Environmental sustainability

environmental sustainabilityABSTRACTUniversities, as centres for readiness responsible and well-educated humans, prep ar students to respond to the intellectual, social, and personal challenges that they exit face in community. To this end, universities will take use of various resources. In this regard, the question which rises is to what extent the earthly concern ahead(p) universities take their environmental state into consideration and how committed they atomic number 18 to environmental sustainability. This newsprint aimed to explore this issue by depicted objecting the human beings big make pass 10 ranked universities. The take up sample included Harvard University (US), University of Cambridge (UK), Yale University (US), University College capital of the United farming (UK), Imperial College capital of the United Kingdom (UK), University of Oxford (UK), University of lolly (US), Princeton University (US), mommy wreak of Technology (US), and atomic number 20 demonstrate of Technology (US). The required data was collected through the subject field summary of the sacksites and annual fields of the mentioned universities. Findings of the paper showed that all the studied universities were involved in a number of various environmental activities and were committed to their environmental responsibilities. The findings of the paper can be a benchmark for other universities. Since the environment is an crucial pillar of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and vital part of sustainability, the findings present grave implications for CSR policy of universities. INTRODUCTIONAll humans withdraw a moral obligation to preserve the planet and there is no plea for doing nothing to improve the environmental state of the globe. This excessively applies to institutions of gameer teaching (Christensen et al., 2009). Organizations such as companies or universities are usually responsible for the knockout environmental degradation we have witnessed (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008 Hoffman and Woody, 2008 Haden et al., 2009). no(prenominal)adays, higher upbringing institutions can reasonableness significant environmental impacts (Jabbour, 2010). Many of them, payable to their larger-than-life size, expressive run of people and vehicles, high consumption of materials, and strong development of complex activities, may be considered as small t possesss (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008). Therefore higher education institutes have a great environmental responsibility toward society. This could be through training graduates with suitable environmental knowledge as well as environmental plans and programs to rationalize waste and preserve environment. Now, the question which arises is how aware universities are toward their environmental responsibilities toward society. To answer this question, this information will investigate the issue among world top 10 universities through reviewing their website content and annu al subject fields. Although previous studies have been conducted in this area, they are mainly case studies considering only one university. This study, however, considers 10 supranational universities at the same time and tries to provide a general ikon of how aware and responsible world top universities are toward environment. Since the environment is an important pillar of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and vital part of sustainability, the findings of this study have important implications for CSR policy of universities.ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN UNIVERSITIESSustainability is a class of resource use which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of incoming generations to meet their needs. The main idea of sustainable development is to achieve the dour satisfaction of human needs. Environmental management may be define as the study of all technical and organizational activities aimed at decrease the environmental impact caused by a comp anys business operations (Cramer, 1998, p. 162). Although initially caned for companies, this definition can overly be applied to service field and universities. Universities apply various resources to provide quality education for students. This, in turn, will cause impacts on the environment. Several simple examples of these impacts are electricity consumption, exertion of waste and CO2 emission caused by daily printing of large numbers of papers. A number of dimensions define environmental management examples (Aragn-Correa, 1998 Klassen Angell, 1998 Klassen Whybark, 1999). As Cspedes-Lorente et al. (2003) mention, Peattie and Ringler (1994) drew a distinction between software and ironware environmental activities. Software activities are those focused on organizational issues such us systems, procedures, audits and manuals, whereas hardware activities are concerned with technological change to reduce the environmental impact of the firm. Environmental sustainability refer s to the environmental actions or impacts of what we do. There are a number of studies considering the issues of sustainability and environment in higher education. A study by Wright (2010), examined how a cohort of university presidents and vice-presidents in Canadian universities fancyualize sustainable development, sustainable universities, the role universities play in achieving a sustainable future, cite issues facing the university, and the barriers to implementing sustainability initiatives on campus. They showed that although the absolute majority of participants were well versed in the concept of sustainable development, they were less familiar with the concept of a sustainable university. However, majority of them were dedicated to having their university become more sustainable. The participants also listed financial predicaments, lack of spirit and awareness of sustainability issues amongst the university population, and a resistance to change as the main barriers in the path of sustainability. Pollock et al. (2009) also insisted that complex and ineffective governance, traditional disciplinary boundaries, and the lack of a shared vision at academic institutions a lot hinder universitys progress