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Sustainability Practices in Spanish Higher Education Institutions: An

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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Sustainability practices in Spanish higher education institutions: An

overview of status and implementation
Núria Bautista-Puig a, *, Elías Sanz-Casado b
a
Department of Industrial Management, Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering, University of Ga €vle, Kungsba
€cksva
€gen 47, 801 76, Ga
€vle, Sweden
b
Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU), University Carlos III of Madrid, Madrid 126, 28903, Getafe, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Higher education institutions have been steadily progressing towards the integration of sustainable
Received 30 March 2020 practices in their university system. Consequently, an increasing number of these institutions have
Received in revised form recognized their responsibility and are incorporating sustainability into their operations, and practices,
30 December 2020
following a holistic approach. Despite these efforts in the implementation, there are still many challenges
Accepted 7 February 2021
Available online 21 February 2021
to pursue sustainability. In the Spanish framework, there is a lack of studies that investigate sustainable
development in higher education by considering all the dimensions. Especially, the efforts of the Spanish
Handling editor: Dr Sandra Caeiro Universities in research have been scarcely analysed in detail. This study analyze how Spanish Public and
Private Universities (SUE) are integrating sustainability into their institutions by the following di-
Keywords: mensions: Research (based on a search strategy proposed by considering the social, economic and
Higher education institutions environmental perspective); Internationalization (participation in GreenMetrics ranking and European
Research for SD Framework projects), University Governance (Strategic Plans); Assessment and Reporting (Sustainability
Higher education for sustainable Plans) and Campus Operations (Green offices).
Sustainability science
The findings reveal that some institutions present a higher production of scientific activity on the topic
Bibliometrics
(e.g. UAB), while others with less production are more specialized (e.g. UA). The commitment of the
Implementation of sustainable
development universities has increased over time but it varies greatly among different kind of universities, especially
in favour of the public institutions. By analyzing the correlation between sustainability practice, it was
found that there are high association between some of the variables i.e. sustainability plan and having a
green office. However, this study clearly demonstrates that although SD is recognized as being very
important to HEIs and society, it is not yet embedded in the whole system’s strategies, activities, and
policies.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

