Sustainability at Universities as a Determinant of Entrepreneurship for Sustainability

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of universities in promoting sustainability and sustainable development goals among Indian students as future entrepreneurs, supporting the mission of sustainability. Using PLS-SEM (n = 422), we checked the influence of three constructs related to the university’s role, i.e., campus sustainability, environmental sustainability, and education on sustainability at the university, on attitudes towards sustainability among students, on one hand, and on the intention to start entrepreneurship for sustainability, on the other hand. We also looked into the impact of attitude towards sustainability-related entrepreneurship on the intention to start entrepreneurship for sustainability, as well as into the mediating role of attitude on the relationship between the three mentioned constructs and sustainability entrepreneurial intentions. Results suggest that campus sustainability and education on sustainability positively influence the attitude towards sustainability of the students. Additionally, campus sustainability and environmental sustainability influence students to start entrepreneurship for sustainability. Further, a positive attitude towards sustainability-related entrepreneurship impacts the sustainability entrepreneurial intentions. Attitude towards sustainability mediates the relationship of campus sustainability and environmental sustainability with the sustainability entrepreneurial intentions. The study will be helpful for the universities, students, researchers, and curriculum developers to understand the role of educational institutes and its policies towards sustainability in shaping the intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship.

Observations and Recommendations Toward Increasing Age-Inclusivity

Some areas of current campus practice better align with AFU principles than others. It may be that age-friendly practices already implemented by campus administrators are either not sufficiently publicized or that the campus constituents are not aware that these accommodations are in place. Specifically, staff members in these institutions appear to have markedly different perceptions of an institutions’ overall age-friendliness than did students and faculty. Lower ratings of age-friendliness by staff suggest that the experiences of ageism could contribute to negative outcomes such as stress and burnout. In line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the evaluation of campus sustainability efforts, aging should be addressed along with other elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There is also a need to support faculty development for designing courses and materials for age-diverse learners. Finally, campuses might organize age-inclusivity task forces and regularly reassess their age-friendly progress.

Campus sustainability in an entrepreneurial framework

PurposeThis study aims to introduce a new framework for environmental entrepreneurship education.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test their environmental entrepreneurship framework using a Trash-to-Treasure experiential learning activity. The authors observed student entrepreneurs coordinate entrepreneurial efforts in a real-life context and collaborate with stakeholders across campus to achieve project goals. Grounded in action learning and action research frameworks, the authors describe how theory can be used to inform pedagogical practices and transform any sustainability event into problem-based innovative learning.FindingsThe authors report on two key outcomes: increased campus sustainability and contributions to entrepreneurial education and sustainability education. The authors conclude that student-run environmental businesses are win–win projects that truly integrate the three pillars of sustainability (people, profit, planet). The authors provide valuable teaching resources so that this project or similar campus greening initiatives could be implemented at any institute of higher education.Originality/valueDespite the recognized critical need for innovative workers that have an ethical and sustainable mindset, there has been relatively little research into the intersection of environmental and entrepreneurial education. This report provides a toolkit for educators to implement similar projects at their institutions.

A REVIEW ON SMART CAMPUS CONCEPT AND APPLICATION TOWARDS ENHANCING CAMPUS USERS’ LEARNING EXPERIENCES

The smart campus is an emerging trend that allows universities to improved services, decision making and campus sustainability. The recent pandemic has directed and amplified the need for a paradigm shift, with predominant virtual teaching, and remote working bursting onto the scene. As an educational institution, understanding campus user’s learning experience is vital in the process of assessing and ensuring quality university studies. Therefore, this study provides a review of smart campus concept, application and potential opportunities that emerge in the smart campus towards enhancing campus users’ learning experiences. To achieve the purpose of the study, a systematic literature review has been conducted extracted from the Scopus database. Initially, 19 articles were gathered. After the screening process using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 articles were screened and finally, 11 articles were included in the review. This study found that smart campus is an integral concept that needs to be developed and applied in universities. Besides that, several potential opportunities emerging from the smart campus application such as the application of augmented reality and virtual reality in facilitating the learning process, the exploration of daily internet traffic that enables traffic forecasting to improve network service and personalised services. Thus, this study helps to explore the potential fields of employing smart campus especially in the learning process among community campus.

