scholarly journals Investigating the Critical Issues for Enhancing Sustainability in Higher Education Institutes in Thailand

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-514
Author(s):  
Allan Sriratana Tabucanon ◽  
Alisa Sahavacharin ◽  
San Rathviboon ◽  
Husna Lhaetee ◽  
Dhitiya Pakdeesom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Sustainability Reports ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), by and large, have increasingly committed to integrate sustainable development (SD) into their policies, practices, and programs. Recently, there have been several sustainability assessment tools specifically developed for HEIs. Many HEIs, especially small-to-middle sized HEIs in Thailand, are planning to enhance SD but are reluctant due to resource requirements. This study was conducted to investigate important sustainability implementation issues, including the effect of HEI sizes and UI GreenMetric participation. A weighting approach on sustainability dimensions and issues was utilized, and HEI’s sustainability reports and official websites were reviewed to evaluate their sustainability performance of large-, middle-, and small-sized HEIs as well as UI GreenMetric participants and non-participants in Thailand. The findings reveal that the issues of the sustainability-integrated vision and strategy, safety and well-being, waste, and the SD-enhancing educational system were fundamentally critical for HEI sustainability. Moreover, most of the large-sized HEIs in Thailand that participated in UI GreenMetric were evaluated to have higher sustainability performance than others, apparently in administration, environment, and education/research dimensions. This study supports the necessity for a sustainability assessment tool for HEIs.

Higher education institution sustainability assessment tools

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heloisa Cronemberger de Araújo Góes ◽  
Alessandra Magrini
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
International Programs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gather elements to propose a sustainability assessment tool (SAT) to be used in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Brazil and the related program to be created for SAT dissemination and HEI monitoring, publication of results and benchmarking. Design/methodology/approach The characteristics of eight SATs were identified, seven of which are applied through widely known international programs to identify aspects to be considered in the definition of the Brazilian model. Findings In Brazil, stakeholders usually do not know how HEIs develop their potential to contribute with the construction of a sustainable development model. There currently is an international trend, which Brazil must join, to assess HEI sustainability through SATs. The comparison between different international SATs and respective programs yields some recommendations for a Brazilian model, such as definition of their purpose, types of questions to be used, the possibility to apply SATs to HEI sub-units, means of dissemination and others. Research limitations/implications The research limitation is the difficulty to obtain information allowing a deeper understanding of sustainability-related activities developed by Brazilian HEIs. Practical implications This paper provides a base on which to construct SAT and program models tailored for Brazil. Originality/value This is the first paper that stresses the importance of adopting a SAT tailored for Brazil, by comparing and discussing models that may be used for that purpose.

scholarly journals The Evolution of the Sustainability Assessment ToolSBToolPT: From Buildings to the Built Environment

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Castanheira ◽  
Luís Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

This paper analyses the current trends in sustainability assessment. After about 15 years from the launch of sustainability assessment tools, focused on buildings evaluation, the paradigm of sustainability assessment tools is changing from the building scale to the built environment scale. Currently European cities and cities around the world are concerned with sustainable development, as well as its evolution. Cities seek a way to adapt to contemporary changes, in order to meet the required needs and ensure population’s well-being. Considering this, the new generations of sustainability assessment tools are being developed to be used to guide and help cities and urban areas to become more sustainable. Following the trend of the most important sustainability assessment tools, the sustainability assessment toolSBToolPTis also developing its version for assessing the sustainability of the built environment, namely, the urban planning projects and the urban regeneration projects, to be developed in Portugal, theSBToolPT-UP. The application of the methodology to three case studies will demonstrate its feasibility; at the same time this will identify the best practices which will serve as reference for new projects, thereby assisting the development of the tool.

scholarly journals Coverage Analysis of Indonesia Sustainability Assessment Tools: Similarity in Dimension and Assessment Results

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.34) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Rahmat Nurcahyo ◽  
Komang Tattya Lokhita A.K ◽  
Djoko Sihono Gabriel
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Coverage Analysis ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools ◽  
Sustainability Assessments ◽  
Assessment Results

The number of sustainability assessment tools in Indonesia is growing rapidly, concerns are raised on whether the assessment results of different tools present similar and valid conclusion about the sustainability performance in manufacturing industry. In this paper, we analyze dimensions of sustainability assessment tools and compare the structures of sustainability tools in Indonesia. Using a coverage analysis to demonstrate the similarity and differences between two sustainability assessments in Indonesia (PROPER and Industri Hijau) we then compare the results of both and analyze it. This study shows that two sustainability assessment tools in Indonesia which are PROPER and Industri Hijau have high variations in their structures, indicators, criteria, and sub-themes despite their similar dimension and purpose.  Consequently,  these sustainability assessment  tools  show  differences  in  assessment results  and  conclusions  on  the  sustainability  performance  of firms. Future research may propose a new integrated sustainability assessment tool so there will be only one sustainability assessment tool in Indonesia.  