1. Greening higher education institutions agents of change. The sustainability movement in higher education
has been rooted in the recognition of the greening university in the
Achieving sustainable development is a challenge, and all soci- environmental education movement of the 1960s and 1970s
etal actors need to participate. In this regard, higher education in- (Corcoran et al., 2004). This movement implies that all dimensions
stitutions (HEIs) should play an active and fundamental role in (academic, administrative policies or facilities management)
promoting sustainability practices. According to Hesselbarth and defined by Koester et al. (2006) comprise a “whole system
Schaltegger (2014), they should be leaders in the search for solu- approach”. These institutions have made great efforts to integrate
tions and alternatives to current environmental problems and sustainability into their actions. This progress is undoubtedly linked
to the different conferences held and the declarations and agree-
ments that emerged from them, especially, since 1990s (e.g. Tal-
loires Declaration, 1990 or the Halifax Declaration, 1991) or
Abbreviations: Higher Education Institutions, HEIs; Sustainable Development,
SD; Triple Bottom Line, TBL; Web of Science, WoS. initiatives such as partnerships or networks like the Higher Edu-
* Corresponding author. Department of Industrial Management, Industrial Design cation Sustainability Initiative (HESI) in 2012 (Corcoran et al.,
and Mechanical Engineering, University of G€ €cksv€
avle, Kungsba agen 47, 801 76, 2004). However, it has been highly debated that this signing
€vle, Sweden.
Ga commitment does not ensure the implementation of SD into their
E-mail addresses: Nuria.Bautista.Puig@hig.se, nbautist@bib.uc3m.es
(N. Bautista-Puig), elias@bib.uc3m.es (E. Sanz-Casado).
systems (Grindsted, 2011).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126320
0959-6526/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
For Velazquez et al. (2006) a sustainable university is a “HEIs
that addresses, involves and promotes, on a regional or a global
level, the minimization of negative environmental, economic, so-
cietal, and health effects generated in the use of their resources in
order to fulfil its functions of teaching, research, outreach and
partnership, and stewardship in ways to help society make the
transition to sustainable life-styles”. Regarding the implementation
of sustainability practices in higher education, no set of single
criteria is provided, only recommendations. As it is stated by
Corcoran et al. (2004): the field of sustainability is complex because
“there are no two institutions alike and within institutions, no two
schools alike”. For instance, there are factors such as the cultural
and national border that could affect the involvement in sustain-
ability. In the literature, different aspects or tools have been iden-
tified to measure sustainability (Yarime and Tanaka, 2012). While in
some universities being considered a “sustainable university is
based on having an environmental plan, environmental guidelines,
or a statement, others consider declarations, institutional policies,
or the implementation of the ISO 140001 standard, among others”
(Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008). According to Ryan et al.
(2010), sustainability at HEIs reaches “beyond individual curricu-
lum changes and isolated environmental practices and policies; it
also requires actions in academic priorities, organizational struc-
tures, and financial systems”. This is in line with Lozano (2013b,
2015), Cortese (2003) and Chambers and Walker (2016) that
pointed out sustainability can be approached at HEIs in the
following five dimensions: “a) education; b) research; c) campus
operations; d) community outreach; e) assessment and reporting”.
In other studies, participation in R&D projects or participation in
rankings (e.g. GreenMetrics) is seen as an indicator of
sustainability-related activities of these institutions (Bautista-Puig
et al., 2019; De Filippo et al., 2019). In this sense, sustainability can
be implemented in different dimensions in HEIs framework. This
has led to the emergence of the concept of sustainable higher ed-
ucation institutions (SHEIs) (Almarshad 2017; Aleixo et al., 2017).
As Caeiro et al. (2013) have stated, “the emergent fields of sus-
tainability science and Education for Sustainable Development
have advanced the efforts toward sustainability from the HEIs but
despite some progress, only a few institutions follow a holistic
implementation”. That is, not all the universities incorporate sus-
tainability in all their dimensions. Moreover, for Lozano (2006a)
referring to Rogers study (1962), there are five stages of imple-
menting SD, corresponding to different groups of participants and
“most HEIs are in the first stages or early stages of SD imple-
mentation”. This fact suggests the implementation is a slow
procedure.
However, involvement in SD is voluntary for universities, and
many studies have described their resistance, which constitutes a
limiting factor. Universities are rigid structures as a result of the
existence of complex bureaucracy, as well as the limited capabilities
and multi-tasking responsibilities to sustainability leaders (Blanco-
Portela et al., 2018). These two issuesdthe fact that participation is
voluntary and the rigid structure of the universitiesdlimit the
expansion of these projects and a greater commitment to SD at the
HEIs. Velazquez et al. (2005) have underlined certain problems,
such as the lack of awareness, interest, and involvement; the
organizational structure or the lack of funding or support from
university administrators, among others. As pointed by Leal Filho
et al. (2017, p.99), the “areas of administration and management
are the greatest obstacles to SD in HEIs”. For instance, they do not
have the authority to compel teachers to implement sustainability
into the curriculum. Moreover, according to these authors, these
obstacles have caused a lack of administrative structure for SD (e.g.
environment committees). Leal Filho et al. (2018a) have analysed
case studies from different countries and determined that lack of
2
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
planning or financial support is one of the drawbacks identified, but
also the integration of three main components of SD that need to be
holistic and comprehensive. Another argument is the fact that is
mainly focused on environmental programmes, specifically as
regards two issues: “first, reducing energy consumption, waste, and
integration into mainstream university operations and, second,
greening the curriculum” (Roy et al. Yarrow, 2008; Larra n et al.,
2015b). Amaral et al. (2020) pointed the successful implementa-
tion of sustainable initiatives in HEIs is strongly influenced by in-
ternal social and governance restraints . For other authors, the
problem “engagement of all participants in the major driver”
(Godemann et al., 2014) and cooperation is emphasized as one
strategy towards sustainability. Precisely, the reason universities
cannot fully implement SD is that SD is more than a theory: it is a
call for action, a work in progress. On this regard, Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) appears as an opportunity for those
institutions.
2. Sustainability in HEIs in the Spanish context
Interest in sustainability in Spain has been mounting: many
institutional statements have emphasized the need to implement
SD at HEIs (Larra n et al., 2014, p.). The 2015 University Strategy
(Ministerio de Educacio n, 2010) gave great importance to the “social
responsibility of the university system” and highlighted the rela-
tionship with the environment. The main aim was to adapt the
“guidelines proposed by the European Higher Education Area and
[establish] a special commission responsible for the elaboration of a
document titled University Social Responsibility and Sustainability”
(Andrades Pen ~ a et al., 2018). At the legislative level, the Spanish
government also introduced “Organic Law April 2007 on univer-
sities, which aims to incorporate sustainability in areas such as
management and accountability, and Law February 2011 on Sus-
tainable Economy” (Larra n et al., 2015b). These constitute the basis
for “the implementation of sustainability at HEIs”. At the research
level, the VI National Scientific Research, Development and Tech-
nological Innovation Plan (2008e2011) incorporates “strategic ac-
tion about energy and climate change”. The State Plan (2013e2016)
included a programme called Societal Challenges on issues such as
sustainable transport, action for climate change and energy, among
others; these issues are also present in the current Innovation Plan
(2017e2020). This is associated with the research lines in which
HEIs can apply for funding for the realization of research projects.
As highlighted by Larr an et al. (2016), Spanish HEIs has started
working in sustainability issues since six years ago. The group on
Evaluation of University Sustainability at the Sectoral Commission
for Environmental Quality, Sustainable Development and Risk
Prevention (CADEP, as per its Spanish acronym) (Conference of
Spanish University Rectors, CRUE) was created in 2004 (Alba,
2007). The group established a “set of indicators to assess the
progress of Spanish universities on their path to sustainability”.
These indicators are grouped into three areas: (1) management, (2)
teaching and research, and (3) environmental management. In
2009, they created a sectoral group on sustainability with nine
working groups1 CRUE, 2018 This has also led to an auto diagnosis
tool, with the participation of 33 universities. Its last report stated
that HEIs have improved in these areas and great efforts have been
made in environmental aspects; however, curricular sustainability
has not been implemented CRUE, 2018. Moreover, there is another
network in Spain that belongs to the Sustainable Development
Solutions Network (SDSN) and it is called Spanish Network for
1
Information of the working groups available at: http://www.crue.org/SitePages/
Crue-Sostenibilidad.aspx accessed 17 March 2020.
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
Sustainable Development (REDS). This Spanish network was
created in 2015 with a mission “to mobilize and sensitize Spanish
society, public institutions and the private sector so that they know
in a more rigorous and committed way the SDGs, as well as
favouring their incorporation of public policies, business environ-
ment and in the behaviour of society in general.“2
Various studies have analysed the commitment of Spanish HEIs
towards sustainability with different approaches. According to Leo n
Fernandez (2015), “Spanish HEIs are making a great effort to
incorporate environmental management and sustainability into
their activities and the creation of sustainable campuses”. Larra n
et al. (2016a) have analysed the strategic plans of universities, and
their “findings suggest that there is a low presence of sustainability
strategies at Spanish universities”. According to Bieler and
McKenzie (2017), strategic plans are relevant for HEIs because their
offer information “on the extent to which there is a commitment
towards whole institutional change”. Moreover, this value could be
influenced by data availability and having their website updated. In
addition, some strategic plans remain private (e.g., Fundacio n
Compromiso y Transparencia) (Cavanna and Medina, 2017). Alba
(2007) has stated that all universities have some activity related
to sustainability. Other studies have focussed on the learning
context or the teachers’ competences (Leal Filho et al., 2018b;
Albareda-Tiana et al., 2018), or on environmental habits (Chuvieco
et al., 2018). Regarding the research on SD, bibliometrics is a
research area focused on examining the scientific activity in a given
subject area, institution, or country. There are different bibliometric
studies that analyze sustainability or SD or sustainability science
(Kajikawa et al., 2014; Olawumi and Chan, 2018) while other focus
mainly on analyzing the output of sustainability in higher educa-

