The term “sustainability” was coined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987  and has permeated every industry sector since, both private and public, to push and pursue various agendas. Higher Education, as an “industry sector,” was slower on the initial uptake compared to other industries. “Sustainability” was not exactly something that could be easily expressed in financial terms nor seen as an item of tradable value or exchange, hence, it did not garner the support needed at the Board of Regents’ level. Sustainability was therefore relegated to the world of academia for a decade or more before Campus Operations were forced to acknowledge its existence by other external forces.

Things began to change in 1994, when John Elkington coined the term the “Triple Bottom Line,” which expanded the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance. The corporate world quickly saw that the value of reporting and adopting green performance led to establishing a competitive edge in the market place. Again, Higher Education was slow to adopt this metric as the need for competitive leverage was measured in other areas such as academics, college athletics programs and endowment funds. (more…)