Importance Of Sustainability In University

Sustainability is a concept of thinking about the future in which the economic, environmental and social dimensions are connected and are balanced in the pursuit of a quality life. Universities can be considered as ‘small cities’ because of their huge population, size and happenings in campus, which could cause serious direct and indirect effects to the environment. In recent years, sustainability has burst into the higher education scene and universities play a major part in addressing environmental problems because their education, research and general participation can create long-term outcomes. While numerous conservation safety measures can be observed at some universities, a more organized and sustainable method to decreasing the harmful

Due to this problem, many people do not have a full understanding of the concept of sustainability. According to Alshuwaikat and Abubakar (2007), “a sustainable university campus should be a healthy campus environment, with a prosperous economy through energy and resource conservation, waste reduction and an efficient environmental management, and promotes equity and social justice in its affairs and export these values at community, national and global levels”(p. 1778). Thomas (2004) also made several researches and found that sustainability contains several meaning to it, mainly, sustainability is the need to accept the probability of survival of our species, an attitude of care or stewardship and the practical competence required to act on the basis of knowledge and feeling. Thomas also discovers that sustainability is too abstract and lacks scientific basis. Like many concepts, sustainability is unclear and lacks clear learning outcomes (Stewart, 2010). Sustainability itself has become a fragmented field of thought; definitions abound. Some equate sustainability with sustainable development, while others equate sustainability with narrowly construed notions of the environment. I believe that education system around the world should come up with a general or universal definition for the word sustainability and the concept of sustainability in higher education so that university staffs and students will have a clear and precise understanding of the word