Building sustainable campuses through innovation in green infrastructure: a two-wave strategic and institutional perspective

<jats:sec> <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>This study aims to examine the role of Green Strategic Intent (GSI) in promoting Campus Environmental Sustainability (CES) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It further investigates the mediating roles of Green Campus Innovation (GCI) and Green Institutional Capital (GIC). The study adopts the natural resource-based view (NRBV) as the theoretical perspective to understand how environmental resources and institutional capabilities contribute to sustainable outcomes in HEIs.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>The research used a two-wave longitudinal research design to collect responses from representatives of HEIs in Madhya Pradesh, India, including faculty members and administrators. The study used non-probability judgment sampling to select respondents for data collection. In the first wave, data were collected from 250 respondents, while 228 responses were obtained in the second wave. The constructs were measured across two time periods to examine delayed mediation effects among GSI, GCI, GIC and CES.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>The results indicate that GSI of HEIs has a significant positive influence on CES. The findings further demonstrate that GCI and GIC act as mediating mechanisms through which GSI translates into sustainability outcomes. In particular, the institutions that have a greater GSI will tend to promote innovation-based sustainability practices and develop institutional capacities that cumulatively contribute to CES as gauged over time.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Research limitations/implications</jats:title> <jats:p>This study has a number of limitations even though it has made contributions and this creates open doors to future research. First, the empirical scenario is restricted to institutions of higher learning in Madhya Pradesh, India. Future researches can be conducted in different regions, countries, and institutional systems to confirm its relevance in various socio-economic and regulation settings. Second, the results were based on the self-report data i.e. perceptions of faculty and administrators although the research used rigorous statistical controls and a longitudinal design. This can bring about subjectivity, even with the vast attempts in counter balancing the common method variance. To enhance empirical strength, future studies may use objective performance measures, including data on energy consumption, carbon emissions, reduction of waste, or sustainability ranking by third parties. Third, although the two-wave design can be effective in improving causal inference, sustainability transitions can get prolonged in time. To measure the institutional shifts in greater depth and long-term changes in effect, future research may utilize the three-wave or multiyear longitudinal designs. Moreover, the analysis concentrated on the institutional actors including faculty and administrators. Further studies can include the views of students, the operational staff, policymakers and external stakeholders to come up with a more comprehensive picture of the campus sustainability ecosystems.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Practical implications</jats:title> <jats:p>The research provides significant implications to university administrators, policymakers and sustainability professionals. The findings emphasize that strategic intent cannot be used to create any meaningful environmental consequences in isolation. Leadership commitment to sustainability should be backed with real institutional mechanisms and innovation-oriented practices. University personals must go beyond sustainability rhetoric and make sure that sustainability objectives are institutionalized in governance systems, performance measurement mechanisms and long-term institutional plans. The strong mediation of GIC highlights the need for robust organizational structures such as dedicated sustainability offices, clear governance, adequate budgets and staff development to ensure continuity of sustainability initiatives despite change in leadership. Third, the GCI calls attention to university active investment in innovative energy systems, smart campus solutions, environmentally friendly buildings and operational activities, institutions that do not focus on innovation are in danger of stagnation even where sustainability objectives have been well spelled out at the strategic level. The implications of the findings to the policymakers and accreditation agencies are also important. The regulatory bodies need to stop focusing on compliance-based strategies and drive institutions to build institutional sustainability capacities. Accreditation systems and funding plans should be restructured to prioritize long-term institutional capacity building and innovation rather than short-term environmental outcomes. This policy fit would relinquish systemic sustainability changes within the higher education sector. To managers and administrators, the research highlights the need to be patient and plan for the long run. The environmental improvements cannot be immediate but rather they develop with time as the institutional capabilities mature. The necessary cooperation between academic, administrative and operational units is needed to facilitate the translation of strategic goals into sustainable practice.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>This paper uses the NRBV as the theoretical perspective to describe the role of environmental capabilities in HEIs in achieving sustainability. In the terms of NRBV, GSI is a strategic organizational orientation, which allows institutions to build environmentally oriented capabilities. These abilities are reflected in GCI and GIC, which in turn lead to CES. Using the NRBV approach, the paper provides an explanation of how the internal environmental resources and institutional capabilities translate to sustainability performance in HEIs and empirically tests these relationships using a time-lagged design.</jats:p> </jats:sec>