This thesis seeks to better understand the most pressing cultural barriers to progress in the sustainability movement, and to offer suggestions for overcoming barriers. This research includes a two-year long case study of the sustainability movement at OSU, where the researcher coordinated projects encouraging behavior change. Despite increasing severity and knowledge of environmental problems, behavior on-campus continues largely unchanged. Cultural norms and values of western society underlie reasons why behavior is not changing on-campus. The OSU case study grounds cultural barriers identified in analysis of semi-structured interviews with campus sustainability leaders. Literature for this research looks at cultural norms and values which block progress in the movement and critiques current efforts which rely too heavily on science and technology to solve fundamentally human problems in pursuing sustainability. Some of the more prevalent cultural barriers identified in this research include: a lack of time and/or money to get involved in the movement or make behavior changes, reactionary thinking, a growing sense of entitlement, and a lack of dialogue about the sacrifices needed to create a more sustainable society. In examining ways to overcome cultural barriers to progress, the researcher suggests crafting the sustainability message to be accessible, relatable, valuable and manageable to the average person. The framework for crafting the sustainability message is guided by the notion that progress in the movement will be defined by a focus on creative, personal, and spiritual aspects of human life, in addition to scientific and technological measures. / Graduation date: 2012

The Digital Twin (DT), a tool dedicated for decision-making and management, has recently started making its way into today’s digitalized world. It is described as a digital representation of a physical object, system, or process, mimicking its physical counterpart using real-time data and monitoring which can be used for decision-making, optimization, and designing (Singh et al., 2021). Not only can DTs be used for a single object, but can also be implemented on whole cities generating valuable insights improving a city’s management, operability, and realization. However, due to the infancy of the concept, further research is required to presuppose accurate city DTs. This can be done by exploring the implementation of DTs in the different sectors of a city (Shahat et al., 2021). Therefore, this report aims to identify areas in which an university in Sweden could benefit from the implementation of a DT, contributing to the knowledge gap regarding DT implementation in the education sector and furthermore the city DT development as a whole. To identify areas in which the university could benefit from a DT, semi-structured interviews were held with chief positions at the university. The aim of the interviews was to identify the university’s main challenges, and then map the challenges to DT solutions in literature and previous research. The identified challenges at the university were Decision-making processes, Recruitment procedures and forecasting, Quality assurance, and Unclear action plan on becoming a sustainable campus. The challenges Decision-making processes and Recruitment procedures and forecasting were mapped to the Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO). This kind of DT can help organizations with, for instance, responding to changes and delivering value for customers (van der Aalst et al., 2021). The last challenge, Unclear action plan on becoming a sustainable campus, was connected to a DT that can help the university in enhancing its energy management.