Contribuições para um modelo de universidade verde: competências e comportamentos para a sustentabilidade

Abstract

Universities, an organizational complex type, are continuously required to contribute to the discussion of sustainability, mainly because it is an educational environment and not just productive, as the industries and other sectors. These institutions have the ability to encourage the transformation of society to a more sustainable development through a reorientation of existing education systems and structures and expanding the focus of curriculum and education practices for new configurations that meet the formal context, nonformal and informal, as well as the workplace, further education and public awareness (UNESCO, 2014). The period established as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) has enabled many advances in the area, but further changes are necessary in the curriculum, in teaching practices and research conducted. In this scenario, some institutions have realized the potential of the campus as a laboratory for practical initiatives for sustainability, creating a sustainable ethos. The campus where there is concern about the impact of operations by reducing consumption and the propagation of sustainable value to society sets what you want to call a Green University or Green campus. In line with these concepts, this study investigated the environmental influences on the capabilities of the academic community. The objective was to understand the contribution of a Green University model to the competences and behaviors of the academic community (students, teachers and technicians) for sustainability. And for this purpose, a case study was conducted in the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS, making use of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques. The qualitative results characterize what is proposed to be call a Green or Sustainable University, emphasizing the environmental management system of the institution and the Applied Sustainability in different Schools. The quantitative results explore a survey of the academic community, drawing on a sample of 1.054 questionnaires. In the findings, a description of the set of generic competences for sustainability and ecological behaviors is presented by the academic community. Also analyzed was the relationship between ecological behaviors, competences for sustainability and contributions to environmental variables. Finally, we present three significant models that explain the university's contribution to the behavior, the university's contribution to the competences and the perception of Green University.