“Green” University: a pedagogical orientation towards sustainability

Abstract

In the last decades, progress and innovation have, on the one side, contributed to the improvement of population lifestyles and wellbeing, but, on the other side, caused serious consequences on the environment and its liveability. The sustainable development, intended as an action to protect the environment in view of the future, involves different actors. Among them, the universities play a twofold role: organizations, which make use and consume for their functioning, and, most importantly, organizations, which generate and disseminate knowledge, hence capable to play a fundamental role in the education of the “green” generation. The pedagogy of the environment represents the reference point for driving the change of the universities in that direction.