A 15 C’s Pathway of Sustainability in Environmental Health Management & The Crucial Role of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Manmade environmental degradation has created an unsustainable status quo posing many known and yet unknown environmental health threats. Innovation, which may be considered as a function of time, location, and explicit and tacit knowledge acquisition, is essential for the effective and sustainable management of environmental health issues. The following series of C’s may function as a pathway towards sustainability in environmental health management: (1) Consciousness of the urgency, (2) Comprehension of the complexity, (3) Confidence in our ability to change, (4) Capacity-building for decision-making, (5) Cooperation among stakeholders, (6) Carbon footprint reduction, (7) Circular economy adoption, (8) Corporate sustainability, (9) Creativity (Creative thinking and action), (10) Creation of resilient and adaptive communities, (11) Creation of sustainable living environments for all social groups, (12) Creation of new explicit and tacit knowledge, (13) Communication of the new knowledge, (14) Curriculum updates, and (15) Crisis management. Apart from the emerging teaching and research priorities, the proposed pathway requires a strategic higher education institutions’ contribution to the necessary societal transformation towards sustainability. Higher education institutions could play a crucial role in all the described steps of this 15 C’s pathway and in the interconnections between them. Each step may offer emerging opportunities for innovative planning and action towards a more sustainable future. However, further research and pilot applications are necessary for the evaluation of the proposed theoretical model.