Universities’ Reporting on SDGs: Using THE Impact Rankings to Model and Measure Their Contribution to Sustainability

Development and validation of the Environmental Health Literacy Index: a new tool to assess the environmental health literacy among university students

Environmental health literacy (EHL) is a rather recent concept that applies health literacy skills to environmental issues. Research in this field is still at the beginning, and there is currently no existing tool in the literature designed to comprehensively assess individual general EHL among university students. The aim of our study is to fill this gap through the validation of the Environmental Health Literacy Index (EHLI) in such a target group. We adapted a previously administered survey, originally completed by 4778 university students from various Italian universities. Starting from the original questionnaire, our methodology involved a three-round item selection process, followed by a comprehensive evaluation of the instrument's psychometric properties. The EHLI consists of 13 Likert-type items, covering three primary domains of health literacy: functional (six items), interactive (three items), and critical (four items). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.808 for the global scale, while it stands at 0.888 for the functional, 0.795 for the critical, and 0.471 for the interactive components. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve reached a value of 0.643. Spearman correlation analysis revealed a significant yet slight correlation between EHLI and both functional health literacy score and the extent of pro-environmental behaviors adoption. Our study serves as an important initial step in developing a tool able to evaluate the EHL of university-aged individuals. Further research efforts may improve the questionnaire's validity and completeness, as well as to explore its applicability to different age groups.

The role of universities in accelerating the sustainable development goals in Europe

The process of implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were approved by the UN General Assembly in 2015 has not been simple, being influenced by variety of social, economic, and logistical problems. It has also been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are to date no specific studies aimed at assessing the extent to which higher universities institutions in Europe are active in the SDGs implementation process. Departing from this research need, this paper reports on a study aimed at examining the current degree of engagement of European universities in the implementing the SDGs. By using a multi-methods approach, which entails a review of existing documents, a survey involving participants from 22 countries and case studies, the paper maps, documents and disseminates examples of what European universities are doing to implement the SDGs, the challenges they face, and the solutions being deployed to overcome them.

Influence of sustainability in the positioning of the university brand: Study in universities in Medellín-Colombia

The implementation of university sustainability affects brand perceptions by conferring attributes related to commitment and reputation, especially by students. The proper management of sustainability is related to an improvement in the university brand perceived by its stakeholders, including students. For this reason, this research aims to analyse whether university sustainability positively affects brand positioning among university students. For this purpose, a theoretical and quantitative mixed-method investigation is proposed that allows the establishment of a structural model in which the relationships between the dimensions of university sustainability with the dimensions of brand positioning are evident. The empirical analysis found that some dimensions of university sustainability, such as the institutional framework, campus operations and some dimensions of the substantive functions, positively affect brand positioning in university students and generate commitment to the university from both the prestige and reputation of the brand.

Top 100 highly cited sustainability researchers

The announcement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provided a fresh direction to sustainability research that spans different disciplines. Consequently, scholarly databases made available the mapping of research publications to different SDGs, unleashing many opportunities for analysis. In this work, the top 100 Highly Cited Sustainability Researchers (HCSRs) and information related to them, such as the institutions they belong to, the type of these institutions, the geographical diversity of these researchers, and gender representation patterns, are analyzed. Also, from their publications, their publication pattern, including (i) the least and most researched SDGs, (ii) their Open Access publishing pattern, (iii) their collaboration pattern (iv) the pattern of their research impact, are analyzed. The most sought thematic areas of their research, top journals in which they publish, important research categories handled by these journals, etc., are also investigated. The most significant contribution of these researchers and their recent contributions are also discussed. The data indicates a significant disparity in research focus among the top 100 HCSRs, with most concentrating on "Good Health and Well Being," "Zero Hunger," and "Quality Education," while notably fewer researchers focus on "Decent Work and Economic Growth" and "No Poverty," underscoring the need for a more balanced research agenda across all SDGs. The study reveals that the United States, China, and the United Kingdom are the leading contributors to the top 100 HCSRs, suggesting that these countries are predominant in global sustainability research output, while nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia also make notable, albeit smaller, contributions. The institutional affiliations of HCSRs show a significant imbalance, with only 16 from private institutions compared to 84 from public ones. Specifically, it shows that out of the top 100 researchers, 93 are men, while only 7 are women. The analysis of authorship in publications by HCSRs reveals a tendency towards middle and last author positions, underscoring their collaborative and leadership roles within the research community. All these analyses can inform academia, industry, and policymakers about the most significant developments in research regarding SDGs.

