Introduction
Sustainability is not a deal, compromise or balance cannily struck between the interests and needs of the present and those of the future. All such deals are pseudo-deals, lacking warrant in principle and in practice liable to subversion by bad faith. Rather, sustainability is living the present in ways which – so far as we can tell, and given some luck – will allow us to go on, indefinitely, negotiating an unpredictably emergent reality (Foster, 2008, p.156).
Governments, corporations and institutions have become increasingly more environmentally aware over the last three decades (Calder & Clugston, 2002; Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2006). The management practices and policy decisions of universities have been impacted upon by this trend (Lee & Dunstan, 2010), as have curriculum planning initiatives. As argued by Cortese (2003), Lozano (2006) and FerrerBalas et al (2008), universities have a unique capacity to direct scholarly and public discourse in the sustainability debate and to establish themselves as exemplars of environmentally sound practice and long-term vision. In many ways this is already occurring. Levin, President of Yale, has pointed out that “…universities have begun to take the lead, along with enlightened corporations as well as municipal and provincial governments, in setting standards for carbon emissions that are substantially more restrictive than those adopted by national governments” (Levin, 2008). 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. An earlier study completed by Lang, Thomas and Wilson (2006) reviewed findings of research into the adoption of education for sustainability (EfS) in Australian universities between 2000 and 2005. While all of these research studies indicated an expressed level of interest in education for sustainability at different universities, they all also remarked upon the lack of consistency and integration across curricula, disciplines and institutional structures. The most recent of the studies reviewed by Lang et al observed that “a handful of sustainability initiatives currently exist in Australian further and higher education institutions but these tend to focus on single projects to address sustainability as opposed to taking a more systemic view of learning and change across the institution” (Tilbury, Keogh, Leighton & Kent, 2005). The question which resonates throughout this report and which it seeks to answer is both simple and confronting. Are universities doing enough to meet the sustainability challenge? This report draws upon the research of Lang et al (2006), as well as those earlier studies and updates the review of sustainability initiatives in Australian universities to the present time (2010). Substantial research into EfS at school and higher education levels has already been undertaken, most notably by ARIES (Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability). We also examine education for
The Functional Dynamics of Green Universities
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