Abstract
In the last decade, universities worldwide have adopted various measures intended to promote sustainability in higher education and include it in the curriculum. However, although this paradigm shift appears to be contributing to students’ acquisition of the knowledge, skills and values necessary to fight for a more sustainable world, serious global crises such as the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic oblige us to rethink our behaviour and spur us to accelerate the move towards a deep-seated commitment to the environment and people. Therefore, the aims of this study were (a) to explore consumption habits in students at four Spanish universities by analysing their individual ecological footprint (EF); (b) to develop indices of connection with nature and a pro-environmental attitude and to determine relationships between these indices and students’ consumption. Among other factors, our results showed that private university students have a higher EF than public university students; that food consumption has the greatest impact on individuals’ EF; and that those who consume more sustainably do not show a more pro-environmental attitude or feel a greater connection with nature. Therefore, we conclude that there was no apparent direct relationship between study participants’ convictions and their daily behaviour. There is a pressing need in education to demonstrate the connection between our actions and their environmental impact.
Highlights
The UN’s declaration of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 and the Conference on Climate Change in the same year constituted two important milestones that have since determined the environmental and educational policies and actions of governments, companies and institutions.The United Nations document, the “2030 Agenda” [1], contains a series of integrated and indivisible objectives and goals that combine three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—considered essential for sustainable development
In relation to the first study objective, our university students showed a lower individual ecological footprint (EF) than the national average, and in common with the general population their worst environmental impact was related to their food consumption
These findings are in agreement with the results of previous studies conducted in Spain and other European countries, indicating that further education is required at individual level to change food consumption habits
Summary
The UN’s declaration of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 and the Conference on Climate Change in the same year constituted two important milestones that have since determined the environmental and educational policies and actions of governments, companies and institutions. The United Nations document, the “2030 Agenda” [1], contains a series of integrated and indivisible objectives and goals that combine three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—considered essential for sustainable development. Authors such as Tilbury [2] had indicated that contemporary cultural change is leading towards the adoption of an integrated approach to sustainable development through public engagement and the implementation of measurable frameworks in governance, research, teaching, management and operations. Public Health 2020, 17, 8826; doi:10.3390/ijerph17238826 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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