Do Codes of Ethics Reveal a University’s Commitment to Sustainable Development? Evidence from Italy

Giorgio Mion,Angela Broglia,Angelo Bonfanti

doi:10.3390/su11041134

Abstract

Higher education institutions, such as universities, formulate strategies and undertake initiatives to support sustainable development (SD). Scholars draw up and examine sustainability reports as the main institutional documents to assess and communicate universities’ efforts towards SD. However, the presupposition of a commitment to SD by the university community is the declaration included in their codes of ethics, which can subsequently be verified and included in their sustainability reports. Thus, although codes of ethics orient strategies, no studies have yet attempted to examine if they can be considered as a communication tool able to express a university’s commitment to SD. This exploratory study aims to investigate if and how the codes of ethics of the Italian public universities reflect their commitment towards SD. Content analysis was carried out using the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. The findings suggest that SD is a common aim among Italian universities, although it is not explicitly communicated in their codes of ethics, and that each university contributes to SD in different ways. In practical terms, this study suggests to adopt an approach that is better directed towards SD to improve universities’ codes of ethics and compliant strategies.

Highlights

Higher education institutions play a key role in triggering a sustainable change, given that they can promote the principles of social responsibility and sustainability through scientific research and educational programs [1,2]
Sustainability reports are studied more than other institutional documents, such as codes of ethics, in the higher education field because the information contained in these reports comes from reliable and verifiable sources and responds to well-defined procedures to prevent the actions required for sustainable development (SD) becoming mere declarations of intent, and as such, escape verification
The SD Goals (SDGs) are embodied in the ethical values, rules of conduct, duties and responsibilities in terms of consistent individual and organisational actions

Summary

Introduction

Higher education institutions play a key role in triggering a sustainable change, given that they can promote the principles of social responsibility and sustainability through scientific research and educational programs [1,2]. Sustainability reports are studied more than other institutional documents, such as codes of ethics, in the higher education field because the information contained in these reports comes from reliable and verifiable sources and responds to well-defined procedures to prevent the actions required for SD becoming mere declarations of intent, and as such, escape verification. As the preventive nature of codes of ethics cannot ensure that universities implement SD in their organisational procedures and systems, SD risks becoming merely the topic of promotional documents, rather than being fully integrated into universities’ ethics and strategy. Codes of ethics orient university strategies and express the fundamental values of the university community, ensure the protection of fundamental rights, and establish rules of conduct for the members of that community, including provisions on discrimination, abuse, conflicts of interest and intellectual property [16,17,18], while sustainability reports are final documents [10,15] that enable the investigation of whether, and which, actions related to SD have been implemented by the university

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