Defining Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions

People interact with each other based on shared meaning. In the absence of shared meaning, organizations fail to identify and achieve goals. Focus is generally placed on how to engage, fund, and achieve sustainability across HEIs, and the conceptual problem of what sustainability means is often overlooked. This exploratory analysis examines how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the United States define sustainability. Definitions of sustainability were collected from 131 Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) reports submitted between March 2017 and March 2020. Through thematic coding, four definition themes emerged: 3-dimensional, intergenerational, environmental, and ethical. The 3-dimensional and intergenerational themes were the most common, with 11 different combinations of themes identified among the definitions. The majority of definitions described sustainability as an anthropocentric concept rather than an ecocentric concept. How sustainability is defined and communicated is important for the coordinated progress toward global sustainability goals. Further, the implications of various definitions should be acknowledged when identifying strategies to advance sustainable practices in higher education.