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Higher Education Sustainability Professionals

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

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Definition

Sustainability professionals can be understood as the campus sustainability champion, meaning the person who integrates sustainability in all aspects throughout the institution. The sustainability professional serves as a change-maker, action plan creator, quality controller, and connector. Additionally, the sustainability professional collaborates their office or department with all offices on campus and with the initiated institutional plan, and also serves as a leading educator, among a team of educators, at the intersection of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability.

Higher Education Sustainability Professionals

For nearly three decades, policymakers have looked to higher education as an auspicious site for cultivating social change within the sustainability forefront. After a series of international meetings and declarations on the integration of sustainability into higher education, institutions are now – more than ever – challenged to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Higher and Postsecondary Education Program, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Jessica Ostrow Michel

  2. Comparative International Education Program/Department of International and Transcultural Studies, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Erika Kessler

Authors
  1. Jessica Ostrow Michel
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  2. Erika Kessler
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Correspondence to Jessica Ostrow Michel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

Section Editor information

  1. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Erin Hopkins

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Michel, J.O., Kessler, E. (2019). Higher Education Sustainability Professionals. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11352-0_146

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