Advancing sustainability leadership by shifting relational ‘agreement structures’: a transformational higher education change program

Figures & data

Table 1. Key features of the selected illustrative case studies.

Scale	Geographical Region	Group	Stakeholders Engaged	Agreement Structures to Shift
University-Community Partnership	Spain	Technical University of Madrid itdUPM	Faculty staff, and academic assets from across the university	From university-defined research, to creating a university center for social-environmental systems, built on close collaboration with city and national government, artists, researchers, and businesses
University-Community Partnership	UK	Plymouth University	Local community with regional and national business, government, civil society	From university- or city-led innovation to tactical, operational, strategic partnerships for innovation with growth, social inclusion, and sustainable development
Multi-community to State-Level	USA	Vermont Energy Action Network	Civil society, government, business across the state	Shift from zero to 100% renewable energy generated within the state by 2050, for electricity, heating, and transportation
Multi-community to State-Level	USA	Open Opportunity Massachusetts	Stakeholders across K-12 public education system	From independent initiatives to improving outcomes to a coordinated, systemic initiative for thriving for all students
Multi-community to State-Level	Ethiopia	Alianza Shire	Energy companies, multilateral and government agencies, and academy with local leaders	From aid dependency to energy access for refugees, through collaborative co-creation of regenerative capacities locally
Multi-community to State-Level	Mexico	Renewable Energies Program	Rural universities, local indigenous communities, global finance, academic innovation ecosystem design	From resource-poor dependency to resource-rich generation of renewable energies through rural innovation ecosystems
Regional	USA	RE-AMP	Eight midwestern states with 130 nonprofits and foundations	Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in a multi-state region, through collaborative action on climate change and energy policy
Regional	USA	SIE Health Working Group	Leaders representing communities, patients, payment systems, foundations, insurance, national and state policy, and medicine	Collaborative to address the burden of chronic disease in vulnerable communities across the country, through health-care systems for prevention and treatment
Regional	USA	Cancer Free Economy	Working across medicine, market mechanisms, community engagement, and legal policy	National, systemic effort to rid the economy of carcinogenic toxins, in the short to long term
Regional	Europe	BUILD UPON	10,000 stakeholder groups in energy and building sectors across Europe	Engaging city-level stakeholder groups, across Europe, to dramatically scale building retrofits and energy efficiency

Table 2. Taxonomy of agreements relevant to partnering.

Agreement Structure	Observable Dimensions	Impact on Partnership Effectiveness	Case Study
Purpose (organizing principle)	Existence and clarity of deeper shared purpose	Most initiatives contain groups at cross purposes, each with their own agenda. When asking why they do what they do, eliciting and naming a deeper, shared purpose unites these separate agendas, showing how they combine into something deeper that animates what each perspective brings to the initiative, and finds a common, deeper purpose they share.	BUILD UPON united efforts of 10,000 stakeholders around a shared purpose of dramatically improving the environment, health, and economic opportunities, at the local level, across Europe.
Engagement	Commitment to purpose, connecting with requisite perspectives	Connecting the requisite perspectives to a shared purpose, through a process of respectful, collective inquiry increases the effectiveness and efficiency of commitment, interaction, sharing, and synergies.	Through this process, the Vermont Energy Action Network succeeded in defining a pathway together, across often conflicted partners, from 0% to 100% control of their shared energy future.
Transformation	Ability to learn and adapt, towards more efficient and effective interventions	The partnership has learning structures and processes in place to adapt to what it is learning, across the different perspectives together, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the partnership.	RE-AMP has built a collaborative, long-term learning structure, through which it adjusted to achieve its medium-term goals, and then pivoted to longer-term goals once those were achieved.
Transferring	Intended recipients of the work want what is offered, and they want it in the form it is offered	The partnership builds processes and structures where the intended recipients are integrally involved throughout the design, implementation, and assessment phases.	Alianza Shire co-designed the initiative with the energy companies, aid agencies, and refugee-camp leaders, ensuring that they wanted and could use what was developed

Figure 1. Road map of thematic sessions and reality labs].

Data availability statement

The authors are pleased to share, by request, non-confidential non-personnel data with academic parties seeking to further research inquiry in the field.