scholarly journals Social criteria to develop an in use holistic urban sustainable assessment tool: UHU2SAT

2021 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 04031
Author(s):  
Antonio Sánchez Cordero ◽  
Marta Videras Rodríguez ◽  
Sergio Gómez Melgar ◽  
José Manuel Andujar Márquez
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Human Comfort ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
Holistic Assessment ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

Recently, several urban sustainability assessment tools (USAT) have appeared to reduce the human impact provided by the built environment. Few of them focus on the assessment of urban spaces like squares, streets, and parks, etc., but they don’t operation and maintenance (OM) phase is not considered. It would be necessary to develop an in use holistic urban sustainable assessment tool (UHU2SAT) to specifically assess urban spaces under OM phase. This paper provides a qualitative research among 188 studies, with the aim to classify them according to the impacts they pursue: environmental (ENV), social (SOC) economic (ECO) and Others. Finally, the SOC criteria are reduced up to 21 and arranged into 4 different groups: Human comfort, Urban mobility, SOC Cohesion, and Health & safety. These SOC criteria have been discussed and revised according to the literature review to identify the most suitable indicators for the UHU2SAT. Finally, it can be concluded that this methodology could also be useful to obtain ENV and ECO criteria to provide a holistic assessment of the sustainability.

scholarly journals Modifiable Campus-Wide Appraisal Model (MOCAM) for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuf A. Adenle ◽  
Edwin H. W. Chan ◽  
Yi Sun ◽  
C.K. Chau
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Institutions of higher education across the globe have commenced the appraisal of their sustainability performance via the utilization of various existing campus sustainability assessment tools. A comprehensive review of these existing tools reveals insufficient utilization of weighting methods and theoretical approaches that allow for the monitoring, review, and enhancement of the appraisal process and tools. Social media and spatial-based indicators usage are also deficient in the existing tools. This paper addresses these research gaps and develops a Modifiable Campus-wide Appraisal Model (MOCAM) for a comprehensive spatial-based information and assessment framework for policymakers, local authorities, and campus planners in countries with unknown campus sustainability status. In this model, the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) approach was utilized to identify environmental-dimension indicators with campus-wide and spatial-based attributes. The Twitter social media platform, Elastic stack, and Python Library were used for the extraction and analysis of local stakeholders’ user-generated content for the identification of localized indicators. The analytic hierarchy process was used for the determination and analysis of the attribute level of importance and weights. The model also broadens the application of symbolic interactionism by translating it from the predominant field of social science to sustainable campus appraisal.

scholarly journals Assessing the Impacts of Higher Education Institutions on Sustainable Development—An Analysis of Tools and Indicators

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Findler ◽  
Norma Schönherr ◽  
Rodrigo Lozano ◽  
Barbara Stacherl
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
System A ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have started to incorporate sustainable development (SD) into their system. A variety of sustainability assessment tools (SATs) have been developed to support HEIs to systematically measure, audit, benchmark, and communicate SD efforts. In recent years, stakeholders have increasingly asked HEIs to demonstrate their impacts on SD. These impacts are the direct and indirect effects an HEI has outside of its organizational boundaries on society, the natural environment, and the economy. This study analyzes to what extent SATs are capable of measuring the impacts that HEIs have on SD. A mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and an inductive content analysis, was used to examine 1134 indicators for sustainability assessment derived from 19 SATs explicitly designed for application by HEIs. The findings reveal that SATs largely neglect the impacts HEIs have outside their organizational boundaries. SATs primarily use proxy indicators based on internally available data to assess impacts and thus tend to focus on themes concerning the natural environment and the contribution to the local economy. Updating existing SATs and developing new ones may enable HEIs to fully realize their potential to contribute to SD.

The comparative analysis of neighborhood sustainability assessment tool

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuan W Lin ◽  
Chih M Shih
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Garden Cities ◽  
Building Assessment ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

From Ebenezer Howard’s concept of garden cities to visions of the sustainable development of ecocities, people have engaged in numerous attempts to curb hazards of residential environments and excessive capitalized development resulting from mass industrialization. However, many countries have adopted widely used green building assessment tools to conduct neighborhood sustainability assessment of ecocities. An ecocommunity assessment tool of Taiwan was established according to current green building policies, the content of which focuses on technological aspects rather than on the closely correlated social and economic aspects within ecocities. To thoroughly review neighborhood sustainability assessment tools, this study conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of internationally renowned assessment tools and tools used in developed Asian countries. This study concluded that (a) a number of countries have proposed neighborhood sustainability assessment tools that strongly emphasize resource and energy categories but neglect economic development; (b) the neighborhood sustainability assessment tools in Asia possess special characteristics; and (c) indicators of neighborhood sustainability assessment tools must enable mutual links and public participation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document