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Sustainability in Universities: DEA-GreenMetric

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  • Rosa Puertas

    (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia 46022, Spain)

  • Luisa Marti

    (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia 46022, Spain)

Abstract

Many universities are currently doing important work not only on environmental issues, but also on social and economic matters, thereby covering the three dimensions of sustainability. This paper used data envelopment analysis to construct a synthetic indicator based on the variables that make up the UI GreenMetric. The aim was to quantify the contribution of universities to sustainability, rank all campuses accordingly, and evaluate specific aspects of their related institutional policies. First, cluster analysis was applied, yielding four homogeneous groups of universities. DEA was then applied to these clusters in order to construct the synthetic indicator. The proposed indicator, DEA-GreenMetric, revealed that the USA and the UK were the countries that were home to the greatest number of universities actively involved in all aspects of sustainability. In addition, this new index provides a complete ranking of universities, circumventing the issue of the duplicate scores assigned by UI GreenMetric. Finally, it can be seen that greater efforts are required for universities to improve their performance relating to environmental variables (energy, water use, and waste treatment) than to make improvements in infrastructure, transport, or education.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosa Puertas & Luisa Marti, 2019. "Sustainability in Universities: DEA-GreenMetric," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:14:p:3766-:d:247036
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    2. Abdulhakeem Raji & Abeer Hassan, 2021. "Sustainability and Stakeholder Awareness: A Case Study of a Scottish University," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
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    9. Rami Alawneh & Ismael Jannoud & Hesham Rabayah & Hikmat Ali, 2021. "Developing a Novel Index for Assessing and Managing the Contribution of Sustainable Campuses to Achieve UN SDGs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Elena De la Poza & Paloma Merello & Antonio Barberá & Alberto Celani, 2021. "Universities’ Reporting on SDGs: Using THE Impact Rankings to Model and Measure Their Contribution to Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-28, February.
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    12. Puertas, Rosa & Guaita-Martinez, José M. & Marti, Luisa, 2023. "Analysis of the impact of university policies on society's environmental perception," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Libertad Moreno-Luna & Rafael Robina-Ramírez & Marcelo Sánchez-Oro & José Castro Serrano, 2021. "Drivers for Sustainability Awareness Development in Tourism Curricula: The Case of Spanish Universities," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Andreea Mirica & Ionela-Roxana Petcu & Liliana Catrina & Roxana-Violeta Partas-Ciolan & Adina-Andreea Neamtu, 2023. "Sustainability Competences In Romanian Higher Education," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 105-113, February.
    15. Laura Calzada-Infante & Ana María López-Narbona & Alberto Núñez-Elvira & Javier Orozco-Messana, 2020. "Assessing the Efficiency of Sustainable Cities Using an Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Manuel Muñoz-Suárez & Natividad Guadalajara & José M. Osca, 2020. "A Comparative Analysis between Global University Rankings and Environmental Sustainability of Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    17. Luis Alberto Mejía-Manzano & Patricia Vázquez-Villegas & Anthony Smith & Alfredo Soeiro & Anikó Kálmán & Tamer Atabarut & Nicolás Otaduy-Rivera & Jorge Membrillo-Hernández & Patricia Caratozzolo, 2023. "An Exploratory Study Examining the Key Aspects and Actions for Universities to Achieve High Sustainability Rankings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Yaser Mohammadi & Feyzallah Monavvarifard & Laleh Salehi & Reza Movahedi & Saeid Karimi & Genovaitė Liobikienė, 2023. "Explaining the Sustainability of Universities through the Contribution of Students’ Pro-Environmental Behavior and the Management System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, January.
    19. Andrej David & Peter Mako & Jan Lizbetin & Patrik Bohm, 2021. "The Impact of an Environmental Way of Customer’s Thinking on a Range of Choice from Transport Routes in Maritime Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, January.
    20. Nojavan, Majid & Heidari, Atefeh & Mohammaditabar, Davood, 2021. "A fuzzy service quality based approach for performance evaluation of educational units," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    21. Mercedes Gaitán-Angulo & Melva Inés Gómez-Caicedo & Maritza Torres-Samuel & Adriana Correa-Guimaraes & Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia & Carmen Luisa Vásquez-Stanescu & Rodrigo Ramírez-Pisco & Marisabel Luna, 2022. "Sustainability as an Emerging Paradigm in Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.

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