tion (Veiga-Avila et al., 2018; Alejandro-Cruz et al., 2019; Hallinger
and Chatpinyakoop, 2019). Some studies focused on Spanish
Framework: Bautista-Puig et al. (2019d) and De Filippo et al. (2019)
analyze the scientific output of environmental sustainability by
using a category called “Green & Sustainable Science & Technol-
ogy”. Some observatories monitor the scientific activity of the
Spanish HEIS. That is the case of IUNE Observatory that was created
to monitor its activity and offers information on papers (as well as
other dimensions) for public and private HEIs.3 However, as
underlined by Manzano et al. (2016), in the Spanish context private
universities have a higher dedication to teaching rather than
research.
Although sustainability in HEIs has been studied for over 20
years, relatively little is known about the status of its imple-
mentation in Spanish HEIs and especially on the contribution to-
wards research on SD. However, HEIs are not only a key sector for
the analysis of sustainability, but also a crucial agent in the gener-
ation of knowledge. Between 2012 and 2016, the Spanish university
sector (public and private) was responsible for 61% of the Spanish
scientific production in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Uni-
versities constitute the first sector in terms of scientific output,
followed by the health sector (28%), mainly hospitals, and the
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), responsible for 16% of the
Spanish scientific production in the WoS database in that period
(Bordons et al., 2017). Despite there are some studies that have
approached sustainability output at HEIs to the best of our
2
Information extracted from REDS website: http://reds-sdsn.es/quienes-somos/
red-espanola-desarrollo-sostenible accessed 27 November 2019.
3
IUNE Observatory was created by a group of researchers from Carlos III Uni-
versity of Madrid, Autonomous University of Madrid, Autonomous University of
Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University, which constitutes ‘Alianza 4U’ network.
This Observatory monitors the scientific output for the research output in public
and private Spanish universities by analysing different dimensions. More infor-
mation available in: http://www.iune.es/.
3
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
knowledge, no other study has approached the analysis of the
sustainability relation in research output from the social, environ-
mental and economic perspective from a bibliometric point of view
and few studies have focused on considering multiples dimensions.
3. Objectives
Considering the importance of SD, this paper analyses the
development of research on this topic in the Spanish HEIs, as well
as their commitment, from 2008 through 2017. The objectives of
this study are two-fold:
1) How is research on SD carried out by HEIs? This question seeks
to determine the main actors in the Spanish framework and the
most specialized on the research on SD. For that purpose, we
designed a search strategy for collecting the output in order to
analyze the research effort.
2) What is the commitment of Spanish HEIs through sustainabil-
ity? This question analyses with different indicators how
committed are Spanish Universities with sustainability, based
on the following dimensions identified in the scientific litera-
ture (Chambers and Walker, 2016; Lozano et al., 2015): Univer-
sity Governance, Assessment and Reporting and Campus
Operations. In contrast with other studies, we also propose the
Internationalization perspective (projects and participation in
rankings) associated with R&D relevance.
The other sections of the paper are organized as follows: Section
2 covers the sources and research methodology used. Section 3
introduces the most prominent findings and section 4 compares
these results with earlier research. Finally, section 5 presents the
main conclusions and suggestions for future research.
4. Data sources and methodology
This study focuses on the analysis of the research output of
Spanish HEIs as well as the commitment based on different di-
mensions. The universities selected for this study are the ones from
the IUNE Observatory,4 that comprises 50 public and 32 private
universities, which conducts research activities. That is, 100% of all
the private and public Universities according to the Ministry of
Science, Innovation and Universities.5 Previous literature studies
have been used for characterizing the different dimensions of
sustainability at HEIs (see Supplementary Material). That is
research, university or governance, assessment and reporting, and
campus operations. Based on the description, some representative
indicators have been selected for each one. As well, another
dimension labeled ‘Internationalization’ has been included. This
includes participation in GreenMetric ranking and participation in
R&D projects. Information for this study was sourced from the
following sources:
- For collecting the scientific output, the Web of Science (WoS)
was the source for collecting SD publications studied. WoS is an
international multidisciplinary database that has been indexing
4
This Observatory was created by a group of researchers from Carlos III Uni-
versity of Madrid, Autonomous University of Madrid, Autonomous University of
Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University, which constitutes ‘Alianza 4U’ network.
This Observatory monitors the scientific output for the research output in public
and private Spanish universities by analysing different dimensions. More infor-
mation available in: http://www.iune.es/.
5
Information extracted from https://www.ciencia.gob.es/stfls/MICINN/
Universidades/Ficheros/Estadisticas/datos-y-cifras-sue-2018-19.pdf accessed 25
October 2020.
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
Table 1
Summary table of the Unidimensional Indicators of the Spanish HEIs used in this study.
Unidimensional indicators
Dimension
Research patterns
Internationalization
University or governance and assessment and reporting
Campus operations
the most prominent scientific journals in science, technology,
social sciences and humanities since 1945. In this study, we have
used the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) in-
house WoS database. This is a version of WoS but with some
enhancements (e.g. harmonization of affiliations …).6 A total of
5288 documents has been collected from Spanish HEIs in the
period 2008e2017.
- The Community Research and Development Information Service
(CORDIS) database contains information on the projects funded
by the European framework programme for research and
innovation. The Framework Programmes for Research and
Technological Development (also known as the Framework
Programmes) are funding programs created by the European
Union and European Commission to support and foster research
in the European Research Area (ERA). In this analysis, only
projects related to FP7 and H2020 were considered. These two
programmes cover the same period as the research activity. We
have selected the sub-programs more linked with sustainability.
These programmes selected can be summarized as follows:
- FP7: Cooperation-specific programme. This sub-programme con-
stitutes one of the principal building blocks of this programme.
The subprogrammes selected are as follows:

Environment subprogramme.

