EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: AWARENESS AND WASTE MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS OF ALAVA

Author(s):  
Ainara Saralegi ◽  
Naiara Rojo ◽  
Jon Alvarez ◽  
Sonia Peña ◽  
Zuriñe Gomez-de-Balugera ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-575
Author(s):  
Saad Dahlawi ◽  
Mahmoud F. El Sharkawy

Purpose Municipal solid waste (MSW) consists mainly of several recyclable materials such as paper and cardboard. Inside the educational institutes, especially universities, MSW is generated from several facilities including offices and cafeterias. Without an effective management program, solid waste can have detrimental impacts on the environment. This paper aims to assess the solid waste management practices followed at the main campus of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), Dammam – Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach The MSW samples were collected from different sources inside the IAU campus such as the college buildings (such as the teaching rooms and staff offices), the administrative buildings and services buildings (e.g. the main library, the photocopying center, the restaurant and cafeteria) at least one time per week during a full academic term (January–May) of the academic year 2017–2018. The collected MSW samples were segregated into seven categories, and the net amount of each category and the overall weight of the MSW were determined once every week. The MSW samples were characterized for physical and chemical properties including moisture, carbon and ash contents. Food product waste (FPW) of the main university restaurant was studied separately. Findings Data on the composition of MSW samples revealed that 80% of wastes were recyclable, 19% as compostable materials, while only 1% of the materials were a non-recyclable waste. More than 73% of the recyclable materials include paper and plastic warranting dire need of an effective solid waste management program. The highest value of FPW was recorded for the breakfast meal. Originality/value Most of the waste generated from the university campus was recyclable type that needs to be handled carefully to avoid its mixing with other types of the waste stream. Waste characterization is an important tool that helps in understanding the amount and pattern of waste generation. It can be used as a decision-making tool for implementing sustainable waste management programs for universities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Brudermann ◽  
Ralf Aschemann ◽  
Manfred Füllsack ◽  
Alfred Posch

Higher education for sustainable development plays a crucial role in the transformation of society towards a more sustainable pathway of development. The new trends in society and technology experienced in the course of the fourth industrial revolution come with challenges, but also provide opportunities. In this paper, we reflect on the conceptual basis of education for sustainable development as approached at the University of Graz, Austria, and contrast this basis with the expectations stated by students. The results showed that students acknowledged the high importance of digital competencies and found it highly important to be confronted with future-oriented topics and contents. Interestingly, students seemed skeptical about online course formats and digitalization of teaching and clearly preferred the interactive classroom experience. Students also rated international topics and transdisciplinary thinking as fairly important. Interestingly, a relatively high share of students only saw mediocre added value in experiencing international classrooms, and in having international teachers, when it comes to meeting their top priority, which is being competitive in the job market. Education for sustainable development in the future will not only need to prepare students for international, interdisciplinary, and digital environments, but also will need to meet the expectations of demanding and ambitious students and provide them with bright career prospects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Anthoula Maidou ◽  
Katerina Plakitsi ◽  
Hariton M. Polatoglou

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an important issue for the education of students worldwide becauseit offers knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to ensure a sustainable future for humanity at local andglobal levels, which is nowadays becoming critical. The decade 2005-2014 called ‘Decade of ESD’ was an initiativeby the United Nations to promote ESD worldwide, followed currently by the Agenda 2030. ESD should be anongoing subject for students in formal and informal education, at all educational levels, and in life-long learningprograms, starting with early childhood education. This paper reports on the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes ofpre-service early childhood teachers of the University of Ioannina, Greece, on ESD using a quantitative approachutilizing a questionnaire. Our findings showed that most pre-service teachers had knowledge on environmentalaspects but did not consider societal and financial matters to be aspects of ESD. Furthermore, most students hadnever ESD lessons during their formal education. Our findings depict that pre-service students believe that ESD is animportant issue, that it should be included in the curricula and that lessons on EDS during their studies woulddevelop their ability to teach ESD to their students.


Author(s):  
Kageeporn Wongpreedee ◽  
Karnitta Sinsahuang ◽  
Janjira Intanakom ◽  
Wanlaya Tanechpongtamb ◽  
Pansiri Phansuwan-Pujito

It has been long known that quality assurance (QA) is a system to develop quality standards in Thailand.  However, it is not easy to implement the concept throughout a whole organization, for example, to include in a university, faculty members, program specifications, management team, and so on.   This paper is to explain a case of strategic management of quality assurance using education for sustainable development (ESD) in the university with social enterprise concept.  An example of the university with the mission statement of “to serve society” can drawn more attention using ESD concept to faculty in stead of QA regulation concept.  The conceptual framework of the implementation was shown how QA can be developed in curriculum embedding with an ESD concept.  


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Nolasco ◽  
Pedro Henrique Vieira Duraes ◽  
Júlia Pereira Gonçalves ◽  
Maria Cristina de Oliveira ◽  
Lucijane Monteiro de Abreu ◽  
...  

Purpose Universities are an example of institutions that aggregate people around work/study who consume water, energy and produce waste daily in their activities, generating an impact on the environment. The purpose of this study is to determine the quantity, composition and recycling potential of waste generated at the Faculdade UnB Planaltina (FUP) campus, of the University of Brasilia in the Federal District, Brazil, to develop a waste management strategy compatible with national legislation and sustainable global practices. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on conducting on-site visits to identify the sources of generation, hazardousness, management and gravimetric characteristics of residual waste from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, a selective collection was implemented on the FUP campus, and since then, actions to raise awareness for the selective disposal and monitoring of waste were conducted with the academic community. Findings The results showed that the campus generates 148 kg of waste/day, whereas the per capita generation is 92 g/day. The production of hazardous waste is related to campus laboratories which manage it under a specific program. The campus restaurant is the place that generates the most waste, of which organic waste is the most representative. When categorizing the waste generated on campus, the authors found that the majority are recyclables at 67% of the total. This category includes material composed of cardboard, paper and plastic, all able to be recycled in the Federal District. Practical implications The recyclable waste generated at the FUP campus is being diverted from the city’s landfill because they are donated to a recycling cooperative. These actions promote income generation, social inclusion of waste pickers and a circular economy, all in compliance with the National Solid Waste Policy. As a result, the FUP campus is more in line with Brazilian legislation and the global context of adopting sustainable waste management amongst higher education institutions. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on sustainability in higher education by reporting the process of implementation of a waste management strategy in a university campus. Further, it presents tools and methods that can be used to achieve sustainability in waste management. The study also identifies that the crucial factor for the success of such actions is the mobilization and participation of the academic community in the process. It does so by presenting findings demonstrating how the University of Brasilia has been concerned with adopting pro-environmental measures for sustainable development.


2017 ◽  
pp. 805-827
Author(s):  
Vassilios Makrakis

The UNESCO Chair ICT in Education for Sustainable Development in cooperation with the RCE Crete (Regional Centre of Expertise) on Education for Sustainable Development responding to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD 2005-2014) took the initiative to establish a North-South Network for embedding sustainability in higher education institutions. A Consortium with 12 universities (six from Europe and six from Middle East) led by the UNESCO Chair and the RCE Crete at the University of Crete prepared a proposal submitted to the Tempus- European Commission programme for funding. The RUCAS (Reorient University Curricula to address Sustainability) project, studied in this chapter, has initiated various activities in the partner countries' institutions, which seem to exert significant curricular changes. The changes include the revision of courses, building the appropriate infrastructure, the development of an online community of practice and the RUCAS Toolkit that are being used as drivers for reorienting university curricula to address sustainability. As a result, a growing number of academics in the partner institutions are concerned with the current sustainability crisis and claim for a transformative shift in what they teach and how teaching is practiced.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 71-87
Author(s):  
Danial Sim Wei Jie ◽  
Haslina Arshad ◽  
Siok Yee Tan ◽  
Nur Fazidah Elias

It has been a challenge for Malaysia to handle solid waste management for more than a decade. The increase in population size has led to an increase in the waste amount contributed by Malaysians. Due to that, proper solid waste management is essential in protecting the environment. There are many ways to execute solid waste management but developing countries may find it challenging to find the best way to dispose of waste efficiently. The same phenomenon seems to happen on university campuses as well. This article aims to propose a smart waste management system for university campuses. Most of the related work concentrates on detecting bin levels, despite making it a full-fledged system that comprises several modules regardless of web or mobile platform. A prototype of a smart bin is proposed, and this paper discusses its architecture and functionality. A web-based user application is also proposed in this article. With these components, the system enables the user to obtain information on the bins around them and can help the management to manage solid waste more efficiently. With the help of the Internet of Things and Cloud services, the system can achieve a greener and more sustainable campus environment. The proposed system will also be enhanced further to increase the awareness among the university students to move forward to a greener campus.


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