Abstract
This paper contributes to the literature about sustainability assessment and goes a step further by studying the effect on university performance. The aim is to analyze, from an external perspective, the relationships between the three dimensions of sustainability in universities (environmental, economic, and social), the similarities between universities, and the impact that it can have on performance. In order to carry out an empirical assessment for Spanish public universities, an index is proposed to measure sustainability through indicators for the three dimensions. The results show that there is a positive correlation among the three dimensions, but only the association between the environmental and the economic dimension is statistically significant, which evidences that there is not an integrated perspective of sustainability. Although there are no common patterns among universities, some similarities among them were found. Finally, the paper shows that the entities that integrate sustainability in their plans and activities have a positive impact on performance.
Highlights
As leaders in education, research, and technology, universities have a key role in the processes of social change, and development and should be crucially involved in global sustainable development [1,2]
Notwithstanding, it should be considered that the institutions included in the study are those being assessed in UIGreenmetric [40], a voluntary evaluation submitted by universities, which suggests that these universities presumably are those interested in ongoing improvement processes
Sustainability has become a fashion in modern economics, and higher education institutions have joined this trend
Summary
Research, and technology, universities have a key role in the processes of social change, and development and should be crucially involved in global sustainable development [1,2]. Sustainability has become a fundamental value in university strategies [3,4], which can be linked to their third mission [5]. As education institutions, they must serve as an example [6] and promote education for sustainable development, as well as introduce active policies for achieving this goal [7]. The development of common models can be suitable for comparing sustainability performance of universities in different regions [10]. One common issue on which the previous literature agrees is the relevance of taking into account three different perspectives within the concept of sustainability: Economic, social, and environmental, with various proposals and indicators for covering these areas
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