What Sustainability? Higher Education Institutions’ Pathways to Reach the Agenda 2030 Goals

Isabel Ruiz-Mallén,María Heras

doi:10.3390/su12041290

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have the mandate of promoting sustainability through addressing the Agenda 2030. However, how this is being understood and framed in both discourse and practice by HEIs remains an underexplored issue. This article interrogates the concept of sustainability embraced by ten key HEIs networks at global and regional levels while identifying and discussing the main pathways for action displayed. We rely on HEIs networks’ data from available online documents related to the Agenda 2030. “Greening” is the dominant sustainability discourse among the global and many regional HEIs networks, that is, the one that refers to the links between people, planet and profit. Two other discourses are minor and regional, “resilience” and “alternative”. The “alternative” discourse is the only one entailing a critical approach to the Agenda 2030 goals. All networks promote changes in HEIs organizational culture to embed sustainability values in strategic planning, academic and managerial work. Yet there is a need for further engagement with society to readdress HEIs societal role. Deep and critical reflection of the worldviews, contradictions and tensions in the discourses and practices proposed by HEIs networks at global and regional scales is also needed to build common pathways toward sustainability.

Highlights

In the last century, human activities have dramatically modified natural processes while significantly affecting social-ecological systems, leading to the current environmental crisis
Three main discourses along which the analyzed Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) networks navigate sustainability emerged from our analysis, which we have called: “resilience,” “greening” and “alternative.” These discourses are mainly shaped by HEIs networks’ different understandings of the role of development in their envisioned solutions to face sustainability challenges and the strategies HEIs push forward to deal with risks
We identified a clear pattern followed by all these networks: they mainly focus their efforts on changing the institutions’ organizational culture and behavior through the integration of sustainability values and environmental concerns in strategic planning, academic and organizational work

Summary

Introduction

Human activities have dramatically modified natural processes while significantly affecting social-ecological systems, leading to the current environmental crisis. Meeting the Agenda 2030 goals requires a political willingness to build pathways toward sustainable futures by changing the current development trends. In this regard, society can exert pressure on the governments and counteract those corporate interests defending the status quo. HEIs can prevent students from being overwhelmed by the nihilism and hopelessness of the current dramatic situation while promoting effective skills acquisition and values of connectedness between humans and nature [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion