Search results

Food insecurity and poor access to healthy food is known to compromise tertiary studies in university students, and food choices are linked to student perceptions of the campus food environment. The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence, demographic and education characteristics associated with food insecurity in a sample of Australian university students and their satisfaction with on-campus food choices.

An online, cross-sectional survey conducted as part of the bi-annual sustainability themed survey was conducted at the University of Tasmania in March 2020. A single-item measure was used to assess food insecurity in addition to six demographic and education characteristics and four questions about the availability of food, affordable food, sustainable food and local food on campus.

Survey data (n = 1,858) were analysed using bivariate analyses and multivariate binary logistic regression. A total of 38% of respondents (70% female; 80% domestic student; 42% aged 18–24 years) were food insecure. Overall, 41% of students were satisfied with the food available on campus. Nearly, half (47%) of food insecure students were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the availability of affordable food on campus. A minority of students were satisfied with the availability of sustainable food (37%) and local food (33%) on campus.

These findings demonstrate a high prevalence of food insecurity and deficits in the university food environment, which can inform the development of strategies to improve the food available on campus, including affordable, sustainable and local options.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought tremendous changes in society. Universities were among the few organisations with some previous knowledge of online education, being able to rapidly adapt by transferring already known best practices to the new context. As teaching moved to online, students encountered less sustainable implementation by their universities. This allowed the development of previously planned sustainable strategies so that when face-to-face teaching resumed, universities could be even more sustainable. This paper aims to explore loyalty to the sustainable university during the later COVID-19 pandemic based on the university’s efforts to manage a green campus.

To investigate loyalty towards the sustainable university during the later COVID-19 pandemic, a conceptual model is proposed. This research is grounded in an empirical investigation using a quantitative online survey implemented with online interviews, the relations between all latent constructs being analysed with SmartPLS.

The results show that university sustainability reflects student loyalty, outlining the image developed under the influence of green campus management. The results show that universities must intensify their efforts to support the sustainable agenda and create a sustainable academic brand, inducing student loyalty. The findings may attract the attention of other universities wishing to gain knowledge about the factors that students consider important in generating their loyalty.

As this research was carried out in the later COVID-19 pandemic context from 2021, the students already had experience of online teaching, so their assessment of the sustainability strategies implemented could be quite different from their perceptions in the first months of the pandemic. This research provides a comprehensive insight into the overall strategy that a sustainable university might apply in a crisis context.

Research has shown that green campus management has a positive impact on the sustainability of a university’s image, on how students perceive the university at which they study and on the university’s efforts to ensure efficient campus management. These factors contribute to the development of a strong and sustainable image of the university within the community.

The originality of this paper lies in the research questions designed to conceptualise and operationalise the generation of students' loyalty towards their university by encouraging and implementing sustainable strategies on campus. This paper highlights a structural model that combines strategic practices to determine students' loyalty towards a sustainable university during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a great interest in developing eco-friendly operations as alternative uses of resources in the university campus, making the employment of technologies more sustainable. Practices such as energy management and efficiency initiatives have been encouraged to meet these sustainability goals. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the main features of the GENIIOT project, a system of energy management using Internet of Things applied in a Brazilian university campus to support energy education practices and to promote lasting energy efficiency measures. The focus of the study is directed at the energy consumption of the air-conditioning system, which is responsible for 40% of the total electricity consumption. In addition, this project also scrutinizes processes such as the building occupants’ comfort demands, lighting levels and energy waste control.

A case study at the Unicamp campus was conducted to illustrate the design procedures through qualitative description. This study comprises an overview of the physical plant, hardware and software development, energy data monitoring, management process and energy education.

The GENIIOT project enables energy efficiency actions by concerning the use of air-conditioning equipment based on monitored data, different types of monitored rooms, user’s behaviors and their feedback. This initiative requires the engagement, awareness and actions from users combined with investment in energy efficiency to achieve an efficient use of this type of equipment. The proposed approach can be applied in the future to similar situations, inside the Unicamp campus and at other university campuses. In addition, this project can contribute to building efficiency analysis by using the hardware structure developed to monitor facilities and carry out evaluations, providing valuable information for strategic initiatives in energy efficiency projects and research and development programs based on practical experience and promoting a discussion about sustainability aspects in the context of the university campus for energy efficiency.

