What does environmentally sustainable higher education institution mean?

Abstract

Sustainable development, environmental protection and climate change definitions are increasingly emphasized globally. As analyses on global warming shows, all stakeholders in society must act to reduce their environmental impact. With increasing concerns about resource use, transport impacts, waste management and other issues affecting the environment, there is a need to respond to climate change. Higher education institutions (HEi) as the place where future leaders are prepared, must provide an understanding of environmental issues and sustainable development for stakeholders and decision makers, both at the level of a theoretic framework as well as showing the best practices in management of HEi. The aim of the work is to establish an indicator-based framework for assessing the long-term environmental sustainability of HEi. Considering the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the World Bank development indicators, UI Green Metric indicators and Sustainability index, 26 indicators are selected and analysed for potential use in the environmental performance assessment of HEi.