A Strategic Communication Model for Sustainable Initiatives in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Communicating sustainable initiatives in higher education institutions presents a challenge, given that few to no universities possess or maintain a strategic communication plan that addresses the need to share this information effectively to stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community advocates). Drawing on secondary and primary research across universities in three countries, each representing distinct regional and national orientations -Canada, Ecuador, and Ukrainethe authors explain a sustainability/environmental communication model designed to be flexible enough for universal application, while providing strategic guidelines tailored to higher education institutions in each of its four described steps. The strategic communication model is informed by the critical synthesis of secondary research into two main areas of literature: (1) strategic communication theory and best practice; and (2) the organizational dissemination of sustainability initiatives, particularly within post-secondary institutions. Such secondary literature informs, and is in turn contributed to by, the authors' primary research that was conducted, which consists of three parts: (1) discourse analysis of relevant institutional documents and promotional materials;(2) interviews about current practices in sustainability-related communication, conducted with higher education sustainability administrators; and, (3) focus groups with students, examining participant awareness and assessment of their institution's sustainability communications. Based on such study, the authors advance a strategic communication model for sustainable initiatives, which comprises a four-step process based on a series of eight questions, with the first step providing comprehensive explication of a seven-component strategic planning framework that scales downward from the most abstract considerations to concrete tactics. In summary, the primary-and secondary-research data suggests that most universities, even if they implement sustainability initiatives or officially incorporate environmentalism into their institutional identity statements (mission, vision, etc.), fail to communicate these actions informatively and persuasively, thereby establishing widespread need for this paper's offered strategic guidance. Vol. 3, No. 4 Mazo et al.: A Strategic Communication Model for Sustainable… 322 primary research involving institutional stakeholders of sustainable practices, and (2) historical and current literature on institutional sustainability campaigns and communication, especially within the post-secondary educational sector. This research study advises on how higher education sustainability advocates and administrators, and communications professionals, can apply the described model within their own institutions, in a resource-efficient manner, to meet a variety of information-provision and persuasive goals.Few higher education institutions possess and maintain a comprehensive strategic communication plan designed to communicate critical in...