The GENIIOT project is aligned with some of the sustainable development goals, among which sustainability and responsible consumption are identified. Considering the sustainability issues, the economic dimension can be evaluated through a cost–benefit analysis of energy efficiency projects with prudent investment, while the social attractiveness of the project is ensured by education and awareness practices for the community that interacts with the system and learns about a more efficient way of using resources in the campus. Furthermore, there is a more conscious use of natural resources by minimizing waste from the use of electricity and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. GENIIOT is part of Sustainable Campus Project, a living laboratory which aims at developing energy-efficiency-related research activities in the university campus to reduce costs in higher and federal institutions of education in Brazil.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that Richard Register's ecocity model offers a strategic framework to help guide sustainability initiatives in North American higher education (HE) institutions.

This conceptual paper examines the theory of the ecocity and investigates the implications for its proposed building strategies for university and colleges, as institutions seek to create more sustainable campuses. The paper examines previous efforts to achieve sustainability and how the concept of the eco‐campus can be practically and productively applied.

There is no single campus that has fully embraced every facet of sustainability, but numerous HE institutions are strong leaders in diverse areas. The eco‐campus model provides concrete principles that proactively address HE institutions' ecological footprints and develops sustainable community practices.

Sustainability is a pressing social issue. As world leaders in research, innovation, and education, universities and colleges are key places to address this global issue and foster progressive action within current and future generations. The eco‐campus approach represents an opportunity to initiate a cultural paradigm shift, whereby university and colleges become global leaders in sustainability.

While sustainability is now a cornerstone of research and teaching, North American HE institutions are faced with the challenge of realigning institutional practices, processes and resources to fully institute sustainability on campus. The eco‐campus model provides an innovative guide around which to hinge the development of sustainable institutional practices, structure progressive action, and foster meaningful change.

This study aims to investigate the sustainability of the food culture at Deakin University and to determine what the barriers to increasing the sustainability of food on the Burwood campus may be.

An online survey of staff and students from the Faculty of Health at the Burwood campus of Deakin University (n = 697) was undertaken. The survey included questions relating to eating habits on campus, views on the current food culture, food security, food disposal, visions for the future and demographic information. In addition, a short paper-based survey was developed for the ten food outlets on campus.

The results show that although sustainability considerations are important to staff and students, cost is the main issue and is a significant barrier to the development of a more sustainable food culture. It is also a significant barrier to staff and students making healthy choices when it comes to the purchase of food on campus. However, sustainable food initiatives such as community gardens could help alleviate this barrier and also contribute to improving student engagement.

The online survey was limited to the Faculty of Health, and, therefore, a potential bias exists towards individuals who may have an interest in health. This should be considered when interpreting the results.

This research demonstrates that although cost may be a barrier to universities improving the sustainability of their food culture, there are other ways in which universities can create an environment that embraces sustainable food production to benefit both the environment and the university community.

Despite an emerging trend in the higher education sector toward sustainable campuses, comparative analyses that span multiple themes across multiple campuses are still limited. The purpose of this paper is to reduce such a gap by comparing universities that are members of the International Sustainable Campus Network across themes that are related to environmental quality.

In total, 34 universities are included in the sample. Indicators are systematically reviewed and clustered into ten themes. Common indicators (CIs) are identified in seven themes for at least seven and at most 20 campuses. At the absence of CIs, the given theme is assessed based on the measures applied. The results indicate the average levels of performance in the sample and/or the scope of the measures that are undertaken.

According to related values, an average campus spent 233,402 MWh of energy in buildings, 838,317 m³ of water on campus, generated 4,442 tonnes of waste, and emitted 75,354 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. The average recycling rate was 50 percent, the average single occupancy vehicle rate in campus commuting was 34 percent, and on average, there were 152 sustainability-oriented courses. Best practices from the measures included energy audits for data centers, retrofit of water intense laboratories, and on-site renewable energy projects.

In addition, a unified monitoring framework is proposed to improve subsequent comparative analyses of campuses. Universities must focus on the use of the campus as a living laboratory to guide society toward a more sustainable future.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the behavioral barriers to sustainable action in a campus community.

This paper reports three different methodological approaches to the assessment of behavioral barriers to sustainable actions on a college campus. Focus groups and surveys were used to assess campus members’ opinions about the barriers that limit sustainable behaviors on campus. After identifying general barriers, behavioral assessment was used to assess specific barriers to energy conservation in a target location on campus and to develop an intervention to reduce energy use for that location.

