Diagnòstic comparatiu sobre la sostenibilitat al sistema universitari català

Abstract

For the last several years, there has been a strong incentive to foster environmental awareness in all spheres of society, including universities, considered a key element in promoting environmental sustainability. The Catalan university system has promoted such principles by incorporating sustainability in the different strategic plans of its institutions, creating internal bodies to promote it and kickstarting several programs and activities. Catalan universities are certainly implementing different measures to become more sustainable; however, it has been difficult to compare the progress they have made so far, since each university has its own directives and has followed different paths. There is a lack of a common methodology to promote environmental sustainability, and the efforts made by each university are varied. The present work contains a comprehensive research of the different initiatives, programs and activities performed by each university within the Catalan system to achieve environmental sustainability. They are classified into six categories, given the fact that they all share the same core objective. After evaluating each university, we have produced a series of tables and report cards to compare and contrast the work they have carried out so far. This study hopes to promote inter-university collaboration to achieve an environmentally sustainable university system. We conclude that the Catalan university system is following the right steps towards achieving sustainability, but there is still a long road ahead