Analysis of the impact of university policies on society's environmental perception

Today's society is showing great interest in achieving sustainable development in all socio-economic facets, and higher education institutions stand out as being proactive in this regard. University campuses are successfully implementing policies to curb climate change, energy and water conservation, waste recycling and green transport. In this struggle, education plays an essential role in shaping a population that is aware of the situation and willing to stop —and if possible undo— the damage caused. This study is aimed at evaluating universities' capacity to foster society's environmental perception and commitment. The analysis, which focuses on the Spanish and Italian campuses assessed by GreenMetric during the period 2018–2022, has a twofold objective: to identify the sustainable actions that have a direct impact on students' and researchers' awareness; and to analyse the efficiency of the environmental policies implemented by those responsible for these educational centres, as well as the differences between the two countries' universities. To that end, a panel data model is estimated on a sample composed of the pillars of GreenMetric, with DEA-bootstrap and the sequential Malmquist index then used to assess the efficiency of the actions undertaken. The results reveal the importance of the waste and transport policies implemented on campuses when it comes to the arduous task of kindling society's interest in the environment. Furthermore, both countries show increasing engagement, with productivity improvements of over 36% in the case of Italy.