Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how industrial ecology can facilitate the achievement of sustainable development through its incorporation into an engineering curriculum. Design/methodology/approach: A model has been developed for assessing sustainability learning outcomes due to the incorporation of the concept of industrial ecology…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the life cycle environmental impacts of the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Sciences' current printed annual report to a version distributed via the internet. Design/methodology/approach: Life cycle environmental impacts of both versions of the report are modeled using…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a model for the analysis of business schools as creators, disseminators, and adopters of knowledge on environmental management. Design/methodology/approach: A review of the importance of higher education institutions for sustainability, and more specifically, about their relevance for the creation,…

Purpose: The ecological footprint represents a simple way to assess the amount of materials consumed and waste produced by a given entity. The approach has been applied to countries, towns, households, and more recently university campuses. One of the challenges of using the ecological footprint at a university is the difficulty of determining how…

Purpose: This paper seeks to describe a framework used to help MBA students understand and reconcile the different sustainability perspectives. Design/methodology/approach: A review of the corporate sustainability literature is undertaken to develop the sustainability framework. Findings: The sustainability framework relates basic concepts and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate issues and concerns associated with sustainable development SD in Italy for different stakeholders, with a focus on the role of education. Cognitive maps for 49 individuals living in Italy have been developed and their differences analyzed and discussed with the aim of designing a seminar to…

Purpose: To describe a way of teaching industrial ecology (IE) and to show some tools that may help for the IE teaching. Design/methodology/approach: In the paper, the development of lectures, practical lessons and projects on real industrial ecosystems are described. Also the teaching materials used are described. Findings: The presented…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of the Agriculture Engineering School of Barcelona (ESAB), where undergraduate students were involved in field research experiments on organic waste use in agricultural systems. Design/methodology/approach: The paper outlines how the formation of professionals oriented to work for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present The School for Field Studies-Center for Coastal Studies (SFS-CCS) as a success story in sustainable development education. This success is based on a unique academic model, which incorporates sustainable development opportunities and challenges faced by the local community into the program…

Purpose: This paper aims to quantify and critically analyze the best practices of a comprehensive environmental stewardship strategy (ESS), which included a guaranteed energy savings program (GESP) that utilized an energy service company (ESCO). Design/methodology/approach: The environmental and economic benefits and limitations of an approach…

Purpose: The paper seeks to propose the basic competencies of environmental social scientists regarding policy analysis for sustainable development. The ultimate goal is to contribute to an improvement of educational programmes in higher education by suggesting a toolbox that should be integrated in the curriculum. Design/methodology/approach:…

Purpose: This paper seeks to suggest that the campus environmental audit can become an important tool that synergizes active learning and operations planning and management approaches to promote sustainability on university campuses. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the author's experiences at Bishop's University with the evolution…

Purpose: To distinguish sustainable development education from environmental education and stress the importance of problem-based interdisciplinary learning to sustainable development education. Design/methodology/approach: A range of published works relating to sustainable development education are critiqued, an introduction to complexity theory…

A sustainability audit of Holme Lacy College is described. The approach adopted a "triple bottom line" assessment, comprising a number of key steps: a scoping review utilising a revised Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors project appraisal tool; an environmental impact assessment based on ecological footprinting and a social and economic…

Aims to describe how the concept of sustainable development, with a focus on the ecological dimension, can be applied practically in an institution for higher education and research. The institution used as an example is Malardalen University in Vasteras, Sweden. Encompasses literature studies and conclusions from practical experience in…