Energy subprogramme.

Transport subprogramme.

Social sciences and humanities subprogramme.
Within the H2020 programme, there are specific sub-
programmes in which societal challenges and sustainability are
addressed (called “societal challenges”). For the purposes of this
study, we have selected the following ones:

The food security, sustainable agriculture, and forestry, marine,
maritime, and inland water research, and the bioeconomy.

Secure, clean, and efficient energy.

Smart, green, and integrated transport.

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency, and raw
materials.
- The GreenMetric World University Ranking it is a global sus-
tainability ranking developed by the University of Indonesia (UI)
in 2010. The “main purpose of the ranking is to provide the
result of online survey regarding the current condition and
policies related to green campus and sustainability in the uni-
versities all over the world”.7 It analyses six categories with its
6
For more information about this enrichment, the reader is referred to Waltman
et al. (2012).
7 according to previous studies. Besides, ‘University or gover-
Purpose of GreenMetric ranking extracted from http://greenmetric.ui.ac.id/
what-is-greenmetric/accessed 5 January 2019.
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
Indicator
- Output by institutions: absolute values and “Activity Index” (AI) of their research (Eq. A.1.)
- Inclusion in GreenMetric ranking
- Participation in EC-funded projects related to sustainability:
- Inclusion of sustainability in strategic plans.
- Sustainability plans.
- Participation in networks: CRUE and REDS.
- Green offices.
different weights: “setting and infrastructure (15%), energy and
climate change (21%), waste (18%), water (10%), transportation
(18%), and education (18%)”. It was not until 2012 that the ed-
ucation perspective was included. Despite its criticisms on the
indicators and the number of participants, it is the only ranking
that offers an overview of sustainability at HEIs worldwide.
However, it should be considered that not all the Spanish uni-
versities of this study are participating in this ranking.
- Other sources. For the information on the other dimensions
detailed on Table 1, the information has been checked on each of
the websites of the Spanish HEIs. For instance, strategic plans
and sustainability plans were collected, as well as the informa-
tion on the Green Offices. These offices were selected because it
may support institutional efforts in pursuing and implementing
sustainability. Moreover, the participation in two Spanish Net-
works (CRUE and REDS) has been checked on its correspondent
websites’.
The study was developed in two stages. In the first step, the data
collected provided sufficiently descriptive information to charac-
terize the results of each of the aforementioned dimensions based
on the different sources. The second stage consisted of the analysis
of the relationship between variables. The steps taken to reach the
objectives proposed are set out below:
- Formulation of a search strategy: The first step consisted of
identifying the appropriate textual corpus to analyze. Drawing
from an analysis of earlier bibliometric studies, a search strategy
was formulated based on triple-bottom line approach (TBL).
That is social, economic, and environmental pillars. For the
environmental pillar, we use a well-defined WoS category
(called ‘Green & Sustainable Science & Technology’). For the
social and the economic pillar, we searched ‘social sustainab*”
and ‘economic sustainab*’ in CWTS publication-level classifi-
cation (Waltman and Van Eck, 2012). More details on the search
strategy are provided in the appendix and Bautista-Puig (2020).
This strategy supposes a novelty in comparison with previous
bibliometric approaches that capture sustainability by searching
‘sustainability’ or ‘sustainable development’. Only articles as
document type were considered in the analysis from 2008 to
2017.
- Establishment of bibliometric and commitment indicators.
We selected a group of indicators as a representativity of
different dimensions. For the research patterns, traditional
bibliometric indicators have been selected: scientific output and
specialization index (Frame, 1977), which shows the speciali-
zation on a specific topic, in this case, sustainability. For uni-
versity or governance and assessment, and reporting and,
campus operations dimensions, indicators have been selected
nance’ and ‘Assessment and Reporting’ has been grouped into a
4
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320

Table 2
Most productive HEIs in Spain (2008e2017).8

Position HEIs P % P/P (Organization)

1 Universitat Auto noma de Barcelona (UAB) 342 0.98

2 Universidad Polite cnica de Valencia (UPV) 250 1.61
3 Universidad Polite cnica de Madrid (UPM) 244 1.77
4 Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR) 226 1.20
5 cnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Universitat Polite 219 1.36
6 Universidad del País Vasco (EHU) 217 1.04
7 Universidad Santiago de Compostela (USC) 203 1.21
8 Universidad de Co rdona (UCO) 194 2.26
9 Unversidad de Granada (UGR) 189 0.79
Position HEIs P % P/P (Organization)
10 Universidad de Castilla la Mancha (UCLM) 158 1.62
11 Universidad de Sevilla (US) 155 0.73
12 Universidad Auto noma de Madrid (UAM) 140 0.51
13 Universidad de Oviedo (UNIOVI) 130 0.97
14 Universidad de Alicante (UA) 124 3.11
15 Universidad de Vigo (UVIGO) 109 1.20
16 Universitat de Barcelona (UB) 108 0.25
17 Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) 107 0.30
18 Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) 102 0.84
19 Universitat Rovira y Virgili (URV) 99 1.08
20 Universidad de Extremadura (UNEX) 94 1.41

Source: Compiled by CORDIS.

