article · International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology
Artificial intelligence offers significant opportunities to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals across higher education institutions. Using bibliometric analysis, university case studies, and a survey, the research maps existing and emerging trends in this area. Applications span campus operations and greening, community outreach, research, teaching and learning, and institutional management. While artificial intelligence adoption is already widespread and projected to grow due to increasing demand, several practical and ethical barriers persist. Documented obstacles include ethical concerns and authenticity issues in academic assessment, restricted access to essential software and materials, and inadequate information technology training among university staff. Overall, artificial intelligence provides analytical, predictive, and process-optimisation capabilities that can assist universities in addressing complex sustainability challenges, provided institutions successfully address operational constraints and ethical requirements.
Universities play a critical role in advancing global sustainability, but translating high-level sustainability goals into operational practice remains difficult. Understanding how artificial intelligence is currently applied, alongside practical barriers such as inadequate software access and staff training gaps, helps higher education leaders and policymakers direct resources effectively to accelerate sustainability initiatives across academic and operational domains.
Higher education institutions and university administrators can utilise artificial intelligence tools to optimise campus greening, operations, and academic management. The evidence reflects applied and tested deployments across existing university case studies alongside identified future demand. Commercial opportunities appear most viable for software developers and service providers addressing highlighted bottlenecks, specifically specialised training programmes, accessible sustainability analytics software, and assessment tools that safeguard authenticity and ethics.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by offering innovative solutions and enhancing the efficiency of processes aimed at achieving these goals. There is a perceived need for studies which may look at these connections. Against this background, this paper reports on a study that investigated the connections between artificial intelligence and the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at higher education institutions. The paper deployed a multi-methods approach. The first one was a bibliometric analysis of publications in the topic. The second method used was an assessment of a set of case studies, that illustrate how artificial intelligence is being deployed among a sample of universities in support of efforts to implement the SDGs and a survey aimed at identifying current and future trends. The data gathered allow some trends to be identified. For instance, that there is a wide range of applications of AI to sustainability in High Education Institutions (HEI), to be chosen in terms of campus operations and greening, outreach and community engagement, research, teaching and learning, and university management. Also, the paper has identified successful examples of the deployment of AI in various sustainability contexts, illustrating what are the success factors for them. Moreover, the survey identified the fact that the use of AI is quite widely spread, and is likely to increase in coming years, due to a greater demand. Finally, AI also poses several challenges, such as authenticity and ethics in assessment (case studies), 'lack of access to software/materials', and 'lack of information technology training for myself/my colleagues' (survey). Overall, AI offers a powerful toolset to accelerate and enhance the implementation of the UN SDGs. By analysing vast datasets, predicting outcomes, optimising processes, and providing new insights, AI has the potential to address complex sustainability challenges across various sectors.
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DOI: 10.1080/13504509.2024.2327584
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