Abstract

Growing concerns for the rapidly expanding material consumption and rising greenhouse gas emissions have necessitated the United Nation’s inclusion of Goal 12 (sustainable consumption) and Goal 13 (climate change) into sustainable development goals. These inclusions call for more ambitious plans, accelerated actions, and policies that will improve resource efficiency, reduce waste, and mainstream sustainability practices across multiple sectors of the economy. While the focus has been on several sectors (such as manufacturing, mining, agriculture, etc.), the education sector has received less attention in terms of its contribution to climate change. Hence, this study seeks to connect the dots between academic activities and climate change. Using the Vaal University of Technology in South Africa as a case study, the research addresses environmental issues by investigating students’ attitudes toward paper consumption and reuse or recycling. The findings from the study show a high paper consumption and low recovery rate on campus. Hence, the study employed the incentive theory of motivation to develop a strategic response called the Sustainable Printing Workflow (SPW), which could help increase the paper recovery rate and mainstream sustainability practices in the education sector by reducing waste and enhancing efficient paper consumption and recycling.