8
Acronyms of HEIs can be found in the following link: http://www.iune.es/es_ES/glosario/listado-universidades.

single category. In addition, a new category called ‘Interna-
tionalization’ has been included, which is linked to R&D and
includes participation in European Commission funded projects
and rankings. The following indicators were analysed for the
final dataset.
The different indicators allow us to obtain a picture of the efforts
in Spanish HEIs towards sustainability from a holistic point of view,
by considering different dimensions. In a second stage, the relations
between quantitative and qualitative variables are explored with
chi-square and whisker plots. A chi square test (or c2 test) is used to
analyze categorical data and allows us to determine the degree of
association between variables in a contingency table. Moreover, the
graphical methods box-and-whisker plots were used for displaying
variation in a set of data, allowing comparisons. Different categor-
ical variables versus the numeric variables (number of documents)
are explored with this technique.
5. Results
This section offers an overview of research activity in sustain-
ability at Spanish HEIs and their commitment measured by di-
mensions such as Internationalization, University or governance
and assessment and reporting and Campus Operations. These four
dimensions identified are analysed and their relations is latter
explored:
5.1. Research patterns
Table 2 presents the most productive HEIs in Spain with sus-
tainability research. That is the ones that presented a higher
number of documents. The most productive university in this field
is the UAB with 342 documents (0.98% of their total production),
UPV with 250 documents (1.61%), UPM with 244 documents
(1.77%), UNIZAR with 226 documents (1.20%), UPC with 219 docu-
ments (1.36%), EHU with 217 documents (1.04%) and USC with 203
documents (1.21%). For some institutions, the output in sustain-
ability overcome the 3% of their total production (e.g. UA, URV).
Fig. 1 shows a bivariate plot with scientific output vs their Ac-
tivity Index (AI) around sustainability of Spanish HEIs top-15. The
size of the bubbles indicates the number of publications in WoS of
each institution. Only institutions with a higher output on this topic
with, at least, 100 documents on the topic are included in the figure.
However, bigger universities could have a higher output than
smaller. However, with the activity index, it is possible to determine
the degree of specialization of these institutions in this topic.
Universities such as UAB, which has a higher production (342
documents), present lower specialization (AI of 1.98%). On the other
hand, universities with lower scientific output present a higher
specialization: e.g. UAL with 124 documents and an AI of 6.26%,
UCO with 194 documents and an AI of 4.55%, UPM with 244 doc-
uments and an AI of 3.57%.
5.2. Internationalization
5.2.1. GreenMetric ranking
The participation of HEIs in GreenMetric Ranking9 has increased
from 95 universities in 2010 to 718 in 2018 (129.47%). Thus, while in
2010 a total of five Spanish universities participated, in 2018, this
figure amounts to 28, marking an increase of 460%. Table 3 shows
the twenty-eight Spanish universities that are on the ranking with
its position by years. Dimension 1 is the six dimensions evaluated
by GreenMetric and Dimension 2 is the score of each University. In
addition, it shows the evolution of the position over time. In 2010,
the university with best position (16th) was the UAH, followed by
UPV in 42nd, UV in 44th, UNARRA in 60th, and USC in 68th.
Remarkably, at national level, the UAH maintained its leadership
from 2010 to 2014 with positions between 12 (in 2013) and 31 (in
2011). While in 2015 and 2016, the Spanish HEIs in the ranking was
headed by the UAB, in positions 20 and 14, respectively (Table A1).
Fig. 2 shows a correspondence analysis between the Spanish
universities with more than 70 documents on the six areas of the
GreenMetric Ranking 2018. The size of the nodes shows the num-
ber of documents according to the search strategy developed in this
study. This positioning can be interpreted as an indicator of a higher
score in this area. The score is calculated as follows: Setting and
9
Indicators considered in GreenMetric ranking are available at: http://
greenmetric.ui.ac.id/criteria-indicator/.

5
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320

Fig. 1. Bivariate plot of the scientific output vs AI of Spanish HEIs (2008e2017).

Table 3
Association between variables.

Typology Strategic plan Sustainability plan Network 1 Network 2 Green office GreenMetric

Typology 1
Strategic plan 8.354a 1
.004*
Sustainability plan 30.124a 2.771a 1
.000* .096
Network 1 5.929a .033a 5.407a 1
.015* .953 .020*
Network 2 5.676a 1.880a 8.567a .085a 1
.017* .170 .003* .771
Green office 12.490 1.567a 17.580a 10.185a 2.200a 1
.000* .211 .000* .001* .138
GreenMetric 10.189a 2.405a 11.235a 1.842a 4.615a 3.071a 1
.001* .121 .001* .175 .032* .080

H0 is rejected with p < .05 *.

Source: Elaborated by the author from data collected in HEIs website and SPSS.

Infrastructure values 15%, Energy and Climate Change 21% and
‘Waste’, ‘Transport’ and ‘Education and Research’ represents 18%.
Some universities, such as UJI or UNAVARRA are near to setting and
infrastructure, with scores of 1150 and 1,125, respectively; UAH has
a score of 1400; UIB, 50; UJAEN, 1075; and UVIC, 900, close to
transportation. UDG and UMH are close to the category “water”,
with 600 and 775, respectively; ULPGC presents a score of 1,275,
close to education and research10. UB, UV and URV, with scores of
1,200, 1425 and 1,650, respectively, are close to waste. In this
framework, few universities are close to energy and climate change.
5.2.2. Participation in European projects related to sustainability
The participation of HEIs in European projects has been ana-
lysed. In this regard, two programme frameworks that coincide
with the period of study have been considered: FP7 (2007e2013)
and FP8, more popularly known as the H2020 programme
(2014e2020). Considering that sustainability is a transdisciplinary
topic, a few representative subprogrammes for its relation with the
topic have been selected, in order to analyze the participation of
HEIs. In the 7th FP, a total of 25,778 projects were identified.11 1841
of them were identified as considering the selected sub-
programmes. Within this group, 1495 of the projects have been
involved at least one university as a coordinator or as partner.12 The
call in which HEIs have the most participation is transport, with 535
projects. If their participation is compared with the total number of
projects in the call, HEIs have a significant presence in the social
sciences and humanities, with 238 projects (94.07%), followed by
the environment programme, with 437 projects (88.46%).

10
For calculating the education and research (ED) dimension of GreenMetric is
considered the number of courses/subjects related to sustainability, research funds
dedicated to sustainability research, the total number of scholarly publications on
sustainability, events related to sustainability, or sustainability reports among
others.
11
The number of projects identified are from the Cordis Open Data Portal. FP7
projects are collected from the following link https://data.europa.eu/euodp/es/data/
dataset/cordisfp7projects; H2020 projects are from here: https://data.europa.eu/
euodp/es/data/dataset/cordisH2020projects.
12
The query used to search the Universities involved were by searching ‘Univ*‘.

6
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
Fig. 2. Correspondence analysis of Spanish universities in GreenMetric (2018).
Moreover, the participation of Spanish HEIs has been checked in
these calls. In this regard, Spanish HEIs have participated in 292
projects, with a higher weight in the social sciences and human-
ities, with 74 projects (31.1%) followed by 100 projects (22.9%) in
the environment programme (Fig. 3). The Spanish institutions
involved with a higher number of projects are as follows: UPM with
50 projects, UAM with 30 projects, UPC with 25 projects and UB
with 24 projects (Fig. 3).
Regarding the H2020 programme, 25,019 projects are identified.
However, the project framework is still on-going. The differences of
participation on the programmes selected, as well as the HEIs and
the Spanish case, are shown in Fig. 4. From the subset of pro-
grammes selected, calls for higher HEIs participation in food se-
curity programmes with 325 projects (54.99%) and to climate
action with 267 projects (45.10%); the other two programmes
selected (3.3. and 3.4) present a participation of HEIs close to 40%.
Spanish HEIs participated in 336 projects (21.54% of the projects
with HEIs participation). Technical universities led 116 projects
(UPM, UPV, UPC). Subsequently, 22 projects were led by the US, 19
by the UAB, 16 by the USC, and 12 by the ULPGC (Table A2.).
5.3. University governance and assessment and reporting
5.3.1. Integration of sustainability in strategic and sustainability
plans
A strategic plan is a document that summarizes what an orga-
nization wants to accomplish in order to achieve its mission and
vision. In this context, within this document HEIs are defined by not
only their mission, vision, and scope but also their strategies of
action. The great majority of Spanish universities have strategic
plans published on their websites, more predominantly in public
than in private universities. According to a Fundacio n Compromiso
7
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
y Transparencia (Cavanna and Medina, 2017) report, in 2016, 41
public universities (83.67%) had a public strategic plan, versus 12
private universities (46.15%). In our study, we have identified 58
HEIs that have strategic plans: 14 are private and 44 are public. Of
those, 41 universities mentioned sustainability (Table A1.). In public
universities, more commitment can be observed than in private
ones (35 public and 6 private). Some of them included this infor-
mation in the sections devoted to their missions (UA, UMU), Values
(UBU, UMH, UV, UNED), or as strategic axes (UCO, UAB). Sustain-
ability is mentioned in different ways: some highlighted environ-
mental sustainability (UC3M, UAH, UCO); others, economic
sustainability (UJI). Still others mentioned the three pillars of sus-
tainability. By searching which type of sustainability is explicitly
mentioned in the documents, it was found the most often
mentioned concept is environmental pillar. Another fact that
should be highlighted is the limited mentions of the SDGs from
some universities (e.g., UNED). (Table A3.).
Regarding assessment and reporting, Table A.4. summarizes
sustainability plans collected from public and private Spanish
universities. Only official documents on the universities’ websites
were considered. 36 public universities (72%) have sustainability
plans, versus six private universities, denoting the increased ac-
tivity of public universities on this topic. Regarding sustainability
plans in public universities, there are different typologies: sus-
tainability plans or action sustainability plans (UAH, USAL, UPM,
UAB, UCA, UAL, UB); transport or mobility plans (UGR, UPV,
UNAVARRA); energy plans (UPC, UNIOVI); declarations from deans
about university commitments (UC3M); and best practices guide-
lines (UIB, URJC). As in strategic plans, the main focus and actions
are related to environmental sustainability. Examples of documents
from private universities documents are as follows: “Declaration of
Environmental Sustainability of the University of Deusto”
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320

Fig. 3. Number of FP7 projects on each programme and projects with HEIs participation. Source: Elaborated by the authors from CORDIS website.

Fig. 4. Number of FP7 projects on each programme and projects with HEI participation. Source: Compiled by CORDIS. Source: Elaborated by the author from CORDIS database.

(DEUSTO), the framework document for the sustainability and 5.4. Campus operations
commitment from UIC in sustainability policy, the Memory for
sustainability (URL), and a sustainability plan (UVIC). 5.4.1. Green offices
Another important aspect that shows university commitment is
to have a “green” office or environmental office. In the Spanish
5.3.2. Network participation
public universities analysed by SUE (INAECU, 2020), 31 (62%) have
Table A.5. summarizes the participation of public universities in
this kind of office. Each is called the “Green Office” (UNIZAR, USAL),
two Spanish networks: CRUE and REDS. According to Leo n-
“Environment Office” (UAB, UVIGO), or “Sustainability Office” (UCA,
Fernandez (2015), apart from CRUE there are also other networks
UNIRIOJA). However, 19 of the universities do not have this kind of
like the Catalan Network of Education for Sustainability Research
office, although some of these have a “Sustainability Classroom”
(EduSost), but such alternatives have not been considered in this
(UHU), UIA). Only three private universities (9.1%) have green of-
study due their regional level. In the first network (CRUE), 52
fices (DEUSTO, USJ, UVIC) (Fig. 5).
(78.78%) HEIs belong to this; in the second network (REDS), this
value rises to 36 (54.54%).

