Casarejos, F., Frota, M. & Gustavson, L.M. (2017) Higher Education Institutions: a strategy towards sustainability.
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 18(7), 995-1017. DOI:10.1108/IJSHE-08-2016-0159 (IF2017 1,876; Q2 Education & Educational Research)Development of the work included a literature review focused on internationally established concepts, recommendations and guidelines aimed at driving HEIs to fully acknowledge the principles of sustainable development, a study of the state-of-the-art evaluation frameworks for sustainability and an analysis of scientific studies on sustainability in HEIs and society.
The overall approach proposed proved to be robust, as it synthesizes global concepts, recommendations and guidelines endorsed by key international organizations and researchers thoroughly discussed in worldwide publications related to sustainability. Moreover, the conceptual framework for modeling the HEI organizational environment, the strategic sustainability actions formulated and the assessment scheme are confirmed to be a practical and realistic strategy for assisting HEIs to effectively achieve their sustainability targets and goals.
Facilitation of institutional performance assessment using the hands-on tool proposed to drive HEIs toward sustainability.
Few studies have proposed multidimensional approaches and indices to assess the institutional performance of HEIs in implementing sustainability actions.