What do we say when we talk about sustainability?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how faculty, staff and students at one American University define the term sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze student, staff and faculty definitions by comparing word frequency counts to a list of the 25 most frequently found words in over 100 definitions of sustainability. Next, the authors analyze the definitions through content analysis, producing a list of emergent themes. Findings – The authors find that our definitions do not rate highly when compared to a list of the most frequent words from published definitions, but examining them more closely highlights nuances in understanding. Research limitations/implications – These results can only speak to one university’s population, but may be similar to that of comparable schools. Further studies should include comparisons to a range of campus communities, including environmental leaders and laggards. Practical implications – Administrators and educators at institutes of higher education must determine whether an ambiguous understanding of sustainability is sufficient for their own goals in producing an educated citizenry. Social implications – When a community fails to understand sustainability, it impacts how they conceptualize environmental problems and make decisions to solve them. Originality/value – This study shows that unless one has polled a campus population, one cannot know how its members understand a fundamental concept such as sustainability. It also shows that the work of sustainability education is just beginning.