A civic and sustainable 15-minute campus? Universities should embrace the 15-minute city concept to help create vibrant sustainable communities

Abstract

This article looks at the value of applying the 15-minute city concept to city-based university campuses. We argue that attention to the public realm within and beyond university campuses has the potential to reduce carbon emissions, enhance civic engagement and improve the vibrancy and liveability of cities. The 15-minute approach addresses aspects of poverty and inequality through the relative affordability of sustainable travel and access to affordable goods and services. To realise these benefits universities must focus on three areas; (1) Establishing porous campus boundaries where services can be shared with the local community and vice-versa. (2) Playing an active role in evaluating and improving the sustainability and liveability of the area surrounding the campus. (3) Promoting, enhancing and enabling high-quality public transport and active travel networks to reduce reliance on private vehicles. The 15-minute campus approach marks a change from the idea of a ‘sticky campus’ where the university is seen as an enclosed one-stop resource for staff and students – often set apart and secured from its host city. Our notion of a 15-minute campus is a more civic minded conception that promotes an awareness of what lies both within and beyond the confines of the campus, challenging the definition of what the university is, and who it is for.