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Students’ Opinion About Green Campus Initiatives: A South American University Case Study

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Part of the book series: World Sustainability Series ((WSUSE))

Abstract

Institutions of Higher Education are of strategic importance to increase the awareness on sustainable development. The Green Campus initiative intends to implement infrastructure on university campuses which have concrete and visible environmental, economic, and social impacts. These impacts are to be obtained through the involvement of campus members, sustainable infrastructures, classes, research, management, communication and through outreach. These initiatives develop resources for environmental education efforts to reach campus members in efforts to teach about sustainable development. Therefore, this research intends to analyze a South American University student’s opinion about sustainable development (people) and university infrastructure for sustainable development (place). This study was developed by descriptive statistics techniques, and by a survey that resulted in 305 answers from students at the Business Department of the University. This article will increase the academic knowledge about Green Campus through empirical data and will provide recommendations for the next path regarding sustainable initiatives in Higher Education Institutions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was conducted by the Center of Sustainable Development/Research Centre on Energy Efficiency and Sustainability (Greens), from the University of Southern Santa Catarina (Unisul), in the context of the project: Building Resilience in a Dynamic Global Economy: Complexity across scales in the Brazilian Food-Water-Energy Nexus (BRIDGE), funded by the Newton Fund, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC) and the Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK).

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Correspondence to João Marcelo Pereira Ribeiro .

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Ribeiro, J.M.P. et al. (2019). Students’ Opinion About Green Campus Initiatives: A South American University Case Study. In: Leal Filho, W., Bardi, U. (eds) Sustainability on University Campuses: Learning, Skills Building and Best Practices. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15864-4_26

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