toward leading the world to a more sustainable and desirable future. Furthermore, a study by Rauch and Newman (2009) in Yale University explored how an institutional target can lead to greater community action and long-term perpetration than if no specific target is established.METHODOLOGYSimilar to a think study by Capriotti and Moreno (2007), this paper used a content analysis methodology to analyze the websites of the top 10 world universities ranked by Times Higher Education (THE, 2009). This investigate studied the content of the university functionary websites and tried to identify universities environmental practices, procedures and plans. To this end, we have reviewed all the related web pages of the universities (including news, media, de partment web pages, etc.) and not just direct links from the homepage.The study sample included Harvard University (US), University of Cambridge (UK), Yale University (US), University College capital of the United Kingdom (UK), Imperial College London (UK), University of Oxford (UK), University of Chicago (US), Princeton University (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), and California Institute of Technology (US).FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONThe findings of this research shows that world leading universities are in some way or another involved in environmental practices and committed to their environmental responsibility. dining table 1 summarizes the diversity of the areas which these universities are involved in. Table 1Environmental practices of studied universitiesEnvironmental Practice12345678910 step-down of greenhouse gas emissionsaaaaaaaaaareducing in the use of fossil fuels and increase in the use of renewable resourcesaaaaaaaaaaWaste recycle and managementaaaaaaaa dr op-off of water useaaaaaaGreen buildings and environmentally responsible architectureaaaaaaaRunning an narrow environmental centre/ networkaaaaaaaaaaReduction of the environmental impact due to the use of paperaaaaIncrease of environmental awareness among staff studentsaaaaaaaaaaMinimisation of environmental impact due to materials and service used by the universityaaaaaaaaMinimisation of environmental impact due to travelaaaMaintenance of university sites in an environmentally sensitive wayaaaaaaGreen purchasing for university procurementaaaaa1 Harvard University (US), 2 University of Cambridge (UK), 3 Yale University (US), 4 University College London (UK), 5 Imperial College London (UK), 6 University of Oxford (UK), 7 University of Chicago (US), 8 Princeton University (US), 9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), 10 California Institute of Technology (US).With the growing concern on climate change almost the globe, most of the universities are taking this issue into consi deration. For instance, Harvard University monitors and publishes its greenhouse gas emissions statistics across its various schools in North America campus. As shown in their report (Harvard, 2008), the university managed to totally decrease its greenhouse gas emission to the amount of -2.3% in year 2008 compared to year 2006 in their North America campus. At Harvard, they also notice the issue of green buildings through defining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) projects. As mentioned in their environmental report (ibid.), LEED is a rating system for green buildings and provides a nationally accredited third-party verification that a building project meets the highest performance standards. Similarly, in University of Cambridge, a student network named Architecture sans Frontires (ASF) considers the possibilities of a new socially and environmentally responsible architecture. Through lectures and exhibitions, this network aims to get people view about how bui ldings can respond to the needs of society and the environment (Cambridge, 2007). Yale University also has an office of sustainability where they run various projects such as LEED rating. Similarly, California Institute of Technology utilizes the LEED standard to ensure its buildings meet and maintain a high level of energy, water and resource efficiency. In another instance, Imperial College London was recognised by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) for the efforts of the Facilities counselling department to reduce its carbon production. Interestingly, University of Chicago has an interesting website called green devolve where they provide information related to health and environmental topics at the University of Chicago and share tips with visitors on how to live a greener life (Chicago, 2006). The university also provided eco-tip of the calendar month in its website. Overall, all the studied universities take their environmental responsibility s everely and are involved in this regard. CONCLUSIONThis study showed that world leading universities are aware of their environmental impacts and have taken essential stairs toward sustainability. Many of them have defined annual plans with objectives to achieve. This can be considered as a benchmark for other universities around the globe. However, the key to success of such plans is commitment from all levels of management specially top leaders. As discussed by Wickenberg (2006) and cited by Axelsson et al. (2008), the norm support given by the leaders of the universities is necessary and crucial to success in topical anesthetic implementation of sustainability plans. This is supported by the research of Christensen et al. (2009) who showed that in spite of adopting an environmental policy and signing an organisation to work for sustainable universities, Aalborg University (Denmark) failed to reach its objectives due to the lack of commitment from top management, the missing acc eptance from technical staff, and a narrow understanding of the universitys environmental impacts. Other universities and their leaders can benchmark these plans and culture to organize their own sustainability and environmental plans. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe first author would like to thank Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for living this research through providing Vice-Chancellor Award. 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