Research trend in Sustainable Development Goals reporting: a systematic literature review

This paper examines the common themes delivered in studies on corporate reporting in relation to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Articles of the aforesaid studies were mostly acquired from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) archives from year 2015 to 2022 in which the contents were carefully reviewed for selection. To systematise the literature, PRISMA 2020 statement is used. Descriptive analysis reveals an increase in publications on corporate SDG reporting, although most are focused on developed nations. The analysis also shows a scarcity of studies on the consumer goods, agricultural, fishery, and forestry sectors. Furthermore, current studies have yet to adopt a qualitative or mixed-method approach. There are fundamentally six themes that emerged from the review of literature-the degree of SDG engagement, the quality of SDG reporting, the determining factor in SDG reporting mechanism, the consequences of SDG reporting, the legitimisation approaches, as well as the institutional/stakeholder pressure. For determinants of SDG reporting, it is observed that environmental governance is not explored. This paper identifies the least addressed SDGs that businesses can focus on to accelerate their SDG contribution rate. This paper guides future research and informs decision-making by organisations and stakeholders interested in promoting sustainable development through SDG reporting.

Promoting sustainable development goals: Role of higher education institutions in climate and disaster management in Zimbabwe

This article seeks to explore the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in climate change adaptation and disaster risk management (DRM). The study is based on the qualitative desk review, thematic and document analysis and uses the theory of change to facilitate a road map for HEIs in strengthening professional human development, policy consistency in dealing with climate-induced natural disasters (CINDs) research and policies. Academic journals covering the role of HEIs in climate and disaster management in Zimbabwe were selected on google scholar. Reviewed documents include universities’ curriculum documents, government disaster policy documents and other related disaster management policy protocols. The article’s findings reflect that HEIs in Zimbabwe have been engaged in climate change education and DRM as the country and the region are prone to threats posed by extreme weather events in the form of tropical cyclones and extreme droughts. The article concludes that HEIs core mission that includes public engagement to advance achieving sustainable development goals in Zimbabwe is growing at a steady pace to find ways to avert the impact of climate change and put strategies in place to respond to disaster to minimise social, environmental and economic losses posed by disasters. Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) is enhancing people’s resilience in Chadereka village in Muzarabani through disaster preparedness training. National University of Science Technology (NUST) is also training communities on disaster concepts, disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.

Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education Rankings: Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Internationally Comparable Indicators

As more higher education institutions strive to embed sustainable development principles in their teaching, it becomes increasingly important to identify indicators that can measure institutional contribution in a meaningful and internationally comparable manner. This paper shows that existing sustainability rankings, such as the UI Green Metric and THE Impact ranking, have paid relatively little attention to indicators on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In a quest to develop such indicators for U-Multirank—the multi-dimensional transparency and ranking tool—we reviewed the literature, consulted experts, and ran a survey amongst practitioners. This article summarises opportunities and challenges for developing internationally comparable ESD indicators in the higher education sector, discussing indicator relevance, validity, and feasibility. The results suggest that (i) ESD indicators are considered highly relevant by diverse stakeholders; (ii) the majority of HEIs surveyed are planning to collect ESD data within 3 years, signalling good prospects for data feasibility; (iii) the ESD indicators proposed so far still lack criteria that would allow one to sufficiently identify and compare these indicators across countries, inhibiting indicator validity. At least three potential definitions are used by HEIs. The results of this paper can contribute to the discussion on identifying appropriate criteria for the development of ESD indicators and their use in international rankings.

Gender Reporting Guidelines in Italian Public Universities for Assessing SDG 5 in the International Context

Gender equity is a topic of significant interest for universities, who are called upon to plan strategies and measures to increase gender equality in line with international policies. With a qualitative methodology based on manual content analysis, the paper aims to understand whether and how this report could positively assess a university’s actions for reaching SDG 5. This study’s results show that the CRUI guidelines can be used by universities to disclose gender policies that may be of interest to stakeholders, and can also be synthesized in THE ranking, increasing university visibility. The present study could be helpful for universities, regulatory bodies, policy makers, and agency rankings to help them identify the most relevant gender items on which to focus their attention.

Sustainability Reporting at a Crossroads in Italian Universities: Is Web-Based Media Adoption Deinstitutionalising Sustainability Reporting?

Higher education institutions and universities have recently started to publish their sustainability and corporate responsibility reports. Yet, due to digitalisation and the benefits of digital reporting, websites offer organisations novel opportunities to communicate more updated, timely and interactive information than a periodic sustainability report. However, we know little about sustainability reporting practice within universities and their use of online communication. This study examines the relationship between sustainability reporting practices and web-based communication practices in Italian universities. We employed a qualitative enquire and content analysis of the sustainability web pages of Italian public universities by analysing their content and updates and their relationship with their adoption of sustainability reporting. Our results suggest there are risks to web-based media being used to replace sustainability reporting, resulting in a deinstitutionalising effect for sustainability reporting. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability reporting and disclosure in universities by exploring web-based university communication on sustainability issues and stimulating the debate on replacing sustainability reports with more timely and interactive forms of communication.

Determinant Factors of SDG Disclosure in the University Context

Universities are expected to have a leading role in the advancement, promotion, and achievement of the 2030 UN Agenda, embedding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across their four dimensions (teaching, research, campus operations and governance, and community outreach) and in their reporting cycles from a whole-institution perspective. In this landscape, academics and practitioners have started to assess universities’ commitment toward the global goals. Nonetheless, research on university SDG disclosure is still in its infancy, being limited to descriptive studies, single case studies, or national contexts. This paper aims to analyse SDG disclosure in the university context from a cross-country perspective. Specifically, it investigates the internal and external factors affecting the universities’ disclosure choices through an OLS regression technique based on multiple and complementary theoretical frameworks (i.e., legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory). Starting from the Times Higher Education (THE) world university ranking, the sample comprises 844 universities in 81 countries observed over the course of 2021. The empirical findings show a significant and positive impact of the institutional macro-context, university size, age, and diversity on SDG disclosure. The results aim to contribute to the debate by the academic community and policy makers on the universities’ commitment to fostering the awareness, collaboration, measurement, and achievement of SDGs.

Toward a Sustainable University: Babes-Bolyai University Goes Green

The present research aims to investigate the roadmap followed by a Romanian University implementing sustainability practices and thus contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Informed by the stakeholder theory lens, the study contributes to the literature by exposing, from a longitudinal perspective, the case of the evolving commitment toward a more sustainable future by Babes-Bolyai University. In order to provide empirical results relevant to the literature, the investigation followed a combination of qualitative methodologies oriented to demonstrate how the institution approaches the recently developed sustainable development goals. Informed by the stakeholder theory, the research represents one of the first studies focusing on university SDG disclosure. Despite the modest recognition of Romanian HEIs in international rankings, the present study outlines a convinced commitment and a clear pathway, of BBU, toward a more sustainable future. Our research’s originality relies on the selected institution and the university’s policies with the SDGs. The study provides fresh knowledge in the growing debate of SDGs and HEIs and outlines how such institutions can contribute toward sustainable development goals through means already available.

The Contribution of Higher Education Institutions to the SDGs—An Evaluation of Sustainability Reporting Practices

The introduction of Agenda 2030 has impacted the public and private sectors. Agenda 2030 is a document that aims to promote collaboration and partnership between countries and the population for the achievement of 17 SDGs, which cover all the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. Within the public organizations, higher education institutions (HEIs) have shown certain attention on the topic. In particular, for many HEIs, the publication of sustainability reports has represented an instrument to disclose and publicize their commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To shed light on the highly fragmented panorama of the disclosure of SDGs in the context of HEIs, the present study employed a content analysis on publicly available sustainability reports published only by the HEIs that adopted the GRI Standards as reporting guidelines. The results show the centrality of the social and environmental issues within the disclosed information. Moreover, the provision of a thematic analysis on the SDGs disclosure sections revealed the interest of the sampled HEIs in increasing the level of involvement of their stakeholders.

Campus Decarbonization: Students’ Perceptions for Reducing Meat Consumption in a Portuguese University

This study is focused on perceptions regarding meat consumption, targeting university students. This is a timely topic in a context of climate change (CC), sustainability in agri-food systems and in universities. Recently, some universities adopted food-related CC mitigation measures, by removing some types of meat from their canteens. This research intended to find trends, at a Portuguese university, on consumption habits and on willingness to reduce meat. The methodology follows a quantitative and descriptive approach. The universe is the students’ community from the University of Aveiro, with a random sample of 876 valid questionnaires. Although results show that meat is a substantial part of students’ diet, most of them are willing to reduce this product, and mainly for environmental reasons. Undergraduate students have higher level of awareness in this matter, namely from Natural Sciences. Female students are more receptive to diet changes. Further studies and educational actions on Diet-CC should be promoted in all levels of Academy, especially in PhD, Social Sciences and with gender differentiation. Such results may support an effectively participatory discussion to better decide on decarbonization of the Campus through the diet.