Examining Interdisciplinary Sustainability Institutes at Major Research Universities: Innovations in Cross-Campus and Cross-Disciplinary Models

Abstract

founder of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, recognized early in life that educating young people to think critically about complex problems was the key to forging a sustainable path for the environment and society. He watched as the international sustainability movement gained momentum, and often described the principles of sustainability as the critical threads that could, and must, unite the different disciplines-from the social sciences to architecture and city planning to environmental studies. "You have to get the young people energized," George Mitchell said. "If you could get 100,000 young people really working hard, you could change the thinking of this country." The sustainability science approach to solving complex environmental and social problems aims to bring together scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives, and disciplines across natural and social sciences. The approach is neither pure science nor applied science. Instead, scientific disciplines are tools for problem solving, with the scientific approach defined by the problems being addressed rather than the particular discipline employed. George Mitchell realized that it was necessary to infuse the flavor of sustainability science into as many disciplines as possible at the university level in order to prepare our future leaders for the changing world ahead. We would like to thank Marilu Hastings, Vice President of Sustainability Programs at the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation for supporting this work, both through her personal encouragement and her foundation's generous financial support. We would also like to thank Jessica Hellman, Tom Richard, David Lodge and Andrew Horning for reviewing initial drafts of the survey. Finally, we would like to thank the representatives of the 18 research institutes who participated in this survey:

The Missing Link? The Strategic Role of Procurement in Building Sustainable Supply Networks

“…Revealing the lack of sustainability training for procurement personnel is futile if companies cannot receive such training. Although progress has been made in offering sustainability education in U.S. universities (see Hoffman and Axson ), sustainable procurement has received less emphasis. Like the procurement director I interviewed, I found only a few courses in ethical sourcing, responsible sourcing, sustainable procurement, and the like in the top U.S. supply chain programs.…”

What fosters the success of a transdisciplinary environmental research institute? Reflections from an interdisciplinary research cohort

“…Its mission is to enhance the resilience of the Midwest region and especially the state of Indiana (including local municipalities/communities) to the impacts of environmental change. This regional/state-level approach makes the ERI somewhat unique from many other existing environmental institutes in the United States, which most often focus their work at the global or national scale (see Hoffman and Axson, 2017). The ERI defines resilience as the ability to adapt, withstand, or transform in the face of change, and the institute focuses on resilience to environmental change, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.…”

“…The common response to these barriers within universities has been to create new transdisciplinary research centers and institutes, which can provide the physical structure, culture, and incentives that enable multidisciplinary and applied research to rapidly emerge (Sá, 2008;Hart et al, 2016;Hoffman and Axson, 2017). Specifically considering environmental and sustainability focused centers and institutes at universities, investment in the United States exceeds US$500 million (Hart et al, 2016), and at least 20 such institutes exist across members of the Association of American Universities (Hoffman and Axson, 2017), with the majority being founded in the last 20 years. These institutes' structures, foci, strategies, and specific goals vary considerably, but they are generally united in their focus on achieving "real-world" change to address environmental/sustainability issues through collaborative research and engagement efforts (Hoffman and Axson, 2017).…”

“…Specifically considering environmental and sustainability focused centers and institutes at universities, investment in the United States exceeds US$500 million (Hart et al, 2016), and at least 20 such institutes exist across members of the Association of American Universities (Hoffman and Axson, 2017), with the majority being founded in the last 20 years. These institutes' structures, foci, strategies, and specific goals vary considerably, but they are generally united in their focus on achieving "real-world" change to address environmental/sustainability issues through collaborative research and engagement efforts (Hoffman and Axson, 2017). This points to the rapid and likely continued emergence of transdisciplinary, sustainability-focused institutes at U.S. universities.…”

“…Toward facilitating this emergence, a small but growing body of research has examined transdisciplinary research practices. One significant vein of literature focuses on the university-level and administrative barriers to undertaking inter-and transdisciplinary science (Cech and Rubin, 2004;Sá, 2008;Hoffman and Axson, 2017). Limited or unstable funding; competition with existing departments for scarce university resources; lack of top-down institutional support; a culture that rarely rewards problembased scientific studies (i.e., applied work); achieving buy-in to the mission of the institute from faculty and students, partially related to barriers in formalizing changes to teaching and research (and how these are evaluated); and making connections with local stakeholders are among the commonly noted university-level barriers to inter-and transdisciplinary research and institute creation (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2005;Ledford, 2015;Hart et al, 2016;Hoffman and Axson, 2017).…”