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Any building refurbishment is challenging and school buildings offer no exception. They are increasingly in need of refurbishment due to their age and evolving teaching and learning. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of literature on sustainable refurbishment so as to identify key lessons from selected successful refurbishment projects. The review findings are expected to contribute to the development of refurbishment plans in an effective and innovative manner that should extend building’s service life, focus on resource efficiency, and comfort their users. It will also contribute to knowledge base of refurbishment and suggest future directions for research.

The paper has undertaken a literature review on the sustainability assessment of buildings and frameworks for sustainable refurbishment. Besides, the work also provides a review of recent successful refurbishment projects to collect and structure systems experiences which can be adopted in developing a sustainable refurbishment strategy for school buildings.

Findings include three groups of lessons in terms of reasons, process and barriers in the selected refurbishment projects that assist stakeholders to prepare a suitable refurbishment plan for their school buildings. The potential of 3D scanners and BIM applications in the refurbishment process will also be reviewed in order to develop a proposed framework of 3D scanner vs BIM for the refurbishment process. Recommendations highlight the role of a national strategy as a driving factor for applying the advantages of information technology to enhance optimal solution selection processes to get better and more sustainable results.

The conceptual framework for 3D scanner and BIM applications within sustainable refurbishment for school buildings is currently under researched, and the findings aimed to address such a gap when considering 3D scanners and BIM applications in the refurbishment process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of collaboration towards Sustainable Energy Innovation (SEI) in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects. While the capacity of PFI to encourage collaboration towards innovation is largely advocated by its proponents; however, it remains to be supported by empirical evidence.

Adopting the Complex Product System (CoPS) innovation management model, the authors assess the quality of collaboration at the interface between the innovation superstructure of public sector clients and users, and the innovation infrastructure of private sector designers, contractors and operators. Two interactional elements are examined upon which the quality of collaboration is assessed: openness of communication and alignment of objectives. The authors apply the model to four new-built PFI school projects within the context of the UK government Building Schools for the Future Programme. Semi-structured interviews with total of 50 key stakeholders were used as the primary data collection method.

PFI has introduced a number of problematic issues weakening collaborative efforts towards innovation in the project environment. Particularly, the study underlines the restricting internal contractual relationships within the integrated Project Company and the misalignment of Design-Construction-Operation sustainability objectives. It also highlights ineffective communication with public sector clients and users brought in by the restricted nature of PFI engagement processes as well as the misalignment of public sector-private sector sustainability objectives.

The qualitative nature of the chosen research methodology limits the ability to generalise. The research findings need to be confirmed or rejected by means of quantitative research as representative of all PFI projects.

The study emphasizes the public authority’s role in relation to providing the necessary conditions for the creation of a collaborative environment conducive to SEI in PFI projects.

The study was able to expand the understanding of innovation and collaboration management processes in PFI projects in three respects: First, addressing the limited attention to innovation in PFI research, the study is the first to examine the quality of collaboration in PFI projects towards the implementation SEI. Second, examining the quality of collaboration in PFI projects through the lens of CoPS provides a new understanding of sustainability innovation and strongly indicates that the CoPS model should be expanded to account for the dynamics of innovation processes in the procurement of sustainable CoPS. Third, the explorative nature of the study was useful in generating research hypotheses that can form the basis for future research on SEI in PFI projects.

This paper aims to serve as an introduction to and overview of this special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration entitled “Building organisational capacity in school education”. The co‐editors have solicited contributions from authors in Wales, Australia, Canada, the USA, England, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

The paper reviews past and contemporary approaches to the issue of capacity building in education and in particular, sustainable capacity building. As well as reviewing key researchers and writers in this field, including their own work, the authors foreshadow and synthesise the other seven papers that make up this special issue.

The paper contends that building capacity in schools and schooling, while no means easy, can be both understood and accomplished. However, caution needs to be exercised because hard‐fought gains in capacity building and sustainability can be quickly eroded under the influence of poor leadership or extraneous changes.

