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The purpose of this research is to develop a scale that assesses place sustainability from the perspectives of residents, who are the main stakeholders. The resulting place sustainability scale (PSS) is a practical and useful tool for place administrators to measure place sustainability at all scales.

This research analyses the data collected from 636 residents in the town of Salaya in Central Thailand. To develop the scale, the authors randomise 318 samples to conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and analyse the rest with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

A total of 11 factors of place sustainability were generated with 33 questionnaire items. Those factors were natural environment, social equity, economic growth, built environment, landscape, liveability, conviviality, transport, energy, water and waste management and governance.

The PSS can help place administrators, such as chief executives of sub-districts, mayors of town municipalities or governors of provinces, assess perceived sustainability from the perspectives of their residents. They can use this scale in conjunction with other sustainability indicators that calculate data from real variables and values to develop a comprehensive view of sustainability that includes both real and perceptual dimensions.

Numerous available indices and indicators use real variables and values to measure place sustainability. However, they have limitations: they can be complex and incomprehensible to outsiders or they might not support participative processes and policymaking. This research develops an alternative measure of place sustainability that assesses the perceptions of residents.

Despite widespread recognition of the importance of place in entrepreneurship research, much less attention has been paid to the methodological challenges that inquiries into place presents. Understanding the relationship between place and entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important as focus turns to sustainable entrepreneurship and as policy makers turn to ‘place-based’ approaches to regional sustainability challenges. This chapter provides insight one researcher’s experiences engaging stakeholders in discussions about the relationship between a place-based university programme for sustainability and local sustainability agendas. The chapter reveals the struggles experienced by both researcher and participants in articulating what places and the local region means to both individuals and to the programme. The findings provide an important insight into how researchers studying place need to be cognisant of the limitations and flexibility of language when engaging research participants in discussing the relationship between place, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.

This study aims to examine the participants’ [junior high school students and Master of business administration (MBA) consultants] perceptions and utilizations of the multidimensional place-based resources within the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), specifically focusing on its alignment with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for quality education. While place-based resources have demonstrated the potential for fostering innovative thinking and collaborative efforts, a gap exists in understanding how these resources can be effectively integrated to bolster learning and sustainable outcomes.

The authors adopted a single-case research methodology and conducted an in-depth exploration of the integration of place-based resources within the context of ESD using the 2021 Forest Community Outreach (FCO) Project in Ena City, Japan. Questionnaires, daily journals and consultation reports were used for data collection. This study used the coding and qualitative content analysis process to understand the significance of the five dimensions of place-based resources in fostering effective ESD practices.

The findings show the gap between interest in ESD and utilization of place-based resources as reflected in the perceptions and interests of junior high school participants. MBA consultants acknowledged the relevance of leveraging the five dimensions of place-based resources in the context of ESD. This research enriches the understanding of recognizing and harnessing different resources within the settings, emphasizing the significance of a multidimensional place-based resources approach to effectively incorporate these resources into ESD, thereby fostering learning and practical sustainability outcomes.

This study conducts a novel analysis of diverse dimensions within the realm of place-based resources and their profound influence on the learning experiences and creativity of participants engaged in ESD. The study lays the groundwork for the validation of place-based resource dimensions through collaborative efforts involving stakeholders within the region.

The study aims to identify the evoked “sense of place” that the campus community attributes to a watershed area in a Malaysian higher institution, aiming to enhance their participation in watershed conservation. Central to this objective is the incorporation of the concept of a watershed as a place, serving as the conceptual framework for analysis.

This case study explores an urban lake at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia’s oldest higher institution. It uses diverse qualitative data, including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, vox-pop interviews and a co-production workshop, to generate place-based narratives reflecting the meanings and values that staff and students associate with the watershed. Thematic analysis is then applied for further examination.

The data patterns reveal shared sense of place responses on: campus as a historic place, student, staff and campus identity, in-place learning experiences and interweaving of community well-being and watershed health. Recommendations advocate translating these narratives into campus sustainability communication through empirical findings and continuous co-production of knowledge and strategies with the campus community.

The research findings play a critical role in influencing sustainable campus planning and community inclusion by integrating place-based frameworks into sustainable development and watershed management. The study recommends the process of identifying place-based narratives with implications for the development of sustainability communication in a campus environment.

This paper contributes both conceptually and empirically to the sustainable management of a campus watershed area through place-based thinking. It outlines a process for enhancing campus sustainability communication strategies.

This study aims to propose a framework to drive organizations, and particularly multinational enterprises, to understand and internalize a sustainable mindset for implementing efficient and effective corporate sustainability initiatives and helping them achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The framework is based on the bidirectional iterative process of the flexible pattern matching methodology. The literature on ecocentric management was examined from top to bottom in its dialogue with corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The bottom-up phase was based on highly visible deviant cases of companies that were significantly recognized for their CSR or for their sustainability programs but became well-known examples of unsustainability. Additionally, an illustrative case was analyzed to examine the mindset in practice.

The study offers a framework based on six constructs that were identified in ecocentric management literature. It translates the ecocentric management mindset framework into behaviors for organizations that want to conduct efficient sustainable programs that help them achieve the SDGs.

The proposed new framework highlights the conceptual pillars of ecocentric management, and offers practical and theoretical perspectives on how sustainability can be better addressed at the corporate level, and help achieve the SDGs.

Drawing on the service-dominant logic and taking a multi-stakeholder brand value co-creation perspective, this paper aims to investigate whether positioning a place brand around sustainability helps or hinders stakeholders’ ability to co-create value for themselves and the brand.

