Institute of Education, Lahore College for Women University, Pakistan. The study integrated sustainability education in an existing course entitled ‘Research Methods in Education’. The course is included in the final year of B.Ed. (Honours) programme. Outcome of the ESD-integration was measured in terms of change in the sustainability consciousness of the preservice teachers. The Action Research project engaged 27 preservice teachers in inquiry-based learning (empirical investigations and research based discussions) for a period of 11 weeks. The participants investigated sustainability issues collaboratively. To investigate the change in participants’ sustainability consciousness through inquiry based learning, researchers collected through pre- and post-tests, interviews and observation. Quantitative data were analyzed through paired t -test while qualitative data through thematic coding. The data indicate that empirical investigations into sustainability issues by the presevice teachers and research-based discussions enhanced preservice teachers’ sustainability consciousness. This highlights the transformative potential of inquiry based learning. Moreover, it indicates that sustainability education can be successfully integrated in the course of ‘research methods in education’. The findings suggest that teacher education programmes and other university programmes may employ inquiry based learning as a vehicle to enhance sustainability consciousness of the undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, sustainability reporting (SR) has gained importance in both profit and non-profit environments. In spite of the slowly emerging trend of SR in higher education, it is still unclear for certain actors within this field what SR entails. This paper offers a comprehensive review of the existing literature on SR in higher education, aimed at providing guidance on the topic, uncovering gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and finding new paths for research. The findings show that the topic of SR has been approached in a rather fragmented way in the literature, while the scientific field would benefit from more in-depth studies, preferably supplemented by empirical evidence. Important issues for future research are: the potential of SR for organisational change, the influence of stakeholder engagement processes on SR, the link between SR and general sustainability management, and the link between existing reporting indicators, tools, and management standards. Structuring and defining these topics can stimulate scholars to further study them in depth, leading to a better understanding of the dynamics of the reporting process, and in a broader sense of the process of sustainability integration in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In research and literature about integration of sustainable development in higher education, particular attention is given towards barriers for change and critical success factors, mainly with a focus on organisational aspects. Implementation models and integration guidelines are defined in order to guide sustainable development integration in higher education at the level of a single higher education institution. These initiatives look at factors that influence the integration process, however seldom from the perspective of change management and the impact of human factors on organisational change. This paper studies higher education from the perspective of organisational change management and, more specifically, focuses on analysing the human factors in this process: resistance, communication, empowerment and involvement, and organisational culture. A conceptual model, which links human factors to the sustainable development integration process, is presented. The model structures and supports the analysis of this integration process in a higher education institution. It is applied in a specific case study of a Belgian university college. The results indicate that the conceptual model helps to get a profound understanding of human related barriers for integrating sustainable development in higher education, as well as to understand the underlying reasons for these barriers and linkages between them in different stages of the integration process. Another main lesson learned is the importance of continuously supporting ambassadors of sustainable development integration in higher education. These and other insights from the case study are valuable for supporting future integration processes in higher education. Next to that, the model supports scholars to study the integration process of sustainable development and gather profound insights on what and why changes happen. This can trigger individual and collective reflexivity on sustainable development in higher education. Future research includes further improvements and application of the model in other cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key factors affecting the sustainability of our society are research, conversion, delivery and the efficient use of energy resources. The expertise, attitudes and sustainability awareness of decision-makers determine far-reaching political decisions made regarding whole energy systems as well as the choices available for individual consumers. Despite the significance of education with respect to renewable energy and sustainability, the position of these topics remains unclear in degree programmes. Measuring the relevance of these subjects can be considered a central issue in terms of promoting a more sustainability-oriented perspective on education strategy formation. Therefore, this paper presents a new curriculum development method for stimulating discussions about the learning outcomes of the degree programmes. This method has been used to calculate a proposed relevance ratio (RR) index, which indicated the relative weight of renewable energy and sustainability topics for energy studies in Aalto University's energy degree programme. The benefits of this RR index include the ability to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of selected contents in the curricula. However, more research is needed to integrate wider working life skills with the students' learning path as a means of promoting student expertise. This new tool will be universally applicable and quantify the desired contents of learning outcomes in degree programmes at universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presented in this paper emerged from the need to identify the factors influencing academic staff members when engaging in Education for Sustainable Development in real practice. The aims of this study were to explore: (i) the factors influencing academic staff engagement in Education for Sustainable Development; and (ii) the views and vision of academic staff in relation to Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Southampton. This research was conceived as an exploratory action research study and consisted of two differentiated research stages. In Stage I fourteen academic staff members from different disciplines were interviewed as a reconnaissance phase of a typical action research cycle. In Stage II a facilitator role for curriculum development was adopted by one of the authors as part of her doctoral studies. An interdisciplinary group of five academic staff members from different subject areas was created with the aim to support the group's critical reflection and action. This research was undertaken between October 2011 and May 2013. This study suggests that although academics might have a personal interest and motivation to engage in Education for Sustainable Development, factors such as the lack of time and financial resources, lack of deep understanding of sustainability, current curriculum structures and ways of delivery, academic pressures, external factors, lack of organisational support and existing organisational conditions block their engagement in Education for Sustainable Development. Organisational support and leadership, quality assurance processes, professional development and creating reward structures are necessary strategies towards academic staff engagement in this agenda. This study provides evidence on different views and visions of academics in relation to Education for Sustainable Development and a number of contradictions between its principles and the role of Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy makers in recent decades. A number of previous studies have called for a more comprehensive integration of sustainable development into mainstream university operations and curricula. However, there is a lack of sufficient studies that investigate sustainable development in higher education in Spain. Therefore, the present paper has two goals: First, the study analyses the extent to which Spanish universities have implemented sustainability practices in their institutions. To accomplish this task, data were collected using a survey distributed to rectors and senior management at Spanish higher education institutions. The second goal is to examine the main factors that might explain the implementation of sustainability practices in Spanish universities. For this purpose, Pearson chi-square tests were used to analyse the data collected in the survey. Key findings show the slow rate of progress of many Spanish universities with regard to implementing sustainability practices, a fact which could indicate that there are clearly a number of obstacles to overcome. Additionally, there were no factors influencing the implementation of sustainability practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has received increasing attention in management education over the past ten years. This article reviews a decade's worth of research in a systematic analysis of 63 articles published in international higher education and management education journals between 2003 and 2013. The purpose of this article is to map and review the publications based on the analysis according to the following four categories: (1) Types of papers, (2) Challenges, (3) Teaching techniques, and (4) Curriculum orientation. The scientific value of this article focuses on three main contributions to management education. First, while most articles are descriptive, focusing on specific, unique experiences in a given institution or with a particular teaching method or tool, few situate themselves within the broader philosophy and design of management education. The second contribution is an evaluation of the status of sustainability in management education as a field of study. This systematic review highlights the lack of consistency in the concepts used: no stable categories emerge from these articles and very few studies integrate the three levels of educational philosophy – teaching, program design, and learning. Third, this review highlights future directions for sustainability in management education institution-wide. While all articles highlight the need for curriculum change, very few specify how this change could and would be achieved by course design or explicit educational paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]