Canadian STARS-Rated Campus Sustainability Plans: Priorities, Plan Creation and Design

Lauri Lidstone, Tarah Wright and Kate Sherren
Additional contact information
Lauri Lidstone: School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Kenneth C. Rowe. Management Building, 6100 University Avenue, Suite 5010, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Tarah Wright: Environmental Science Program, Faculty of Science, LSC 827, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Kate Sherren: School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Kenneth C. Rowe. Management Building, 6100 University Avenue, Suite 5010, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax NS B3H 4R2, Canada

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: The use of integrated sustainability plans is an emerging trend in higher education institutions (HEIs) to set sustainability priorities and to create a work plan for action. This paper analyses the sustainability plans of 21 Canadian HEIs that have used the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The plans were coded thematically with a focus on the sustainability goals, process of plan creation, and aspects of plan design outlined in the texts. This paper finds that sustainability goals focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability, while social and economic aspects were less emphasized. Further, most plans were described as being created through a broad stakeholder-consultation process, while fewer plans assigned timelines and parties responsible to sustainability goals. This paper contributes to our understanding of the priorities of Canadian HEI institutions at the end of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and is useful for practitioners interested in developing their own sustainability plans.

Keywords: sustainability in higher education; education for sustainable development; campus sustainability; campus planning; sustainability plans; Canada; post-secondary education; higher education; sustainable development; STARS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/1/725/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/1/725/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:1:p:725-746:d:44524

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().