Purpose -There is a widely held belief that Sustainable Development (SD) policies are essential for universities to successfully engage in matters related to sustainability, and are an indicator of the extent to which they are active in this field. This paper examines the evidence which currently exists to support this assumption. It surveys a sample of universities in Brazil, Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Africa, United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) to ascertain the extent to which universities that are active in the field of sustainable development have formal policies on sustainable development, and whether such policies are a pre-condition for successful sustainability efforts. Design/methodology/approach -The study involved 35 universities in these seven countries (five universities respectively). A mixed-methods approach has been used, ranging from document analysis, website analysis, questionnaires and interviewing. Findings -Although only 60% of the sampled universities had a policy that specifically addressed SD, this cannot be regarded as an indicator that the remaining 40% are not engaged with substantial actions that address SD. Indeed, all of the universities in the sample, regardless of the existence of a SD formal policy, demonstrated engagement with environmental sustainability policies or procedures in some form or another. This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Despite this, it is one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed. Originality/value -Our findings provide some valuable insights about the connections between SD policies on the one hand, and the practice of SD in higher education institutions on the other.

Kalterina (2019) The role of planning in implementing sustainable development in a higher education context. Journal of Cleaner Production.

This article assesses the variety of discourses articulated by journalists reporting on environmental issues. In particular, it investigates how environmental journalists perceive their role and function as reporters of environmental issues as well as the problems they face while reporting. The authors interviewed 23 newspaper reporters covering environmental issues for the nine largest (in terms of daily circulation) daily Greek newspapers, by employing Q-methodology, a qualitative statistical approach specially adjusted for small samples. The subsequent analysis reveals three "factors," or distinct discourses, labeled "scientifically objective, environmentally responsible journalist," "environmental crusaders," and "objective-pure journalists." By analyzing factors' discourses, the authors concluded that these groups are highly similar to the "disseminator," "interpreter/investigator," and "populist mobilize" categories identified in previous research for journalists with different field orientations. However, the last category ("adversarial") did not appear in our sample. The authors encourage the replication of

No abstract

No abstract

Purpose This study aims to focus on the University of Aegean’s non-academic staff’s environmental sustainability attitudes and behavior both at work and at home, their perceptions for sustainability enforcement and their active participation skills. Design/methodology/approach The research participants were the 101 non-academic staff working at the Xenia Hill campus in Lesvos island. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire consisting of 45 questions, which was sent via e-mail during the summer of 2014. Findings The analysis of the results brings light on the environmental profile of the University’s non-academic staff on their intentions for greening their campus and the barriers that obstruct their attempts to promote sustainability at the University. Originality/value The paper provides useful insights which allow a better understanding of the role of non-academic staff’s environmental sustainability attitudes and behavior both at work and at home, their perceptions for sustainability enforcement and their active participation skills.

No abstract

This paper examines the role of public participation mechanisms in certain major environmental disasters. It examines situations in which people's lifestyles or their lives have been directly threatened, and thus elicited citizen participation. Threatening issues often seem morally, physically, socially, economically, religiously, and otherwise unacceptable to a group. As will be presented in this paper, citizens voluntarily participate in a community activity when they see that their way of life has been threatened. An introductory historical perspective, the legal framework upon which it is based, and background information on the participatory mechanisms, all emphasizing the importance and need for empowering citizens with participatory skills so as to bring changes in the existing educational, legal, and social systems are presented. The major environmental accidents/disasters of Minamata, Japan; Bhopal, India; Seveso, Italy; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Exxon-Valdez, Alaska are discussed, mainly to indicate the reaction, and the participatory mechanisms used by the affected communities in each of the sudden disasters that occurred. If citizens worldwide had been active participants in the environmental issues, it is quite possible that we would have experienced fewer environmental accidents.