Developing a First-Time Sustainable Development Report for a Higher Education Institution: Process, Content and Format

Abstract

This thesis presents a seven-step process for sustainability report development within the higher education sector. Currently, there exists a variety of sustainability indicators and sustainability assessment tools to aid local governments, corporations and higher education institutions in sustainability performance measurement and reporting. Such variety illustrates the value-laden nature of defining sustainability, determining the relative importance of environmental, social and economic facets, and selecting performance evaluation methods. While the municipal and corporate sectors can benefit from step-by-step guidance on the process of sustainability reporting, such guidance is weak in the higher education sector. To address this issue, empirical evidence from the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) is complemented with an analysis of select municipal and corporate sustainability reporting processes to arrive at the seven-step process for sustainability report development at the higher education sector. Therefore, this thesis is of particular interest to practitioners undertaking sustainability reporting within the higher education sector for the first time.