Purpose: This paper aims to propose a thesis about the historical evolution of the relationship of the European University in relation to the idea of social responsibility. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is philosophical, conceptual and theoretical and in proffering a bold thesis, has an argumentative character appropriate to that style.…

Purpose: This paper aims to present the case of a semester-long study-abroad education class in Italy. This course explored place-based methods that classroom teachers (K-12) might use to connect students' outdoor surroundings to extend the lessons they learn in school about environmental sustainability. The experience of the university instructor…

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce a case-based module teaching sustainable engineering, linking the Envision rating system with behavioral decision science. Three complete modules are publicly available in a repository for any instructor to adapt, use and review. Design/methodology/approach: A case study was written about the Tucannon River…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to contribute to aligning higher education towards meeting the challenge of global sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: The barriers to sustainability are juxtaposed against the resources, responsibilities and potential of higher education. Ideas from several models and from within several disciplines are…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to point out the necessity of implementing more appropriate approaches instead of the traditional single disciplinary approaches, in order to be able to cope with the ill-defined, highly complex problem of sustainable development in systems such as organizations or regions. Design/methodology/approach: Based…

This paper is a discussion of a team-taught interdisciplinary course that was designed to provide cohesion between the 12 departments that participate in the environmental studies major at Salisbury University. This course provides a model for addressing several positive and negative tendencies at work in interdisciplinary programs, and provides…

When sustainable development (SD) is only taught in specific courses, it is questionable if engineering students are able to integrate it into their engineering practices and technical designs. For this reason, sustainability should also be integrated into regular engineering courses, e.g. design courses, materials courses or processing…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of the Agriculture Engineering School of Barcelona (ESAB), where undergraduate students were involved in field research experiments on organic waste use in agricultural systems. Design/methodology/approach: The paper outlines how the formation of professionals oriented to work for…

The department of geography and environmental studies of the University of South Africa recently played a pivotal role in implementing an inter- and multidisciplinary undergraduate programme in environmental management. This programme prepares students for entry-level occupations, and equips them with the knowledge, skills and values needed to…