Strategic alignment between sustainability and information systems: A case analysis in Malaysian public Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions have embedded sustainability initiatives into their core activities of curriculum, research, community, and operational to respond the global transformation towards a sustainable future. Numerous studies have been conducted concerning an integrated sustainability into the missions and strategies of the Higher Education Institutions. However, there is a lack of works that highlight the important role of information systems to support the sustainability practices in Higher Education Institutions. This problem motivates the study to underscore the important role of information systems during the sustainability implementation. A preliminary case analysis is performed to observe how the Higher Education Institutions implement the sustainability initiatives and to proof the knowledge gap in real practice. The analysis was conducted during visits via a semi-structured interview with a number of persons from Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia that have been implementing sustainable campus. According to the preliminary case analysis, the Higher Education Institutions do not contemplate the information system strategy at the beginning of their sustainability implementation. There is a lack of information system application to support their sustainability practices. They still use manual methods to collect the sustainability metrics and assess their sustainability performance. As a result, the sustainability decision-making is isolated and they cannot evaluate their sustainable performance. The problems of managing the sustainability data and processes arise. Therefore, a concept of the strategic alignment between sustainability and information system is underscored in the present study. The introduction of this concept through this study would enhance our understanding in term of the significant role of the information systems to support the sustainability practices and to achieve a successfully sustainable campus.