Across methodologies, four key behavioral barriers to sustainable actions were consistently reported: communication/awareness, inconvenience, financial concerns and lack of engagement. The intervention that was developed targeted the barriers of communication issues and lack of awareness and resulted in reduced energy use for a target campus location.

This paper highlights the value of assessing barriers to ongoing sustainability efforts using multiple methods and using this information to develop an intervention to foster behavioral change. The paper also highlights strategies that have been implemented to address some of the barriers which were identified.

To introduce the campus sustainability assessment framework (CSAF) as a campus sustainability audit methodology; to share student campus sustainability audit research; to reflect on using the CSAF for pedagogy; to review the usefulness of the CSAF as an action research instrument; to encourage other faculty/sustainability educators to incorporate the CSAF into their curriculum; to present the Sierra Youth Coalition, Canada Sustainable Campuses project as a campaign worth emulating in other countries; to build the body of knowledge in using sustainability audits to integrate research, education, and campus operations.

The paper describes the Sierra Youth Coalition Sustainable Campuses project, a national student campus sustainability campaign in Canada, and how its campaign tool, the CSAF, was implemented at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) to facilitate project‐based sustainability education. The paper shares the author's rationale and experience of using the CSAF to conduct UPEI's first campus sustainability audit, and of offering the CSAF for course credit.

The UPEI CSAF experience suggests the CSAF is a constructive tool for post‐secondary sustainability education; that it is possible to assess the ten CSAF sections (water, materials, air, energy, land; health and wellbeing, community, knowledge, governance, economy and wealth) and the total of 169 indicators in less than one academic year; and that students value the hands‐on learning, practical outcomes, and national recognition afforded by conducting a campus sustainability audit using the CSAF.

The UPEI experience can encourage other universities and colleges, in particular post‐secondary institutions in Canada, in synergizing sustainability research, education, and campus operations.

The paper will help Canadian faculty to evaluate the CSAF as a pedagogical tool and as an audit instrument. Non‐Canadian readers may glean insights for integrating student activism into higher education for sustainability. Researchers, educators, and university administrators keen to improve the sustainability performance of their institution can benefit by learning from UPEI's integrative approach.

This paper aims to analyze the conceptions that underlie the notion of “sustainable food” of different social actors based on a study focused on promoting sustainable food strategies on university campuses.

The research incorporates the views of various actors linked to a sustainable food project on the campuses of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), which is one of the most important universities in Latin America. The study includes a literature review on food sustainability strategies on university campuses and implemented sustainable food programmes in 100 universities worldwide. It also incorporates semistructured interviews and discussion groups conducted with consumers of the university community, 60 smallholder farmers and managers of 23 alternative food networks in Mexico City.

This research evidence the diversity of meanings and perspectives associated with food sustainability and a generalized emphasis on its environmental dimensions, although environmental problems tend to be partially understood. It also highlights the priority students and producers give to the accessibility of healthy foods.

The results of this study revealed important elements, potentially useful for designing sustainable food strategies on the campuses, considering the principles of the rights-based approach to development and social participation.

The research evinces tensions in the definition of food sustainability and its translation into actions from a multistakeholder perspective.

This study aims to investigate the entry-level student’s awareness of environmental sustainability focussing on the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) campus and measure the effectiveness of the course materials. A comparison between the students who took the general education sustainability (GESU 121) course face to face and the ones who tool it online was applied.

This study was descriptive in nature, and the data is obtained using a cross-sectional survey of the students attending the UAEU in 2020. The data collection was done in two semesters, Spring 2020 [face-to-face class] and Fall 2020 [online class, after COVID-19 effect]. A total of 160 participants responded to the survey. The Pearson’s Chi-square test for independence was conducted and used to identify if any statistical differences exist between the studied variables.

This study revealed that the awareness of environmental sustainability was increased in both groups [face-to-face students and online students], after taking the course. In addition, around 80% of the students were interested to participate in sustainability initiatives on the UAEU campus. The students’ perception of the statements about the UAEU campus environmental sustainability varied from Spring 2020 (53.3% were not sure that the UAEU campus is environmentally sustainable) to Fall 2022 (63% of the online students believed that the campus is environmentally sustainable).

Students’ awareness and perception are very important to improve the environmental sustainability of the University campus. The novelty of this study is to examine the awareness of entry-level students among the environmental sustainability focussing on the UAEU campus and examine the effect of COVID-19 [online classes] on delivering the course knowledge. The findings of this study provide the information for the improvement of the course for the future semesters.