North American and European Perspectives on Sustainability in Higher Education

Walter Leal Filho is a Senior Professor and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management” at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and Chair of Environment and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is the initiator of the Word Sustainable Development Symposia (WSSD-U) series, and chairs the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme. Professor Leal Filho has written, co-written, edited or co-edited more than 700 publications, including books, book chapters and papers in refereed journals.

Julie Newman is a distinguished sustainability professional, currently serving as the Director of Sustainability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has played a significant role in advancing sustainability initiatives at the university, integrating sustainable practices into campus operations, and influencing academic research.Before her role at MIT, Dr. Newman was the founding director of the Office of Sustainability at Yale University, where she helped establish one of the first campus sustainability programs in the U.S. She also served at the University of New Hampshire, where she contributed to sustainability efforts. Dr. Newman is known for her work on sustainability in higher education and has been involved in national and international conversations on the topic. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, focusing on how universities can model sustainability practices and policy. Throughout her career, Dr. Newman has worked to bridge the gap between research and practical application in sustainability, helping institutions lead by example in addressing global environmental challenges.

Amanda Lange Salvia is a Project Manager and Researcher the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. She is a Deputy Editor of the Encyclopedia of the Sustainable Development Goals and of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Her background is in Environmental Engineering and her work focuses on the role of universities towards sustainability, the impacts of climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Laís Viera Trevisan is a Project Manager and Research Associate at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Her research interests are sustainability, technology and innovation for sustainable development, smart campuses, and education for sustainability. She leads two research groups in the sustainability field: the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the European-North American Sustainability Research Consortium (ENASRC). She has more than 50 papers published in recognised scientific journals.

Laura Corazza (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor and teaches Sustainability Accounting and Accountability at the Department of Management, University of Turin. Over the last eight years, she has overseen the sustainability reporting process at the University of Turin. She has actively collaborated with the Global Reporting Initiative as Chair of the sustainability standards revision process in their Italian version. In recent years, she has been conducting three research projects evaluating various realities' socioeconomic impacts. She authorises numerous scientific articles in top-notch social and environmental impact accounting and sustainability reporting journals. In the last years, she has managed the first societal impact report for the pilot phase (2020-2023) of the UNITA – Universitas Montium European University alliance, for which she is currently a member of the “Impact Observatory” task force team, and she is actively involved in managing the financial sustainability. She is now approaching the study of university alliances, a recent European phenomenon increasingly involving extra-European partners.