8
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
Fig. 5. Percentage of green offices in private and public HEIs.
5.5. Relation analysis between variables in the HEIs in Spain
For analysing the relation between variables, Table 3 shows the
test results of the chi-square values and their p-value of the 21
categorical values. Each test represents a 2  2 table with Yates
correction and is calculated with contingency tables. Considering
the abuses of the p-value,13 in this section this value was not used as
an inequality but by expressing its exact value and to validate the
degree of association from the value obtained for chi-square. This
type of contingency table allows to identify whether the differences
between two categorical variables are or not random. For instance,
there are strong associations (p ¼ .00) between the following var-
iables: sustainability plan versus typology; green office versus ty-
pology; sustainability plan versus green office. The following
variables has also associations: strategic plan versus typology (p ¼
.04); typology versus GreenMetric (p ¼ .01); sustainability plan
versus network 2 (REDS); sustainability plan versus GreenMetric
(p ¼ .01); and network 1 versus green office (p ¼ .01). A. It should be
considered that in Table 3, only 66 Spanish HEIs have been
considered (only the ones with publications data retrieved by the
search strategy).
Figure A2 shows the box-and-whisker plots of the different
categorical variables (strategic plan, sustainability plan, network 1,
network 2, green office and GreenMetric) versus the numeric var-
iables (number of documents). Major variability exists between the
public universities in all the categories analysed, revealing differ-
ences between public and private universities in all categories.
Certain HEIs are commonly outliers (e.g. UAB, UNIZAR in public
universities; URL, UNAV, in private universities). Considering the
numeric variable “number of documents” with the categorical
variables selected, the median is higher in public documents,
especially in the affirmative part (e.g. having a sustainability plan,
the inclusion of sustainability in the strategic plan, belongs to a
network …) in all the variables. That is, when public universities
have a higher number of documents, when mentioning sustain-
ability in their strategic plans and when they have a sustainability
plan, they are linked to a network (CRUE and REDS), have a Green
office or campus or participate in GreenMetric ranking.
13
Information on p-value misuses available at https://www.nature.com/articles/
d41586-019-00874-8; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9.
9
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
6. Discussion
This section focuses on the discussion of the research results
obtained from the sustainability scientific output and the indicators
collected from this study.
6.1. RQ1. How is research on SD carried out by HEIs?
For analyzing the research on SD, in this study, we have pro-
posed a bibliometric delineation procedure based on the traditional
triple bottom line (TBL) (Elkington, 1998). With the application of
our methodology, we have collected a total of 5288 publications
from 68 Spanish universities in the period 2008e2017. Previous
bibliometric studies that focused on the scientific activity at HEIs
presented a lower number of documents than the ones identified in
this study in a 10-year period: 1228 in Scopus from 2004 to 2015
(Bizerril, 2018); 1459 documents from 1998 to 2018 in Scopus
(Hallinger and Chatpinyakoop, 2019); 5074 documents from 1991
to 2018 in WoS and Scopus (Alejandro-Cruz et al., 2019); and 5924
documents from 2005 to 2014 in WoS (Veiga-Avila  et al., 2018). The
search strategy of those studies is different (by searching “higher
education”, “sustainable development” and “sustainability” in ti-
tles, abstracts and keywords) than the approach we presented.
Despite the growing interest in this subject, we find that there is
very little analysis of sustainability at HEIs in Spain from a biblio-
metric point of view. The bibliometric study by De Filippo et al.
(2019) that analyses scientific activity at Spanish Universities
retrieved a total of 3956 Spanish publications’ in the same period as
the present study. Bautista-Puig et al. (2019) identified 2965 papers
from Spanish Universities in the same period. The reason for this
difference in those studies is linked with the fact that only consider
the environmental pillar (by considering the category ‘Green &
Sustainable Science & Technology Studies’). In the approach of this
study, we also have incorporated the social and the economic pil-
lars as well as a methodology based on seed and expansion by
direct citation.
In previous studies, the scientific output of HEIs in Spain has
been specifically addressed (e.g. in De Filippo et al., 2019). The re-
sults of this study are in line with De Filippo et al. (2019) which
identified as the main producers UAB (235 docs.) and technical
universities (UPV with 217 docs., UPM with 213 docs., UPC with 203
docs), similar to top 5 obtained in our study. Bautista-Puig et al.
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
(2019) identified technical universities as the main producers in
environmental research (UPC, UPM and UPV). However, the
prominent role of these universities can be explained by their
relatively large sizes. In terms of specialization measured by an
Activity Index, results follow previous studies: technical univer-
sities are specialized on this topic (Romo-Ferna ndez et al., 2012;
Bautista-Puig et al., 2019) or even smaller universities in terms of
output (e.g. UAL) present a higher specialization. This could be
linked to a niche in research (for instance, renewable energies) of
these institutions.
6.2. RQ2. What is the commitment of Spanish HEIs to
sustainability?
The findings of this study suggest an increase in the participa-
tion of the Spanish HEIs in GreenMetric ranking over time. This fact
denotes the interest of these HEIs in assessing their policies and
actions in relation to their efforts towards sustainability and green
campuses. However, these results should be taken cautiously. Some
studies have criticized this ranking by arguing the low participation
of the universities and that is less empirical than other systems
(Lauder et al., 2015) and the biases presented. From the results
obtained, it can be observed the effort of Spanish HEIs towards
areas such as Transportation or Waste. This is in agreement with
Hidalgo et al. (2012) that pointed, Spanish Universities have made
greater progress in actions related to waste and teaching and, to a
lesser extent, have implemented measures on social responsibility,
environmental impact assessment, water, and green purchasing.
The commitment of the universities towards sustainability in
EC-funded projects is also observed during the period studied. HEIs
located in large cities (UAB, UB) and highly specialized (technical
universities such as UPM, UPC, UPV) (Manzano et al., 2016) are
participating in a major number of European projects related to
sustainability. While the strategy is different in comparison with
previous studies (Bautista-Puig et al., 2019; De Filippo et al., 2019),
the HEIs coincide with the findings presented.
In the ‘university and governance’ and ‘assessment and report-
ing’ dimension, our results present a higher number of strategic
plans (58 vs 45) in comparison with Larra n et al. (2015a) study. This
fact suggests an increase in the availability of this document at
Spanish HEIs since 2015. Differently to Larr an et al. (2015a, p.1)
which mentioned there is a “scarce presence of sustainability ini-
tiatives in the strategic plans in Spanish HEIs” (less than 40% of the
strategic plans identified), we have found an increase in
