Higher education institutions have been working to better incorporate and institutionalise sustainability into their system and with their stakeholders. An increasing number of which can serve as a proxy of how sustainability is institutionalised at the university; however, there has been little research on this. This paper is aimed at addressing this by using the case study of the University of Gävle, Sweden, which has been working with sustainability issues for the last 25 years. A survey was sent to 687 faculty and staff, of which 340 replied (a response rate 49.5%). The survey was a follow up from a previous one in 2010. The survey focussed on how faculty and staff (with main tasks in education, research, PhD studies, and technical/administrative or managerial duties) work with sustainability in their functions.
The responses highlighted an increased understanding and acceptance of the sustainability work of the university and give an input from personnel for continued operational sustainability activities at the university. The results of the latter survey show that the social dimension is more prominent when compared to the survey in 2010, where the environmental focus was dominating. This indicates that the perception of sustainability is more balanced throughout the university. The findings also show that faculty and staff: understand the principles of sustainability; discuss spontaneously sustainability and its implications to their work; and have, to a great extent, integrated it into their daily activities, such as management, education, and research. Sustainability at the University of Gävle has gone beyond the stage of incorporation and is moving towards a better and deeper institutionalisation. It is important to engage with the university stakeholders, where faculty and staff play a key role in this process, to better institutionalise sustainability at universities.
The research was limited by the type and number of respondents from the university. These are also affected by the respondents’ perceptions.
2b. Educating for sustainability
