Promoting sustainable consumption in Higher Education Institutions through integrative co-creative processes involving relevant stakeholders

Abstract

The United Nations proposes to ensure a sustainable future for all through the Sustainable Development Goals, assigning a new role to each individual in all sectors of society. Higher Education Institutions are outstanding agents of change, introducing and implementing sustainability in a holistic way, connecting people, and including social and institutional considerations, with students being a key component of change. This study presents a co-creation model to incorporate sustainability in Higher Education Institutions, integrating all members of the university community with a multidisciplinary approach, seeking to address global needs with development tools for new products and services to facilitate the transition of consumers towards responsible consumption. The model aims to analyze the daily consumption pattern of the community at the university, to identify the degree of commitment to sustainability of its members, and to co-create in search of solutions related to responsible consumption and production. This is achieved through five phases of a model, each with specific tasks and objectives based on co-creation processes and tools. As a result, the model enables stakeholders to understand the needs of their community by actively participating within the five phases for developing more democratic solutions and social involvement regarding sustainability issues that can be solved through a co-creative process. The model combines the benefits through ethnographic techniques to discover habits, tools to involve participation, and co-creation to manage complex problems. Future research will focus on the application of the proposed model to more generalist contexts of society, addressing potential challenges due to vertical collaboration and barriers pre-established by society for the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle.