What is it about?

Universities can have both positive and negative impacts on urban sustainability. On the positive side, they can contribute to reduce poverty, inequality, and improve innovation and infrastructure. However, on the negative side, universities can also be a factor in decreasing responsible consumption and production.

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Why is it important?

“It took significant time and effort for universities to become the economic drivers that we see today,” Vien Ha, the leading author, says. “Looking into the future, climate change will continue to be a defining challenge for the foreseeable future. Our findings highlight that there are still a lot of opportunities for higher education to make more of a difference in surrounding communities.”

Perspectives

"A new study finds that universities scoring strongly on measures of sustainability are associated with innovation and economic growth in their surrounding communities. However, the study did not find similar connections between university sustainability performance and environmental sustainability in their home communities"

Ha Vien
North Carolina State University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Individual and interlinked SDGs: higher education institutions and metro area sustainability performance, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, February 2024, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ijshe-06-2023-0231.
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