The paper serves as a framework both for the seven papers that follow and more generally for understanding and conceptualising sustainable school capacity building.

The paper performs the function of framing current debates and pressures around sustainable school capacity‐building in an international theoretical and practical context.

Almost every year the nation was shocked by the fire incident at school and hostel. The Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (2020) recorded 216 fires that have occurred at the private Islamic religious schools from 2015 until 2019, where several fires have killed many students, such as accidents in 1985, 1998, 2013, 2014 and 2017. As a result, the public began questioning the level of awareness among the school administrators. Addressing these issues, a survey has been conducted on the private Islamic religious schools that had experienced fire incidents in order to identify the awareness level among the administrators and students and to investigate whether aspects of compliance with fire safety procedures are enhanced. Four groups of respondents were selected, in which the Department of Fire and Rescue acts as a focus group. The other three groups are the victims who have faced the fire itself in their respective schools. The findings highlighted that the awareness level among victims towards the fire prevention practices is very low. Evidence has revealed there is no periodic supervision towards fire safety equipment, and only 35% comply with the standard procedure. Experts suggest sustainable school building should introduce to meet the criteria in performance-based fire management solutions. This reflects the fact that building continuity and fire safety can be complementary, not contradictory, if the two disciplines engage in meaningful dialogue at the beginning of the design process.

This paper aims to present some challenging issues concerning urban space management in the Mediterranean region, with a special focus to sustainability.

It is structured around the outcomes of the SB05MED International Conference titled “Sustainable Construction: Action for Sustainability in the Mediterranean Region,” held in Athens in June 2005, which is the main subject of this special issue. It will present the main outcomes related to existing approaches of environmental quality in buildings as well as methodologies, policies and standards for environmental quality in buildings and cities. Furthermore, it will present future trends and explore the current situation of projects, systems and operations, as well as performance assessment tools and financial instruments and mechanisms towards sustainable construction in the Mediterranean region. Each major scientific topic is presented and analysed. Finally, a synthesis of outcomes is presented.

The paper demonstrates the links between developments in the field of sustainable building in the Mediterranean region and relates them with future developments and perspectives at a macro‐regional level.

This overview paper can be used as the starting point of future research as well as a reference paper.

The allocation of risk among project participants is an important determinant of innovation success in construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity of risk allocation to encourage the implementation of environmental innovation, particularly sustainable energy innovation (SEI), within the private finance initiative (PFI) project delivery model.

A four-case qualitative research methodology is adopted within the context of the UK government’s building schools for the future programme.

The findings identify that SEIs are encouraged on the innovative projects by the perceived clarity, appropriateness, and manageability of the risks associated with the project’s energy performance on the PFI contract. The main SEIs were largely developed as strategies to manage long-term energy performance risks allocated to private sector actors and safeguard their long-term commitment to the project. However, the findings indicate that excessive perceived innovation-related risks, particularly capital cost risk, may restrict further SEIs to be implemented.

The qualitative case study approach adopted may limit the generalisability of the findings.

The study and provides practical guidance to policymakers and project managers in developing strategies to support the implementation of SEI in PFI projects.

The study attends to a significant gap in knowledge as there is a lack of conceptual and empirical work on managing innovative processes for sustainable energy in PFI projects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore perspectives of academicians in leadership positions in Indian business schools on the sustainability of management education institutions in India.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 respondents including directors, deans and vice-chancellors of private and public sector institutions offering management programmes across India. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis.

All the respondents strongly supported the need for building sustainable management education institutions. Different factors affecting sustainability of institutions that emerged from the interviews included focus on local context and inter-disciplinarity, visionary leadership and culture, country specific curriculum and pedagogy, sustained industry-academia collaboration, faculty orientation, training, retention and growth. On the basis of the factors identified, a directional proposition with the perspective of blue ocean strategy is proposed.

