Abstract
For decades, sustainability researchers have tenaciously insisted on transforming higher education institutions into more sustainable and inclusive campuses. Yet, as the 2030 agenda seems unlikely to be achieved, universities are struggling to meet the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) before the 2030 deadline. In addition, the post-COVID-19 era demands quality and inclusive education that entails care for students experiencing high stress levels. So far, most of the significant achievements are within the environmental or economic dimensions of sustainable development, but strengthening the social dimension is still one pending task. The importance of happiness to sustainability initiatives on campus, and beyond, deserves further research. To this end, this article offers insights into incorporating the sustainability–happiness nexus into sustainable universities to enhance the social dimension of sustainability. COVID-19 reminds sustainability academics and stakeholders that teaching technical and scientific knowledge is necessary to become more sustainable. Still, it is not sufficient to achieve the goals in the 2030 agenda. Providing inclusive and sustainable quality education will be reached when more sustainable universities consider happiness the ultimate goal of human development.
Highlights
A more sustainable university is an academic topic primarily concerned with higher education institutions engaging in sustainability through a broad and diverse array of strategies focused on preventing, reducing, or eliminating their environmental burden to fulfill its substantive functions of teaching, research, outreach, partnership, and stewardship (Findler et al 2019)
Sustainability in campus has been seen as an icon of environmental and economic concerns, but inadequate attention has been paid to the social dimension of sustainable development
Education is a critical issue for promoting human development, which is reflected in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4)
Summary
A more sustainable university is an academic topic primarily concerned with higher education institutions engaging in sustainability through a broad and diverse array of strategies focused on preventing, reducing, or eliminating their environmental burden to fulfill its substantive functions of teaching, research, outreach, partnership, and stewardship (Findler et al 2019). As a consequence of COVID-19 stressors, students are experiencing high anxiety levels (Dhar et al 2020) that have a significant direct impact on their self-perception of happiness (Yildirim and Güler 2021). Concerning the latter, several scholars have suggested that happiness and related constructs are significant predictors of academic performance, having direct implications to SDG 4 (López-Pérez and Fernández-Castilla 2018; Carmona–Halty et al 2019; Pulido-Acosta and HerreraClavero 2018). The importance of happiness to sustainability initiatives on campus, and vice versa, deserves further research This perspective paper argues that incorporating the sustainability–happiness nexus into sustainable universities allows us to better conceptualize and implement the social dimension of sustainability, understanding by nexus any connection between sustainability and happiness in any direction
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