Sustainability at HEIs: mapping good practices

Abstract

Global climate change is a cognitive challenge for many people and often evokes negative associations due to its complexity and interactions with politics, social movements and economic developments. Therefore, the possession of green skills becomes central to the fight against climate change. The European Council conclusions recognize this urgency and underline the need for a transition to green skills. This recognition also extends to higher education, where institutions have a crucial role to play in tackling the climate crisis. Personal Green Skills in Higher Education (PeGSinHE) is an Erasmus+ KA2 project coordinated by Kauno Kolegija (KK, Lithuania), Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK, Finland), Hochschule für Agrar- und Umweltpädagogik (HAUP, Austria), Universidad de Málaga (UMA, Spain) and Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg Schweinfurt (THWS, Germany). The strategically designed project aims not only to promote green skills among students and encourage personal behavioral change in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, but also to instill a sense of social responsibility in the partner institutions. The focus is on empowering lecturers at partner universities through innovative teaching and learning methods to effectively impart green skills to students. This report describes the objectives and methodology used to assess environmental and sustainability competencies in the higher education institutions involved in the project. Methodologically, the report uses an assessment template designed to provide a comprehensive overview of best practice and baseline levels of environmental and sustainability competencies. It advocates the involvement of key stakeholders from all five partner Higher Education Institutions to ensure a broad perspective on these practices and competences within their respective countries and organizations. Different methods and perspectives will be used to collect data to enable a holistic understanding of the topic. The joint completion of the assessment template serves as a catalyst for joint discussions on the level of environmental and sustainability competencies and the identification of best practices in each organization. The results show that national implementation strategies are relatively loose, although some competency descriptions set targets for undergraduate degree programs. Challenges faced by higher education staff include resource constraints, particularly lack of time, the need for a deeper understanding of sustainable development and pedagogical tools, and the need for improved opportunities for collaboration. Given the time and resource constraints of this study, the results must be considered preliminary. Nevertheless, they confirm the findings of previous studies.