The Erasmus+ project GET-AHED, coordinated by WPZ, and the UNISIMS project at TU Dresden both focus on the strategic potential of self-assessment tools for environmental sustainability to support the green transition in the higher education sector.

“Sustainability self-assessment for HEIs and its potential for sustainability strategies”

HEIs play a crucial role in promoting environmental sustainability and advancing sustainable development in society. In this context, sustainability disclosure is a suitable instrument for communicating social responsibility and presenting internal sustainability assessment of the entire institution in accordance with the whole-institution approach. However, even if an increasing number of HEIs is interested in disclosing information regarding their sustainability performance, there are hardly any standardized or defined sustainability assessment and reporting processes or criteria specifically for HEIs.

The projects UNISIMS (co-funded by the “German Federal Foundation Environment”) and GET-AHED (co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+-programme) are seeking to deliver on this endeavour. Both projects are aiming to develop tools for sustainability self-assessment which are to allow for standardised and strategic sustainability reporting at HEIs. This proposed paper focuses on the projects’ potential for embedding sustainability self-assessment tools in HEIs’ sustainability strategies.  

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