How the structure of a Green Campus promotes the development of sustainability competencies. The experience of the University of Bologna

Pursuing sustainable development in universities is not just a political issue or management issue of the universities. Strategies and action plans are only partially useful if they are not accompanied by concrete actions in teaching, in research, and in the outreach as well as the development of physical structures that respond to the principles and criteria of sustainability. Many universities made steps in this direction, making green their campuses. It lacked, however, the awareness that the “physical structures” can effect learning, allowing students to develop skills useful to promote sustainable lifestyles and they become professionals “of the future capable of.” This paper aims to highlight the educational function that the University of Bologna has developed through the changes implemented to the plexus structures “Terracini” of the School of Engineering and Architecture. Through a series of interviews with key observers (students, faculty, staff), the paper illustrates how, even enhancing the leading role of the students, the campus has become a real “living lab” in which design new ideas, test participation initiatives and concrete realization of the projects, teaching, and dissemination of good practices. In other words, it is a starting point for the promotion of social, educational, and research principles of sustainability.