This paper is based on a case study of Bristol’s city branding following its award of European Green Capital, drawing on 29 in-depth interviews with key informants from multiple stakeholder groups. These interviews are supported by secondary material and field observations.

The findings evidence a “tale of two cities”. When sustainability is used as a positioning device, tensions are identified across three elements of brand co-creation: brand meanings; extraordinary versus mundane brand performances; and empowerment and disempowerment in branding governance. These tensions create stakeholder experiences of both engagement and estrangement.

This paper is based on one case study and evaluates face-to-face stakeholder interactions. Future research could access further stakeholders, across multiple cities and also examine their digital engagement.

Positioning a brand as sustainable (i.e. green) requires strong commitment to other ethical principles in practice. Brand practitioners and marketers may benefit from advancing stakeholders’ everyday brand performances to reduce disillusionment.

Rallying around virtuous associations, i.e. sustainability, does not in itself facilitate the generation of value for stakeholders and the brand, but instead can illuminate power imbalances and tensions in stakeholder interactions that result in a co-destruction of value.

This paper aims to critically reflect the current specialist discourse on experiential approaches to higher education for sustainable development (HESD). Limitations to the current discourse are identified, and as a result, an alternative approach to the study of experiential education (EE) within HESD is suggested.

Three research questions are addressed by analysing the literature on EE and experiential learning (EL) within HESD in specialist academic journals.

There is a consensus among authors regarding the appropriateness of experiential approaches to HESD. However, limitations to the current discourse suggest the need for an alternative approach to studying EE within HESD. Therefore, this paper proposes the application of the learning landscape metaphor to take a more student-centred and holistic perspective.

The learning landscape metaphor has previously not been applied to EE within HESD. This alternative conceptualisation foregrounds student perspectives to experiential initiatives within HESD. The holistic approach aims to understand the myriad influences on students learning, while allowing examination of how experiential approaches relate to other educational approaches within HESD.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the authors shifted from teaching about sustainability as though it was fixed and definable, to a way of learning about the multiple ways in which sustainability is contested and understood. This shift involved both an epistemological shift in their understanding of sustainability and a shift in teaching practice.

The paper reflects on the authors' teaching practice and describes a shift from an investigative to an interpretative approach. This shift resulted from taking students out in the field to hear from land managers and community members in regional and rural Victoria about how they understand sustainability. Central to the shift was recognising the value of the learning occurring “out there”.

The authors argue that had the students remained in the classroom learning about sustainability with community and its socio‐environmental context at a distance the shift that occurred in the teaching and learning experience would have been less likely to occur. The authors now see themselves as facilitating a process where learners (both teachers and students) are exposed to different understandings of sustainability and are able to recognise the messy and complex reality of sustainability on‐the‐ground.

Much of what is going on in sustainability education is prescriptive: environmental targets, audits, energy and water efficiency, sustainable design mapped on to the curriculum of various disciplines and fields. This paper highlights the need to broaden out the sustainability education agenda, to fully examine how it is taught, why and what is its value to learning.

This paper describes the development of a course that explores the complexity of on the ground sustainability in regional and rural Australia. Such an approach to teaching about sustainability is innovative in that it challenges taken for granted assumptions about what is and is not sustainable by exposing students to conversations with ordinary people making sense of and attempting to negotiate change in their lives. In this learning experience sustainability becomes a complex set of discourses and practices that interweave through and over people's lives rather than a check list of appropriate practices.

The paper aims to look at the prevalence of facilities management (FM) companies having in place a sustainability policy, and to understand the link between a sustainability policy, company characteristics, and the application of sustainable business practice.

The research method was a data analysis of 65 facilities management companies. Frequency analyses, multiple correspondence analyses and Pearson's χ² tests were used to test the link between the company size, the presence of a sustainability policy and the implementation of sustainable business practice.

There is a link between company size and the likelihood of a sustainability policy being created in the FM industry. The research shows there is a link between the presence of a sustainability policy and the implementation of sustainable business practice.

Because of the method of data capture, there are no perception research areas, so the reasons behind companies' actions are not known. This can be developed in further research.

The research shows the importance of a sustainability policy in forming commitment to sustainable business practice, as well as highlighting areas where the FM industry is lacking in commitment to sustainable business practice.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the implications of a sustainability policy in the development of sustainable practice in the FM industry. It also develops the link between the characteristics of FM companies and the level of sustainable business practice implemented.

Sustainability is a major concern in education policies. This paper aims to describe how alternative economic education including concepts of the circular economy (CE), cradle to cradle (C2C) and zero waste can be addressed by teacher education. The author asks to what extent such alternative concepts contribute to sustainability education and transitions and empower students and future teachers, through fieldtrips.

Fieldtrips to three extracurricular learning places in Graz (Austria) – a plastic waste disposal facility, an upcycling design atelier and a supermarket without packaging – were organized as part of a university seminar on economy and sustainability. Based on student essays reflecting the fieldtrips, this praxeological paper provides insights on how students perceive awareness-raising and innovative responses to mass consumption, recycling/upcycling and waste prevention issues.

Including altermatic economic frameworks, such as CE/C2C and zero waste, into teacher education contributes to reflections on the economic growth paradigm and promotes more sustainable futures. In various statements, students highlighted social-ecological change and awareness-raising. They rather focussed on recycling, upcycling and (plastic) packaging than on the problematic eco-efficiency of downcycling.

Alternative economic concepts can be addressed and critically reflected in sustainability education, even if rarely taught. Although the extracurricular learning places described offer partial solution from the perspective of degrowth, they can serve as an eye-opener and promote alternative economic education, where students can share experiences, knowledge and creative ideas to engage in sustainability transitions.