Abstract
The mission of any educational institution is to prepare students to be productive, engaged, and socially responsible leaders in an increasingly global society; thus, educational institutions, as places of learning, are in a unique position to affect change on both local and global scales. In this chapter, Western Kentucky University (WKU) serves as a case study site to illustrate how a university can use collective, innovative thinking to participate effectively in the sustainability movement. The sustainability efforts at WKU aim to reduce college costs, increase retention, increase employability, and foster civic and community skills. Efforts related to energy conservation, effective education, and the development of a healthy campus community at WKU are highlighted.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsFuture Reading
Aber, J., T. Kelly, and B. Mallory. 2009. The Sustainable Learning Community: One University’s Journey to the Future. Lebanon: University of New Hampshire Press.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Available at: www.aashe.org.
Bartlett, P.F., and G.W. Chase. 2004. Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Egan, T. 2006. The Greening of America’s Campuses. The New York Times, [online] January 8. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/education/edlife/the-greening-of-americas-campuses.html.
Farrell, J.J. 2010. The Nature of College: How a New Understanding of Campus Life Can Change the World. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
Filho, W.L. 2000. Sustainability and University Life. 2nd ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
———. 2009. Sustainability at Universities—Opportunities, Challenges and Trends. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Greener Campus Webinar Series. Archives of Past Webinars available at: http://www.nwf.org/Campus-Ecology/Events/Greener-Campus-Webinars.aspx.
Simson, W. 2008. The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge of Environmental Sustainability. Alexandria: APPA Association of Higher Education.
Uhl, C.F., and A. Anderson. 2001. Green Density: Universities Leading the Way to a Sustainable Future. Bioscience 51 (1): 36–42.
References
Orr, D. 2004. The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Palmer, J. 1998. Environmental Education in the 21st Century: Theory, Practice, Progress, and Promise. Abingdon: Routledge.
Phillips, A. 2011. Institutional Transformation. In The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: Skills for a Changing World, ed. A. Stibbe. Cornwall: Green Books Ltd. Part 2.
Reynolds, H.L., ed. 2010. Teaching Environmental Literacy: Across Campus and Across the Curriculum. Vol. 38. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sterling, S. 2004. Higher Education, Sustainability, and the Role of Systemic Learning. In Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability: Contestation, Critique, Practice, and Promise, ed. P. Corcoran and A. Wals. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
Western Kentucky University. 2016. Western Kentucky University Fact Book. Bowling Green. https://wku.edu/instres/documents/2016_fact_book.pdf. Accessed 1 Sep 2016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
North, L.A., Ryan, C.N. (2018). Green Universities: The Example of Western Kentucky University. In: Brinkmann, R., Garren, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71389-2_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71389-2_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71388-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71389-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)