Barriers on the path to sustainability: European and Canadian perspectives in higher education

摘要

In higher education, the term sustainability is often used to describe a positive movement to becoming more socially and environmentally responsible. The road to sustainability is not even. To pursue the path in a meaningful way, there are various elements that need to be considered and a number of matters to be taken care of, from proper planning, to appropriate methods for monitoring progress and measuring success. While maintaining the status quo is usually quite simple for universities, becoming more socially and environmentally responsible is not easy, given the current framework and mandate of the modern university. In this paper, we explore the challenges and barriers universities face when navigating the path to sustainability, and offer example cases from European and Canadian perspectives. It is our hope that this approach will be useful for readers in order to better understand and identify the challenges and issues universities currently encounter in pursuing sustainability. [References: 29]