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This article presents the design and development of the ‘Trébol (Clover) Programme’, a tool which allows us to improve environmental sustainability in the university environment by reinforcing the education, awareness, and training of its members. The system for certifying ‘good practice’ is divided into four progressive levels, and a certificate is awarded in order to demonstrate the environmental commitment acquired to third parties. The aim of the whole process is to create a practical forum for participation, communication, motivation and competence, which is necessary to foster effective pro-environmental behaviour. The study took place at the University of Córdoba (Spain), and, since it began in the 2013/2014 academic year, over 50 groups a wide range of areas have taken part, making a total of nearly 600 participants. The results show that the Trébol Programme enables environmental commitment to be put into practice, through continuous, systematised, participative and well-organised improvements in environmental performance. Its potential as an educational resource for environmental improvement should also be noted, by boosting environmental awareness and establishing new norms. It fits in well with the principles and areas of action of Education for Sustainable Development, and can be applied to universities and other settings to bring about a shift towards sustainability in the fields of teaching, research and management.
Antonio Gomera; Ana de Toro; José Aguilar; Clara Guijarro; Miguel Antúnez; Manuel Vaquero-Abellán. Combining Management, Education and Participation for the Transformation of Universities towards Sustainability: The Trébol Programme. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5959 .
AMA StyleAntonio Gomera, Ana de Toro, José Aguilar, Clara Guijarro, Miguel Antúnez, Manuel Vaquero-Abellán. Combining Management, Education and Participation for the Transformation of Universities towards Sustainability: The Trébol Programme. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):5959.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAntonio Gomera; Ana de Toro; José Aguilar; Clara Guijarro; Miguel Antúnez; Manuel Vaquero-Abellán. 2021. "Combining Management, Education and Participation for the Transformation of Universities towards Sustainability: The Trébol Programme." Sustainability 13, no. 11: 5959.
On their path to sustainability, universities must consider both individual and organizational components. Universities are organizations that also have the capacity to learn and evolve. By means of an analysis conducted over the past 20 years at the University of Córdoba (Spain), this article identifies the variables present in the University’s environmental sustainability process, characterizing its evolution through different stages and proposing an organizational model that orders these variables into a system within the framework of complexity. This model highlights the importance of a scientific-technical structure as catalyst, facilitator, and attractor of transformative flows within the organization, which could be a key component of its evolution towards sustainability. It also underscores the possibility of using environmental awareness and the perceived norm as indicators of the system. This characterization reveals the potential of these variables as indicators of progress and anchoring points for the permanent monitoring of the system, and it will also help to design potentially more effective and forceful actions and could prove valuable as a comparison indicator between universities.
Antonio Gomera; Miguel Antúnez; Francisco Villamandos. Universities That Learn to Tackle the Challenges of Sustainability: Case Study of the University of Córdoba (Spain). Sustainability 2020, 12, 6614 .
AMA StyleAntonio Gomera, Miguel Antúnez, Francisco Villamandos. Universities That Learn to Tackle the Challenges of Sustainability: Case Study of the University of Córdoba (Spain). Sustainability. 2020; 12 (16):6614.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAntonio Gomera; Miguel Antúnez; Francisco Villamandos. 2020. "Universities That Learn to Tackle the Challenges of Sustainability: Case Study of the University of Córdoba (Spain)." Sustainability 12, no. 16: 6614.
This paper presents a methodology to analyze the sustainability presence level in the curriculum of an engineering degree. The methodology is applied to ten engineering degrees of the Spanish university system, taught in three different universities. The design used for the research is quantitative and correlational. The analytical instrument used is the engineering sustainability map, which contains the learning outcomes related to sustainability that are expected of engineering students upon completion of their studies. The methodology is used to analyze the curricula of the ten engineering degrees in order to identify what learning outcomes of the engineering sustainability map are developed in each degree. The results indicate that the sustainability competency least present in all the degrees is the “participation in community processes that promotes sustainability,” with an average presence of 23.3%, while the most present is the “application of ethical principles related to the values of sustainability in personal and professional behavior,” with an average presence of 76.6%. In general, learning outcomes related to sustainability have an average presence of 52.1%, so practically half of the cells in the ten engineering sustainability maps are not developed in the degrees under study.
Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo; Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino; Bárbara Sureda; Miguel Antúnez; Ibon Gütierrez. A Methodology to Analyze the Presence of Sustainability in Engineering Curricula. Case of Study: Ten Spanish Engineering Degree Curricula. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4553 .
AMA StyleFermín Sánchez-Carracedo, Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino, Bárbara Sureda, Miguel Antúnez, Ibon Gütierrez. A Methodology to Analyze the Presence of Sustainability in Engineering Curricula. Case of Study: Ten Spanish Engineering Degree Curricula. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (17):4553.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFermín Sánchez-Carracedo; Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino; Bárbara Sureda; Miguel Antúnez; Ibon Gütierrez. 2019. "A Methodology to Analyze the Presence of Sustainability in Engineering Curricula. Case of Study: Ten Spanish Engineering Degree Curricula." Sustainability 11, no. 17: 4553.