Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Higher Education and SDG12 focuses on how higher education institutions worldwide are furthering Sustainable Development Goal 12 ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’ through the integration of knowledge and practice toward sustainability in their campuses, curriculum, collaborations, and cultures.
Offering an international view, the chapters present research findings, recommendations, and practical insights from countries in the Global South and North addressing challenges relating to campus operations, changes in the curriculum, collaborations with industry and communities, and cultural change. Real world examples of innovative approaches globally are offered in teaching and learning, community involvement, partnerships with industry, activism and the empowerment of students, with academics and communities leading change on the SDG12 agenda. A dedicated resource for fostering sustainable development in higher education, the book offers a structured approach to identifying and developing sustainability practices. Showcasing a wide array of responsible consumption and production solutions, this insightful text equips educators, administrators, and policymakers with the necessary resources to drive meaningful change.
Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals is a series of 17 books that address each of the SDGs through the lens of higher education. Adopting a solutions-based approach, each book focuses on how higher education is advancing delivery of Agenda 2030. The series is edited by Wendy Purcell, Professor with Rutgers University and Academic Research Scholar with Harvard University; Emeritus Professor and University President Emerita.
Higher Education and SDG12 presents a call for the tertiary sector to consider the sustainability and ethics of production and consumption of goods; in one sense, from built-in obsolescence of mobile devices to fast-fashion in industry, and more specifically to higher education, what universities can do to be more sustainable. At the heart of this call is a plea to educate and work with students - as stakeholders of the future and as partners with academics.
The book editors bring their extensive expertise of working with the Sustainable Development Goals in the context of Education for Sustainable Development, along with creative approaches to learning and teaching that are celebrated in the international case studies within each chapter. These illustrate what is possible through the lenses of campus, community, curriculum, and culture, while asking us to reimagine what might be possible for a more sustainable and brighter future.
— Dr Vicki Dale, University of Glasgow
This book is for everyone interested in the future. As higher education faces an identity crisis, this book provides a vital narrative reclaiming the university’s purpose by dissolving the rigid boundaries between campus, community, and curriculum. The authors demonstrate that solving complex sustainability challenges requires a complete reimagining of how we collaborate through transdisciplinary action. Ultimately, this is a rallying cry for Transformative Learning, shifting the paradigm from metrics to empowerment. The book recognizes students as ethical co-creators capable of leading a responsible, equitable revolution.
— Dr Nathalie Tasler, Senior Lecturer Academic Development
This book features case studies from international authors at different stages of their career and showcases work at different levels of maturity. These diverse perspectives are coherently framed by themes of campus, community, curriculum and culture and together usefully illustrate how a range of practical approaches can be shared to advance SDG12.
— Professor Liz Price MBE, Manchester Metropolitan University
The Higher Education and SDG12 book makes a timely and important contribution to how higher education understands and enacts Sustainable Development Goal 12. Rather than treating responsible consumption and production as a narrow operational concern, the editors reframe SDG 12 as a systemic, pedagogical, and cultural challenge for universities. What is particularly compelling is the way the book bridges theory and practice-moving seamlessly from critical debates about neoliberalism, education for sustainability, and transformative learning, to richly grounded case studies that show what change looks like in real institutional contexts.
The strength of this volume lies in its refusal to see students as passive consumers of education. Instead, it positions them as co-creators, citizens, and agents of change, while also holding institutions to account for what they consume, produce, and normalise. The international scope, interdisciplinary perspectives, and emphasis on campus, curriculum, community, and culture make this a highly relevant resource for academic leaders, educators, and sustainability practitioners seeking to move beyond symbolic commitment toward meaningful transformation.
This is not a “how-to” manual, but something more valuable: a thoughtful, critically engaged, and practice-informed invitation to rethink the purpose of higher education in an age of ecological and social urgency.
— Dr Obehi Sule, Senior Lecturer and Academic Developer, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Higher Education and SDG12 arrives at exactly the right moment, bringing sharp and insightful analysis to a series that continues to demonstrate the essential role of universities in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. By focusing on responsible consumption and production, this volume offers a clear and necessary intervention at a moment when higher education institutions are increasingly challenged to move from aspirational rhetoric to genuine transformational impact on sustainability. A distinguishing strength of this book is its insistence that universities must see themselves not only as knowledge producers but as complex systems whose own practices, cultures, and partnerships materially shape global sustainability outcomes. Through its international scope and solutions oriented approach, the book provides educators, leaders, and policymakers with both inspiration and practical insight—showing how HEIs can transform their operations, pedagogy, and collaborative community and industry partnerships to create meaningful change. It is a rigorous, thought provoking, optimistic and constructive contribution that underlines why SDG12 must be central to the mission and responsibilities of higher education.
The chapters collectively illuminate how SDG12 is being activated across campus, curriculum, community, and culture, offering a rich set of practices and perspectives that avoid any tendency towards oversimplification, but respect the complexity of the challenges faced. The book showcases how students, academics, and partners can co create new ways of thinking about responsible consumption and production. Innovation case studies present transformative learning pedagogies including immersive simulation, digitally enabled learning ecologies, sustainability hubs, interdisciplinary problem- and project based learning, global citizenship education, and even a pressure cooker collaborative learning model. Case studies from the Global South and North highlight innovative collaborations with industry, community organizations, and creative sectors, demonstrating how HEIs can serve as living laboratories for circularity, ethical practice, and sustainable leadership. One case study even considers the role of responsible consumption and production for reconstructing war-ravaged national cultures. The book showcases how responsible consumption and production can reshape the values, behaviours, and structures that define higher education, and challenges universities to be a decisive force in re-shaping a more just and sustainable future.
— D. Theresa Nicholson, Manchester Metropolitan University
Romas Malevicius is Assistant Professor in Marketing at King’s Business School, King’s College London, UK.
Beatriz Acevedo is Associate Professor in Creative Education at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, and has worked for 20 years in Education for Sustainability.
Introduction: Re-Imagining Responsible Consumption and Production in Higher Education Institutions; Romas Malevicius and Beatriz Acevedo
Theme 1. Campus
Chapter 1. Embedding Sustainable Development Goal 12 into Healthcare Education in Universities: Inspiring Change for Sustainable Practice; Siân Shaw
Chapter 2. Digital Innovations in Higher Education: Fostering Sustainable Development and Responsible Consumption; Norita Ahmad and Mai Zaki
Theme 2. Community
Chapter 3. Sustainability Hub for Engaging Stakeholders: A Case Study; Indrė Lapinskaitė, Rūta Mikučionienė, and Asta Radzevičienė
Chapter 4. Changing Education for Sustainability: The Sustainability Pressure Cooker; Saulius Buivys and Ron Ainsbury
Theme 3. Curriculum
Chapter 5. Product Development Project as a Sustainable Course for Academia and Society; Dainora Maumevičienė and Jurgita Stravinskienė
Chapter 6. Student Experiences of Personal Transformation through Sustainability Education: A Case Study from a UK University; Parminder Summon
Theme 4. Culture
Chapter 7. Education for Sustainable Development and Peace in Fashion and Apparel in Sri Lanka; Mihirini de Zoysa and Beatriz Acevedo