Campus sustainability office representations of the DEIJ-sustainability nexus

Abstract

AbstractThe number of campus sustainability offices in the USA has grown over the past two decades. These offices evolve from myriad origins such as an outgrowth of a facilities department, academic administration, or student activism. Some campus sustainability office missions are closely aligned with environmental sustainability, whereas others include the intersection of environmental with human factors such as cultural and economic sustainability. As potential breadth and scope evolves, each college’s sustainability office has new horizons to choose among. These decisions are shaped by factors such as institutional strategic goals, funding, opportunities, and management choices. One of the possible directions for campus sustainability offices is to highlight how the office contributes to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) efforts on campus. These observations are placed into literature on the changing roles of campus sustainability offices, the evolving roles of DEIJ efforts on college campuses, and of website-based representations for audiences internal and external to colleges. In so doing, the article categorizes ways in which sustainability offices present themselves as advancing DEIJ on campuses. This is done by comparing website content from a cross-section of US-based university sustainability offices. Results allow campus decision-makers to see a range of options for advancing DEIJ through sustainability. These results are also of use to faculty in sustainability-related programs to think through course design and community engagement activities. Scholars of higher education management will also be able to see the broader landscape of how DEIJ and sustainability offices align.