Mapping Stakeholder Perceptions of the Importance of Environmental Issues and the Success in Delivery: a university case study.

Environmental responsibility has become a major theme for universities. Most have an Environment Committee that advises their top administrators on practical approaches to enhancing environmental practices and education in the university with a broad mandate to develop a University Environment Policy and Implementation Strategy. An essential input into this process is the response from stakeholders to the performance of the policy and the strategy in terms of actions that are seen as both important to stakeholders and successful in achieving the desired outcomes. While not denying that stakeholders' perceptions may not reflect the actual environmental benefits of a policy, these perceptions are often influential in establishing the effectiveness and acceptability of a suite of environmental strategies. This paper focuses on establishing a framework within which a university can identify how important an issue is to stakeholders and track how successful it has been in addressing the issues of importance. A specific focus is placed on the mapping of these perceptions with each stakeholder segment to reveal the relative degrees of support. As part of the development of the University of Sydney's Environment Policy, the Institute of Transport Studies was commissioned to undertake a survey to identify the views of the university's key stakeholders on a number of environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]