DOI
10.1007/s13412-016-0409-2

Summary
This paper is concerned with the sustainability learning opportunities associated sustainability assessments on university campuses. The author is associated with a university that completed their application for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating Systems (STARS). STARS is administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The application requires organisations to provide data in 70 areas. The aim of this study is the propose a program that would engage students with the university sustainability assessment. The proposal for the program is derived from two sources. 1. An account of the role in which the Environmental Studies and Sciences (ESS) contribute to campus operations and 2. Theory derived from Donella Meadows’ community sustainability projects. Meadows advocated for critical analysis of indicators, community participation and communication. Davey details the background literature of sustainability auditing, taking direct quotations from valuable studies. She describes the history of US university sustainability auditing and makes reference to the lack of utilisation of internal community expertise to enhance the project. She references Hornig (1999) who states that student engagement with real world experiential learning/problems of community interest promotes teamwork and group-responsibility for the task at hand.

Davey goes on to discuss Donella Meadows and Alan AtKisson’s viewpoints on developing sustainability indicators through the inclusion of experts and community members and the many benefits this brings.




The proposed tasks for students involves Meadows’ challenge of choosing ten indicators from a STARS report. Students would be encouraged to examine each indicator they see fit for selection and delineate what data could be derived from them and what the potential indicators may reveal. Following the process of the community indicators project model, students are asked to make comment on their decisions and draft a list of key sustainability indicators from members of the university community and other stakeholders. Sustainable Seatle by AtKisson provides various useful resources for engaging the university community. An emphasis is placed on the learning objective of outreach to the university community and the opportunity for students to demonstrate the value of their chosen indicators to the receiving groups. Finally, the students are required to prepare their data and present it using graphics and informative text. The end result would be a valuable list of various thought out assessment indicators and a critical guide to the STARS data produced.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This study is relevant to the development of student understanding in sustainability auditing in universities with a focus on developing a community project approach. The study presents a dense literature review and historical review of the development of sustainability auditing and community sustainability projects.

An alternative definition of sustainability was found “A focus on sustainability brings a fuller recognition that both social well-being and environmental quality are necessary to the long-term health of a community”.

A definition for systems thinking was found “Systems thinking often examines how the presence, absence, or delay of information can drive a systems’ behaviour”.

In selecting relevant sustainability indicators, Davey points out that projects such as Sustainable Seattle and systems thinkers such as Donella Meadows and Sustainable Seattle organiser Alan AtKisson emphasised critical evaluation of potential indicators and community participation in their development.

The review and discussion of literature makes the case for the inclusion of expert and community member in align sustainability indicators with the most efficient outcomes.

Point of Strength
The paper provides useful literature on community driven projects and how their inclusion can maximise the efficiency of a sustainability audit. Although the proposed student engagement program is not developed in a methodological manner (readily applicable), it does open the possibility for a further study or development of this method in HEI practice. The proposed program could be viewed as method of reimagining teaching at HEIs. The student tasks could be realigned as a PBL.