Readiness assessment of mountain universities of Pakistan for green campus initiatives

The UN agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015–2030 is a holistic approach. Universities play an important role in dissemination of quality knowledge, developing the skills and attitudes of a large number of youth across the world. Though the emphasis on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) started as early as 1992, yet Universities adopted the concept of Green Campus integrating the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability quite recently. In developing countries including Pakistan, the Green Campus Initiatives (GCI) have not been implemented in the majority of the Universities. Northern Pakistan comprising Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) faces multiple challenges including Climate Impacts at the top. The fragile ecosystem of the region requires more sustainable initiatives at the University and community levels. In this research, the readiness of the seven universities located in Northern Pakistan have been assessed for GCI on the basis scanning of the websites and questionnaire survey of the relevant stakeholders. The results have shown that there is little commitment of resources for sustainability from senior management, lack of awareness in faculty & staff and less research focus on the related themes of green campus. The co-curricular activities in universities are not linked with sustainability and there are no incentives for faculty, staff and students to this end. It has been recommended that Green Campus Framework may be developed for Pakistani Mountain Universities, with commitment from leaders of the universities and allocation of sufficient resources for development of sustainable campuses. The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) needs to allocate special funds for promoting GCI across universities in Pakistan.