Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: Interconnecting the Reporting Process and Organisational Change Management for Sustainability

Kim Ceulemans,Rodrigo Lozano,María Alonso-Almeida

doi:10.3390/su7078881

Kim Ceulemans, Rodrigo Lozano + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su7078881

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Abstract

Although there has been a considerable increase in the publication of sustainability reports in the corporate world in the last decade, sustainability reporting in higher education institutions is still in its early stages. This study’s aim was to explore the relationship between sustainability reporting and organizational change management for sustainability in higher education. A survey was sent to higher education institutions worldwide that have published sustainability reports in the last ten years. The survey was answered by 23 institutions out of a total of 64. The findings showed that sustainability reporting has been predominantly driven by internal motivations, and that the sustainability reporting process leads to incremental changes, such as an increase in awareness of sustainability and improvements in communication with internal stakeholders. Some factors impeding change are the absence of an external stakeholder engagement process, the lack of inclusion of material impacts in reports, and the lack of institutionalization of sustainability reporting in the higher education system. The paper proposes that higher education institutions need to consider sustainability reporting as a dynamic tool to plan sustainability changes, and not just as a communication activity.

Highlights

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a pivotal role in disseminating and mainstreaming sustainability thinking within society [1,2]
Most reports published by the HEIs that responded to the survey were from 2011 to 2013 (84.2%)
The survey respondents were mainly directly involved in the preparation of the report (70%), oversaw its preparation (83%), or were responsible for the data collection of the report (61%)

Summary

Introduction

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a pivotal role in disseminating and mainstreaming sustainability thinking within society [1,2]. SD integration in HEIs aims at making students (i.e., future managers, leaders, politicians, academics and citizens) capable of dealing with a large range of global and interlinked economic, environmental, and social issues in their future professional and personal lives [3,4,5]. An increasing number of HEIs worldwide have been teaching and researching sustainable development (SD), as well as integrating SD into their daily operations [6,7,8]. Some HEIs have developed and signed declarations, initiatives, and charters to help them demonstrate their SD engagement to their students and other stakeholders, and integrate SD holistically into their system, including education, research, community outreach, operations, assessment and reporting, university collaboration, the institutional framework, educate-the-educator programs, and campus experiences [9,10,11]. The integration of SD in HEIs requires a focus on the elements of the HEI system, on making SD part of the higher education culture, and on ensuring the institutionalization of SD in HEIs [5,8,12].

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