Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Sustainability is a major issue for all organizations in the twenty-first century. Increasingly, corporations are being encouraged or required to address sustainability by boards, stockholders, and other stakeholders - and are exploring and implementing sustainable practices to improve both the environment and their own competitiveness ([11] Rusinko, 2007). At the same time, institutions of higher education are exploring means to integrate sustainability into curricula ([4] Cusick, 2009; [12] Rusinko and Sama, 2009).
Over the past several years, there have been a growing number of studies on how to integrate sustainability in higher education (SHE). Some of the more recent studies include [1] Benn and Dunphy (2009), [8] Lidgren et al. (2006), [9] Lozano (2006), [13] Roome (2005), [15] Sammalisto and Lindhquist (2008), and [16] Scott and Gough (2006). Several of these studies tend to be case-oriented, and/or focused on an individual course, program, or institution ([1] Benn and Dunphy, 2009; [8] Lidgren et al. , 2006; [13] Roome, 2005; [15] Sammalisto and Lindhquist, 2008). In this, the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), there seems to be a relative shortage of broader, more general frameworks for integrating sustainability into curricula in higher education ([15] Sammalisto and Lindhquist, 2008); therefore, that is the focus of this paper.
This paper presents a generic matrix of options with respect to how to integrate sustainability in curricula in higher education. The matrix is applicable at course, program, and cross-disciplinary/cross-university levels; users can include faculty and administrators. The matrix is flexible in that users can move between and among options, and can implement multiple options simultaneously. Users can start at whichever option (or quadrant) is most comfortable and appropriate for them with respect to integrating sustainability into their curricula. While many of the examples focus on a business school and how it can integrate sustainability both internally and beyond school boundaries, the matrix is applicable to all curricula in all universities, and can be applied internationally. This type of matrix is consistent with perspectives and recommendations by researchers in SHE such as [8] Lingren et al. (2006), [15] Sammalisto and Lindhquist (2008), and [16] Scott and Gough (2006), in that it uses a broad focus (rather than a specific example); it includes dimensions of sustainability...