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Sustainability at Universities: Degrees of Institutionalization for Sustainability at German Higher Education Institutions—A Categorization Pattern

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Book cover Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education

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

Abstract

Fostering sustainability at universities, and especially its institutional implementation has increased worldwide in recent years due to the global challenges that come along with climate change, the growing consumption of natural resources, and the transformation of science as well as educational systems. In Germany, different approaches of implementing the notion of sustainability at higher education institutions (HEIs) can be observed: Some HEIs focus on topics of sustainability in their curricula and study programs and conduct corresponding research projects, others relate to sustainability as an overall governance concept and define their organizational profiles accordingly. Some HEIs use a systematic Whole Institution Approach to implement Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) while some others have redesigned single parts of their institutional structures, e.g. to reduce their universities’ ecological footprint. How can the various activities for sustainability at HEIs be typologized and evaluated? Based on a screening of sustainability reports and websites of German HEIs, this paper will identify four different degrees of sustainability-institutionalization in order to offer a categorization pattern that can be used for a rough estimation as well as a self-assessment-tool. This paper also specifies related prototypical examples to showcase various approaches to institutionalize sustainability at German HEIs. Limitations and further research perspectives are discussed. Additional questions that may be considered in order to enhance HEI’s internal sustainability actions are posed.

The authors contributed equally to this paper.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1300.

  2. 2.

    As far as the authors of this paper know, there aren’t any similar considerations yet about specifying types and degrees of institutionalizing the notion of sustainability at HEIs, although it has to be recognized that there is a growing number of valuable publications dealing with conceptualizations and appropriate ways of operationalizing sustainability at HEIs, e.g. the works of Müller-Christ (2013), Holdsworth and Thomas (2015), Palma and Pedrozo (2015) and Lozano et al. (2015).

  3. 3.

    Currently, more sustainability reports are available from even more German HEIs. The authors of this paper decided to limit information about HEIs to those out of the study from Sassen et al. (2014) due to practical reasons.

  4. 4.

    A similar comprehension as put forth by Heinrichs and Laws (2014) in analyzing German Federal Policy in general, though no explicit definition of “sustainability institutionalization” is given in that paper.

  5. 5.

    In Germany, a university and a university for applied science “Fachhochschule”/”Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaft” are comparable with the difference between universities and colleges in the United States.

  6. 6.

    Sassen et al. (2014) respectively to the date of foundation http://www.hnee.de/de/Hochschule/Portraet/Portraet-K292.htm [in 1992 the present HNE Eberwalde came out of the in 1830 founded *Höheren Forstlehranstalt*].

  7. 7.

    A “sustainability self-assessment” for HEI, offered by Müller-Christ in „Hochschulen für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung – Ideen zur Institutionalisierung und Implementierung“ (2013; S. 64–67) and in „Hochschulen für eine Nachhaltige Entwicklung. Nachhaltigkeit in Forschung, Lehre und Betrieb“ (2011; S. 60–71), which should promote an internal discussion at HEIs about implementation and institutionalization of sustainability. Further provides this assessment a concept for an internal self-checking about the current situation of implementing sustainability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Hilmar Westholm, Sophie Palm, Maya Schikora, (UHH KNU) for their critical comments and administrative support on the draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences”, Ulmenliet 20, 21033, Hamburg, Germany

    Kathrin Rath

  2. Universität Hamburg, Kompetenzzentrum Nachhaltige Universität (KNU)/Center for a Sustainable University, Mittelweg 177, 20148, Hamburg, Germany

    Claudia T. Schmitt

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  1. Kathrin Rath
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Correspondence to Kathrin Rath .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Passo Fundo , Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  3. Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra , Coimbra, Portugal

    Paula Castro

  4. Office of Sustainability, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, USA

    Julie Newman

Appendix

Appendix

(See Table 1).

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Rath, K., Schmitt, C.T. (2017). Sustainability at Universities: Degrees of Institutionalization for Sustainability at German Higher Education Institutions—A Categorization Pattern. In: Leal Filho, W., Brandli, L., Castro, P., Newman, J. (eds) Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education . World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47868-5_28

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