Go-Brown, Go-Green and smart initiatives implemented by the University of Delhi for environmental sustainability towards futuristic smart universities: Observational study

Abstract

Go-Brown are brown agendas that focus on protecting the environment and health of the current students yielding immediate results. Go-Green are green agendas that aim to protect the environment and health of the future students yielding long-lasting results. Smart initiatives are implemented on the university infrastructure to preserve our ecosystem. It is important to create sustainability awareness in the students and implement these initiatives in universities' infrastructure. There are limited studies on these initiatives' implementation, which creates a research gap. The research question is whether the University of Delhi (DU) is implementing these initiatives for creating sustainability awareness among students to put them on a sustainable path. The research objectives are to assess whether the DU colleges are implementing these initiatives; highlight new definitions of sustainability agendas into Go-Brown, Go-Green, and Smart categories pertinent to the education system and study them step-wise; study sustainable environment indicators: water, waste, air, land and energy; and conceptualize the “Educational Institutional Environmental Sustainability Stars” Theory and Rating System. This study selected Go-Brown, Go-Green and Smart parameters from water, waste, air, land and energy and conducted an assessment survey in 30 colleges on their sustainability compliance and evaluated them through a statistical analysis. It recommends implementation of these initiatives by the Government of India to develop futuristic smart universities, inculcate the “Educational Institutions Environmental Sustainability Stars” Theory and Rating System in the Indian educational system and to frame regulatory sustainability laws. Limitations are whether the outcome of this study conducted on 15 parameters in 30 DU colleges can be applied to all India's educational institutions; and whether the implemented initiatives have influenced the students to take them forward. The smart university modelling features inclusive of smart environment, smart infrastructure and smart education solutions with their interdependent relationship and various stakeholders can lead to future research.