The Functional Dynamics of Green Universities Executive Summary This report considers the varying levels of commitment with which different Australian universities are engaging with the imperative towards environmental sustainability across the dimensions of infrastructure, management and education. It draws upon existing research into sustainability initiatives undertaken by universities in Australia and internationally. Collating information available on the websites of six different Australian universities, the report shows that an expressed commitment to environmental sustainability is being expressed across the broad spectrum of institutional engagement: teaching and curricula design; research and planning; resource management and infrastructure. The choice to gather data from university websites has been made with the specific aim of understanding how universities represent themselves as sustainable entities. By juxtaposing this information against current analyses of sustainability trends and managerial discourses the report also demonstrates that Australian universities generally are being shaped by global and community concerns: they are responding to rather than defining and leading the debate. Although the approach means that the insights provided into sustainability practices and policies at each institution are necessarily limited, the focus of this report is on the complex interface between sustainability reporting, managerial discourses and the contested mission of twenty first century universities. The primary aim of the report is to suggest a model for integrating green initiatives across the different structural facets of higher education institutions; one which enables a consistently environmentally conscious approach while accommodating itself to the many variables typical of individual universities. The report and the model it describes is intended to initiate further discussion about the ways that universities can function as authentically sustainable communities in the 21st century. As Universities negotiate the difficult space between innovation and accountability, “green scorecard� complacency and managerial discourses of containment will continue to be attractive options. However, if a deep and full engagement with all the issues presented by sustainability is to be achieved then universities must exercise their traditional mandate to inform public discourse and advance knowledge. Management must allow a spectrum of diverse and alternative discourses to influence decision making if universities are to truly meet the sustainability challenge which faces us all. The authors acknowledge and thank the NTEU for providing the funding that made this report possible.
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The Functional Dynamics of Green Universities