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Despite an emerging trend in the higher education sector toward sustainable campuses, comparative analyses that span multiple themes across multiple campuses are still limited. The purpose of this paper is to reduce such a gap by comparing universities that are members of the International Sustainable Campus Network across themes that are related to environmental quality.

In total, 34 universities are included in the sample. Indicators are systematically reviewed and clustered into ten themes. Common indicators (CIs) are identified in seven themes for at least seven and at most 20 campuses. At the absence of CIs, the given theme is assessed based on the measures applied. The results indicate the average levels of performance in the sample and/or the scope of the measures that are undertaken.

According to related values, an average campus spent 233,402 MWh of energy in buildings, 838,317 m³ of water on campus, generated 4,442 tonnes of waste, and emitted 75,354 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. The average recycling rate was 50 percent, the average single occupancy vehicle rate in campus commuting was 34 percent, and on average, there were 152 sustainability-oriented courses. Best practices from the measures included energy audits for data centers, retrofit of water intense laboratories, and on-site renewable energy projects.

In addition, a unified monitoring framework is proposed to improve subsequent comparative analyses of campuses. Universities must focus on the use of the campus as a living laboratory to guide society toward a more sustainable future.

The purpose of this paper is to define and measure the outputs of a specific kind of innovation system, namely a sustainability-oriented innovation system (SoIS) for India, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey, with a view to compare and draw best practises for other emerging economies.

In a mixed methods design, the research work combines qualitative assessments based on support mechanisms with quantitative analyses based on the outputs of papers and patents in a set of 25 main keywords and related patent codes.

The SoIS for the four countries are defined based on 40 support mechanisms in the six main activities or functional dynamics of innovation systems. In an 11-year timeframe between 2003 and 2014, the output analyses consisted of 42,812 papers in the Scopus database and 3,483 patents in the World Intellectual Property Organization PatentScope database. Best practices were further identified and used to make a set of five key recommendations toward activating SoIS.

The synergy of each functional dynamic is necessary to maximize the outputs of SoIS and transform knowledge into societal benefit for sustainable development. Best practises include dedicated research initiatives in sustainability priorities.

The paper bridges a gap in developing and applying a method to identify, compare, and measure the performance of SoIS. The results are useful to activate SoIS to accelerate the pace of research, development and innovation for better managing environmental quality.