Green campuses: the road from little victories to systemic transformation

Abstract

This article contributes to an emerging dialogue about how we can accelerate progress towards institutionalizing a commitment to campus environmental sustainability throughout the university sector. It seeks to utilize progress made to date, in the field of “greening” universities, looking deeply into these experiences, to learn from them and to start revealing how they may inform us to move into the realm of widespread institutional transformation. It presents a range of insights, lessons learned and preferred approaches emerging from seven years of implementing campus environmental programs in universities both in Australia and the USA. Many of these ideas have been further informed during a Churchill Fellowship, spent investigating campus environment initiatives in over 30 universities in Europe and the USA. To assist in giving further weight to the material presented, it draws upon the work of a various authors of organizational change, leadership and management publications. The subject‐matter is wide‐ranging as it is intended as a starting‐point for the reader to pick and choose ideas that may warrant further investigation in their own university context. Even though many of the ideas presented need further exploration and development, in their current state they may prove of some value to the reader as a catalyst for a different level of institutional analysis.

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