mentioning sustainability on the plans collected (70.69%). This fact
denotes an increase in the commitment and awareness on this
topic recently. As stated by Lozano et al. (2015) HEIs that have
incorporated SD into their institutional framework can be inter-
preted as an “official commitment to SD”. In contrast with previous
studies, commitment has been expanded in all institutions. For
instance, Larran et al. (2015a) found stronger engagement amongst
larger institutions, while our study showed different university
profiles, from smaller universities (e.g. UDL, UJI) to larger (UAB,
UAH). In addition, despite previous studies analyze if the size of the
universities is associated with the implementation of sustainability
practices (Siboni et al., 2013), we have observed the interest is
higher in public than private universities. Another interesting
aspect is the ways in which sustainability is addressed in strategic
plans vary: very few included the three pillars of sustainability. This
fact coincides with previous studies which stated sustainability is
addressed through compartmentalization based on single di-
mensions of the triple-bottom line (Lozano and Huisingh, 2011).
Our results also resonate with studies like Aleixo et al. (2016) in
the Portuguese HEIs framework: all universities use their webpages
to include this information and disseminate SD practices while, in
10
Journal of Cleaner Production 295 (2021) 126320
other HEIs systems such as Canada it is not common (Garde
Sanchez et al., 2013). Moreover, the great majority of the univer-
sities presented in this study, have shown a commitment to SD with
its inclusion in strategic plans or sustainability reports. As stated by
Lozano (2011) in the Spanish context, USC was pioneering in 2006
in publishing sustainability reports, followed by UCA and UMH in
2007 (Zorio-Grima et al., 2018). This study confirms the observation
by Lozano et al. (2013a), who stated there is a tendency towards a
growing number of HEIs’ sustainability reports each year. As well,
as it is observed, these commitments towards sustainability is also
quite recent, in line with the growing awareness of this topic.
Another important aspect is the increase in green offices. From the
results obtained in this study, 31 institutions (62%) included in the
present study have these offices while in previous studies this value
is lower (23 technical units) (Alba and Blanco, 2008). However, as it
is mentioned by Alba (2006), the creation of these units was the
first initiatives in Spanish HEIs.
At the international level, HEIs are experiencing a growing
tendency to redefine their strategies regarding the implementation
of sustainability in their organizations. As recommended by pre-
vious reports, it is needed to advocate for national support and
coordination (SDSN Australia/Pacific, 2017). One example that il-
lustrates this fact is the participation in networks. According to
Bieler and McKenzie’s (2017) finding, institutional membership to a
sustainability association may be a significant factor in progressive
engagements with sustainability at the strategic planning level. We
observed that all Spanish HEIs that have a sustainability plan also
participated within a network, especially in the national network
CRUE. This commitment is a sign of this progress, in working
collaboratively towards this challenge. However, international ef-
forts are still far. For instance, In Latin-American countries, a group
of 65 universities from 10 countries, established a group of in-
dicators to evaluate the sustainability of Universities within RISU
project.
7. Concluding remarks
The purpose of this study was to address a gap in the overview
of HEIs in Spain. Nowadays, little is known about studies focusing
on sustainability research and few studies follow a holistic
approach. Transformation in HEIs has emphasized the importance
of the third mission, and “social and sustainability values are as
important as human, relational or structural capital” (Brusca et al.,
2018). According to Leo  n Fern
andez (2015), referring to other au-
thors “the incorporation of sustainable development in the pro-
grammes of the university must be accompanied with the
structural measures, such as campus environmentalisation and
other related actions, that are accompanied by initiatives aimed at
involving the university community” (Leal-Filho, 2019). It is related
to a new paradigm shift. The results of this section show there has
been a stronger interest in SD integration in Spanish HEIs, which
accords with previous studies. This shows that sustainability
crosses all boundaries in university activities; however, ‘there
should be a greater commitment to SD by university leaders in
order to create a holistic system’.
The results of this study suggest considerable implications for
university planners and decision-makers in HEIs. First, there should
be a greater interest by university leaders to get an overview of
Spanish HEIs in different dimensions. Findings suggest the need for
Spanish Universities to increase their commitment to sustainability,
and to foster other dimensions (social and economic) in different
aspects (strategic plans, sustainability plans …). Second, it is
needed a variety of policy instruments to evaluate and assure
sustainability. For instance, the auto-evaluation tool from CRUE (as
well as other tools) is really valuable but other actions could be
N. Bautista-Puig and E. Sanz-Casado
promoted (for instance, incentives to increase awareness). Setting
benchmarks and establish a common framework for continuous
monitoring would be fundamental to a better understanding of the
current situation. In addition, it would be relevant to publicly share
this information and provide public access of this information to
help decision-making. Third, working collaboratively in national/
international networks with other countries in order to establish a
common framework and sharing practices should be promoted.
The participation in these networks would be crucial (e.g. to
centralize information, procedures, etc.). These findings seem to
suggest that there has been a considerable effort from HEIs in
recent years, however, there is still a long path to go for Spanish
HEIs to be adapted to sustainability.
Some limitations of this study should be highlighted. Moreover,
participation in GreenMetric is voluntary, so their results have
biases. Only a few universities are participating and this seem to be
biased in favour of their strong commitment towards sustainability.
Regarding university and governance, and assessment and campus
operations, despite that the websites relate all the procedures and
activities that are relevant, it is not possible to collect complete
information on the initiatives that have been carried in SD. As well,
different nomenclature in the plans was identified with different
criteria. Another important limitation is the lack of Teaching
dimension in this study. This has not been approached due to its
difficulty in collecting the information from the courses in all
Spanish Universities as well as the complexity in determining its
relatedness. Future studies on the topic might be complemented by
means of qualitative research methods to uncover motivations and
drivers for policies in HEIs contexts.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Núria Bautista-Puig: Conceptualization, Investigation, Meth-
odology, Software, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original
draft. Elías Sanz-Casado: Investigation, Supervision, Writing - re-
view & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the predoctoral contract BES-2015-
075461.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126320.
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