Abstract
Institutions of higher learning are integral players on matters regarding sustainable development. Institutions of higher learning have incorporated sustainable development not only into their curriculum but also into their operating environments. The sustainability of higher education institutions provides a platform for mutual prosperity in the long run and therefore warrants the interrogation of sustainability at institutions of higher learning. Despite this importance, most of the research has been in the northern hemisphere. Very little research has been conducted in the Southern hemisphere, particularly in Africa. This chapter draws insights from a qualitative study. The findings revealed that UKZN had implemented several sustainability initiatives to manage energy and water. The institution also faced numerous challenges in the management of sustainability initiatives such as municipal services, staffing problems, poor communication, lack of knowledge and skills, poor infrastructure, no written policies, and weak collaborations with businesses.
TopBackground
Research carried in Canada on 50 Canadian high education institutions identified that issues around sustainability need to be addressed in different portfolios (Vaughter 2016). The sustainability dialogue has become universal which has seen these conversations being critical in workshops, seminars, conferences and various other fora (Er & Karudan, 2016). UKZN is one of those instutions where the curriculum has been aligned to address issues on sustainability. Conferences hosted in collaboration with international partners have also incorporated sustainability discussions.
Research has proved that higher education institutions are best equipped to address issues on sustainability and to find solutions to the problems, but the challenge of sustainability in higher education institutions continues (Shriberg 2002; Alshuwaikhat and Abubaker 2008; (Abubakar, Al-Shihri, & Ahmed, 2016).
Even though higher education institutions have recognised that education at all levels can be a powerful tool to promote sustainable development and this led to the concept of ‘education for sustainable development’, higher education institutions are still faced with internal and external challenges (Mohammedbhai, 2015).
Some of the external challenges are global competition, innovative technology, economic volatility, declining sources of income and student demands, which can have impact on the campus management services (Byrant 2013). It is possible for campus management to manage the internal challenges, but the external problems are challenging to manage due to forces beyond one’s control.
Higher education institutions have more challenges than corporate businesses as they have to incorporate sustainability to all areas of campus administration, which becomes an operational challenge (Krizek, Newport, White, & Townsend, 2012).
It is further argued that higher education institutions have to practice sustainability in every area of campus administration, which then becomes more challenging and complex than corporate businesses (Velazquez, Munguia, Platt, & Taddei, 2006) and (P E Corporate Services, 2018).
Furthermore higher education institutions have to focus on many areas such as research, service delivery and education and each discipline focuses on achieving discipline goals working in silos and in the process the institutional goals are not attained which contributes to the success of the institution (Krizek, Newport, White, & Townsend Alan, 2012).
Sometimes higher education institutions focus on integrating sustainability in their curriculum but will fail to implement a sustainability initiative in campus operations (Krizek et al. 2012) (Amaral et al., 2015). Campus operations have to provide numerous services to a complex environment, so the work is focused in many areas, and as a result, the level of services is not of a high standard (Krizek et al., 2012) (Er & Karudan, 2016).
Just like large corporate businesses, higher education institutions also have to respond to global competition, and domestic competition and sometimes higher education institutions have to adjust their programmes to be competitive, and in the process the enrollment figures can decrease which can have a negative impact on the institution’s finances (Krizek et al. 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Sustainable Development: Is the development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Open Innovation: An approach to innovation where innovators inside and outside the company work together in the same innovation process.
Extended Chain of Responsibility: This term describes how responsibilities migrate from a single company’s stakeholders to all stakeholders along the supply chain.
Sustainability Reporting: Is a communication tool that aims to neutrally, concisely and completely communicate social, environmental and economic business activity and performance.
Communication Barriers: Are circumstances that impede successfully sending, receiving and understanding a message.
Triple Bottom Line: Balancing the social, environmental, and economic outcome of any activity. Any activity in order to contribute to sustainable development needs to achieve a neutral or even positive triple bottom line.
Sustainability Balanced Scorecards: Strategically plan social, environmental and economic business performance. They provide a management system that integrates not only profit and non-profit goals but also long term and short-term thinking.
Integrated Communication: A holistic communication concept integrating communication with all stakeholders, internal and external communication, manifold communication tools and the activities of many communicating functional departments such as the marketing, public relations and human resources department.
Stakeholder Management: Is a specialised responsible management instrument that aims to manage a company’s stakeholder relations. Stakeholder management can be divided into the phases of stakeholder assessment and stakeholder engagement.
Sustainability Indicators: Are qualitative and quantitative metrics aiming to document and control social, environmental and economic business activity performance.