Sustaining Policies- A Case Study Comparison of University Implementation of Sustainability Policies

Abstract

We are now more than halfway through the UN‟s “Decade for Education for Sustainability.” Universities around the world are working to teach and exemplify sustainable modes of thinking. This thesis is a case study comparison of two universities in Sydney, Australia who have declared a commitment to becoming more sustainable with a view to systemic transformation. The thesis outlines the different implementation paths of the University of Sydney and Macquarie University and concludes with the presentation of a model to explain the differences in implementation. Through inductive research, based on open-ended interviews, it is understood that the universities have achieved different levels of fulfilment in „groundwork factors‟ of Vice-Chancellor (VC) support, position in university structure and financial support. These factors are shown to affect the ability of sustainability teams to communicate and promote sustainability „visibility‟ on campus. Further analysis uncovers that Macquarie University has entered a „positive‟ capacity cycle that requires the sustainability team to be adaptive in their implementation while the University of Sydney is caught in a „negative‟ capacity cycle which stalls implementation.