There is a vast scope for exploring issues, challenges and strategies for building sustainable management education institutions. Literature in this field in the Indian context is very limited. This paper is one of the few attempts to study perspectives and experiences of leaders in Indian business schools on the sustainability of their institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine efforts made by the UNESCO Hong Kong Association (UNESCOHK) in integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into school subjects and into the curriculum in 2009-2016. It investigates: the distribution and development of the three key components of environment, society and economy in student work, and in school assessment reports; the relevancy level of ESD learning to school subjects; the condition in Hong Kong in practicing the integration of ESD learning into the school curriculum; and the practices of integration of ESD learning into the school curriculum in Hong Kong and other countries.

Grounded theory is deployed to analyze the distribution and development of ESD as understood by students and schools, and the application of knowledge acquired through school subjects to ESD learning activities undertaken by students and schools.

The study succeeds in identifying the precise distribution and development of the three key components of environment, society and economy in ESD, and in establishing the level of relevancy of ESD learning activities to school subjects and to the school curriculum. UNESCOHK’s initiative is in line with the general trend adopted by countries to integrate ESD into the school curriculum.

The scope of investigation is limited to ESD learning activities in eight schools and to one single economy.

The study facilitates attempts to reorientate the lifestyles of students and their parents.

The study is a pioneering work in Hong Kong to integrate ESD learning into school subjects, which is in alignment with the trend to integrate ESD into the school curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the effect of human behaviour, and efforts to change that behaviour, on electricity consumption in a high school setting.

The study uses a mixed methods design of interviews and historical electrical use data to assess two treatments impacts on electrical consumption over time at two Fort Collins high schools.

Both treatments, the energy efficiency awareness campaign and the energy efficiency charrette, were found to have a positive impact on decreasing levels of electricity consumption. Unfortunately, these decreases lessened over time. The key attributes of communication, motivation, and leadership were identified as necessary at the high school facilities level to ensure long-term success in decreased electrical consumption.

The implications of this research focus on awareness of energy use in public schools and how to use awareness as a cost-effective tool in decreasing electrical consumption. The limitations are the inability to isolate HVAC consumption loads and the small study size. However, this is one of, if not the first, effort to use awareness campaigns and charrettes in a high school setting to decrease electrical use. Additional research would answer questions like: how to increase the charrette impact time; could these programs be adopted district wide at all grade levels; how could energy awareness be institutionalized so periodic charrettes are not necessary? Limitations include the inability to isolate heating and cooling electricity loads from the data.

This study is the first of its kind and has value to facilities management personnel, custodians, faculty and administration members, particularly in a high school setting. This research provides a framework and potential guidance for a school organization to conserve electrical energy and achieve cost savings and environmental benefits.

The purpose of this study is to test the validity of using collective trust as a social indicator of instructional capacity.

A hypothesized model was advanced for the empirical investigation. Collective trust was specified as a latent construct with observable indicators being principal trust in faculty (PTF), faculty trust in principal (FTP), faculty trust in colleagues (FTC), and faculty trust in students (FTS). It was hypothesized that enabling school structure is directly related to the latent collective trust construct and collective trust is directly related to school performance. Data were collected in the spring of 2010/11 from teachers and students in 85 schools in an urban school district in a southwestern state. A partially latent structural regression model was tested in AMOS 7.0.

Results of the measurement model support the theoretical relationship among faculty trust in principal, faculty trust in colleagues, faculty trust in students, and principal trust in faculty. Both directional hypotheses were supported: enabling school structure had a strong, direct effect on a culture collective trust and collective trust had a strong, direct effect on school performance.

The sample consisted of schools in one urban district in the southwestern part of the USA, and collective trust only operationalized the social dimension of instructional capacity.

Regular and consistent measures of collective trust have the potential to improve how administrators at site and district levels manage the implementation of improvement strategies designed to build capacity.

Many theoretical discussions treat trust as a constitutive property of capacity building, but few studies have empirically tested a priori models that specify relationships among structures and processes aligned with instructional capacity, collective trust, and school performance.