The Lüneburg Sustainable University Project in international comparison: An assessment against North American peers

Purpose – To assess the Luneburg Sustainable University Project (the Project) in a non‐European international context; to relate the project scholarly approach to selected scholarly and practice‐oriented North American sustainability in higher education (SHE) methods; to analyze project innovations against North American initiatives.Design/methodology/approach – Benchmarking indicators were developed inductively in four SHE areas – governance/administration, curriculum/student opportunities, research/scholarship, and operations – via thematic content analysis of 15 descriptions of USA and Canadian universities active in SHE. Data were triangulated with data from the four Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Campus Sustainability Leaders 2006.Findings – The assessment against selected North American peers suggests that the project is unique in its scholarly approach to and scientific foundation of sustainability in higher education. The transdisciplinary transformative case...

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