• Energy Research

The influence of humanity on the environment and the use of natural resources may be affected by spirituality, through awareness for developing a greater conscience about the implications of human actions and needs to adjust these in achieving sustainable development. However, the literature indicates a lack of consensus about operationalizing spirituality outside the management field and its connection with sustainability. This study focused on the relation between these topics in the educational sector and investigated whether spirituality informs the teaching and research of sustainability within higher education curricula. An online survey was administered to a convenience sample (n=100) of academic staff working at higher education institutions in 25 countries. The questions posed by the research instrument included open-ended and multiple-choice queries, that yielded qualitative and quantitative data. Overall, the results suggest that there is widespread awareness about making connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the usefulness of including spiritual aspects in sustainability teaching and research practices. However, there are some elements which hinder progress in this area, such as a common understanding of spirituality definition and an apparent lack of training to handle matters related to spirituality as part of teaching and research. The study presents actions to promote a better integration of sustainability and spirituality, which include a greater emphasis on matters related to sustainability, human well-being, and ethics, a part of initiatives on spirituality, and involvement of key stakeholders. peer-reviewed

Sustainability is typically discussed in a siloed fashion in the United States. Cradle-to-cradle production and regulation to curb greenhouse gas emissions are proffered as salves for evidenced degradation, but little attention is directed to how a society can enable sustainability as a cultural norm. Further and related, the role of the individual economic agent as consumer, investor, and government participant is seemingly not acknowledged. To a large extent, the population majority delegates the powers conferred in the three roles to a minority largely through indifferent conveyance posited on trust, leaving outcomes impacting society as a whole dependent on incentives of a few, who may or may not be aligned with the public welfare. Therefore, given the evidence of marketed demand fostered by a consumerism based economy, perhaps the most significant, powerful, and traction-inducing vehicle for instituting sustainability may be found in enabling conscious consumption at the individual level. Arguably, the conduit for conscious consumption would then be education not limited to defining sustainability, but inclusive of the rationale for sustainability, the patience requisite for implementation, and the acceptance of sustainability as a societal norm of behavior. However, the building block for conscious consumption is found in understanding the basis of present consumption decisions, ultimately the values that shape the behaviors that lead to observable economic outcomes (Venkatesan 2015).

This paper is the outcome of a course project for Economics of Sustainability (Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts). Facilitated and under the direction of the instructor, course participants designed a survey instrument where questions and responses were developed to be indicators of behavioral bias related to the environment. The consumer good targeted in the survey was convenience-based coffee consumption, and convenience was defined by the use of single-use disposable coffee cups. The discussion highlights the survey development process including literature review-based expectations specific to each question. The paper concludes with next steps, which involve the administration of the instrument and evaluation of the survey results.

Governance issues, here interpreted as the provisions of adequate policy frameworks characterised by reliability and accountability, coupled with resources to support their implementation, are known to be the basis for the implementation of sustainable development measures. This paper discusses the influence of governance in the ways sustainability is perceived and practiced in a higher education context. Apart from due considerations to the role of governance as the basis for regulation and institutional actions and management decisions, this paper reports on an empirical study undertaken in a sample of higher education institutions (HEI). This study entailed an analysis of sustainable development policies, certification, organisational structure, budget, reports, team for sustainability, staff training, and challenges for the integration of sustainability and governance. The results suggest that even though there are different opinions and attitudes on the role of governance, it is regarded as an important component in supporting efforts by higher education institutions to include considerations on sustainable development as part of their strategies.

Across the United States primarily on a town or city basis, the increasing public awareness and understanding of the detrimental impact of human activity on the environment is fostering the development and visibility of grassroots sustainability efforts. This is most readily noted in plastic bag, Styrofoam, and plastic bottle bans. These efforts have been typically facilitated by education campaigns focused on the symbiotic relationship between human life and the planet and the intrinsic or non-market derived value of the ecosystems we inhabit. However, often the communication strategy employed has been limited by an appeal to a like-minded stakeholder constituency, reducing the traction benefit from engaging other stakeholders and the subsequent en masse alignment with regulatory intent. This paper details a grassroots effort and the stakeholder engagement process related to a specific ban. It describes the development and implementation process as carried out through a university-town partnership, where the approach taken includes proactive stakeholder engagement inclusive of a consumer survey instrument. Though survey results reveal interest and even concern for the environment, interestingly the results also highlight a self-evaluation bias among respondents. Results show that respondent perception of environmental concern is inconsistent with their actions, providing an entry point and justification for multi-channel education and communications strategies differentiated by stakeholder grouping.

How are consumption decisions made? Does demand drive supply, does supply drive demand, or is it a mixture of both? Do consumption decisions implicitly include our values or are our decisions made with an assumption that what we are consuming has already factored in the long-term best interests of human health and environmental well-being? These basic questions are often unaddressed in the introductory study of economics. Instead, assumptions related to consumption and production behavior, demand, and supply are embedded as representative of consumer and producer behavioral norms, typically with minimal discussion. Could implicit assumptions promote observable behavior rather than be indicative of it? If so, could increasing awareness of the role of embedded values in demand and supply influence behaviors of consumers and producers and thereby alter economic outcomes? These questions were addressed as part of an introductory economics course case study. The purpose of the study was to raise awareness of the implications of individual purchasing decisions and to specifically initiate students in self-evaluation of their individual values and the values embedded in their individual consumption behavior. The results of the study promote the view that increasing awareness of the holistic impact of consumption behavior may be a significant catalyst to promoting sustainability.

Economics is the study of human behavior in relation to a resource-constrained world. The discipline is a behavioral science. From this perspective, economics incorporates the evaluation of both individual and societal behavior within the context of prevailing cultural values to assess resource use, constraints and sustainability relative to anthropomorphic or human-focused resource utilization. However, many cultural values can be described as legacy, defined as an inheritance from a previous generation. Additionally and related, unless there is a continuous assessment and reassessment of and between social actions and societal frameworks, there can be a delay in the needed responsiveness to modify cultural values. The latter statement addresses the need for promoting awareness of the parameters that define sustainable consumption. This paper explores one example of how increasing awareness of the assumptions embedded within supply and demand, as overtly visible in “fair” market prices, can increase awareness of the inherent responsibility of consumption decisions. Using a replicable life cycle cost assessment assignment, the author provides a rationale and outcome for the incorporation of a sustainability project in the teaching of introductory economics.