Enablers and barriers to environmental management development in higher education institutions: an analysis of sustainability reports of Global Reporting Initiative

ABSTRACT This research aims at exploring which characteristics of Higher Education Institutions act as enablers or barriers in the development of environmental management actions. The beta regression analysis of 38 sustainability reports prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines showed that the institution’s ease of access to financial resources, the existence of an environmental/sustainability plan or policy and the public nature can be considered as enablers for the development of environmental management in HEI, while high complexity of the administrative structure and the existence of several campuses can be understood as barriers to its development. The study helps decision makers understand how the particularities of HEIs and the context in which they operate impact the development of environmental management actions.摘要 本研究旨在探究高等教育机构（Higher Education Institutions, HEIs）的哪些特征会对环境管理举措的开展起到促进或阻碍作用。本研究针对按照全球报告倡议组织（Global Reporting Initiative, GRI）指南编制的38份可持续发展报告开展贝塔回归（beta regression）分析，结果表明：机构获取财政资源的便捷性、是否存在环境/可持续发展规划或政策，以及公立属性，可被视为高等教育机构开展环境管理的促进因素；而行政结构复杂度偏高、拥有多个校区，则可被视作其推进环境管理的阻碍因素。本研究有助于决策者理解高等教育机构的自身特质与运营背景对环境管理举措开展所产生的影响。