Campus sustainability in the Australian higher education sector: divergence and convergence in planning, reporting and tactics

Purpose This study provides a country-specific and sector-wide study of campus sustainability. Campus sustainability is a key consideration for the higher education (HEI) sector, and campus sustainability officers and managers manage its reporting and planning. Global and country-specific studies to date have focussed on individual organisation narratives, interviews with faculty and management and content analysis of reports and plans. Findings show wide divergence on scope and scale of formalised planning and reporting, few references to sustainability officers and managers’ perspectives and limited reference to organisational theory to explain tactics and strategies adopted. As a result, there are a few country-specific and sector-wide studies. The purpose of this paper is to address the scarcity of country-specific and sector-wide studies into campus sustainability practices in HEI by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide the first sector-wide overview of formal campus sustainability commitments for the Australian public sector HEI (n = 41) in terms of several key indicators – plans, reports and other indicators. Second, the authors use reflexive thematic analysis of interviews (n = 21) with current and former sustainability officers and managers to examine sector organisational reasons for such variation. Third, the authors analyse HEI sector isomorphism and divergence on planning and reporting of campus sustainability from the perspective of institutional theory of organisations. Findings This study finds some convergence on the need for plans, reporting and other engagement elements, albeit without any sector-wide standards being followed. The authors observe a trend towards carbon-neutral (CN) declarations before 2030 although with nuances on emissions scope and increasing inclusion of renewable energy. Interviews identify a range of strategies and tactics adopted for campus sustainability relative to internal and external organisational pressures. Overall, the sector still exhibits weak institutionalisation of sustainability. Research limitations/implications This study interviews a specific and limited cohort (n = 21) and presents an overview of sector reporting, planning and target setting although not a detailed content analysis. Other interview cohorts may have different views on the strategic and tactical purposes of reporting practices, and more in-depth analysis of formal plans and reports should be conducted in the future. Practical implications This study concludes that the Australian HEI sector should consider greater public transparency of its data and reporting actions. Common standards and a benchmarking platform for the sector would improve overall engagement with all internal and external stakeholders. At present, the HEI sector’s message to its key internal and external stakeholders is mixed and needs to change towards a more in-depth institutionalisation of sustainability on campus. Originality/value Particular insights are the value of organisational strategies and tactics as an interpretive framework for HEI campus sustainability and how interviewees attribute sector competitors and self-different motives and tactics. Albeit limited, this is the first mapping of sector approaches to sustainability reporting and planning.

Exploring personal definitions of sustainability and their impact on perceptions of sustainability culture

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory analysis of campus community member (i.e. students, faculty, staff) definitions of sustainability, their perceptions of select elements of sustainability culture and the relationship between the two. Design/methodology/approach Researchers implemented a cross-sectional design where participants from two higher education institutions in the USA completed an online survey. The 352 respondents from James Madison University and 349 respondents from Wofford College included students, faculty and staff members. Descriptive statistics were used to examine patterns in the quantitative data, and an inductive theme approach was used to analyze the qualitative data. Findings This study provides evidence that sustainability is often viewed from an environmental lens, and personal definitions of sustainability may impact perceptions of campus sustainability culture elements. Generally, the highest rated elements of culture examined (i.e. university actions, signs and symbols and institutional commitments) were all aligned with the environment dimension of sustainability and consistent across sustainability definitions. However, respondents with a more integrative definition of sustainability expected to see elements of culture that aligned with the social dimension of sustainability at a considerably higher rate than the respondents who reported more narrow definitions of sustainability. Research limitations/implications Lack of generalizability, low response rates and self-selection bias are some of the limitations of the study. Practical implications Personal definitions of sustainability may impact campus community member perceptions of sustainability culture and progress on their campuses. Practitioners may use this study to inform development of more effective strategies for creating and assessing the culture of sustainability that colleges and universities are pursuing. Originality/value The empirical analysis of campus community members on two very different campus communities responds to Owens and Legere (2015) who argue for further studies to understand the concept of sustainability at other higher education institutions that are at different stages of pursuing sustainability. This paper links research about sustainability definitions to the emergent research on campus sustainability culture, filling a gap between these two areas.

Exploring the usage of social media in extant campus sustainability assessment frameworks for sustainable campus development

Purpose As one of the buzzwords in the present age with considerable impacts in tertiary institutions, social media use in online teaching, learning and information dissemination have been extensively discussed in extant literature. This paper aims to explore the existing campus sustainability appraisal (CSA) tools to identify the length at which social media has been used, especially in environmental sustainability indicators’ selection and empirical verification. Design/methodology/approach The methodology is mainly based on a desktop study involving comprehensive review and content analysis of existing CSA tools’ documents. Webpage content analysis of selected sustainability monitoring and tracking system in higher education institutions was also conducted. Findings The tools' content analysis reveals insufficient utilization of social media data and platforms in campus sustainability environmental-dimension indicators selection. To bridge this identified research gap, social media user-generated content for appraising the campus-wide environmental sustainability indicators preference in tertiary institutions was proposed. Practical implications The adoption and modification of this study’s proposed approach by tertiary institutions, especially in sub-Saharan African countries, could help address most campus-wide environmental challenges raised, commented on and discussed on social media. Originality/value This study contributes to knowledge gaps by revealing the extent of social media utilization in extant tools. With the expanding utilization of different social media platforms by various tertiary institutions worldwide, their administrators' responsibility is to put these social media data into fair use.