Abstract:

Although schools are increasingly expected to demonstrate measurable progress in sustainability, the literature reports inconsistent and sometimes contradictory evidence regarding the factors that reliably support successful implementation. At the same time, a growing body of research has explored the transfer of business-oriented performance and accountability frameworks into education, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics, as a means of translating sustainability goals into measurable indicators and more explicit planning tools. In higher education, ESG practices have been applied to monitor sustainability performance, allocate resources, and communicate progress to stakeholders. In contrast, evidence from K–12 education remains limited and fragmented, with relatively few studies examining how ESG indicators inform school-level decision-making.

To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic review of the barriers that limit ESG adoption in schools. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, Scopus was searched using two parallel search streams comparing ESG-related research in higher education institutions and K–12 schools. Fifty-eight open-access articles were identified for higher education and twelve for K–12 education that met the inclusion criteria.

Studies were selected if they:
(1) were available in English,
(2) were published after 2014,
(3) appeared in peer-reviewed journals or conference proceedings, and
(4) examined ESG explicitly within an educational organizational context with a focus on metrics or reporting.

The review identifies five clusters of barriers explaining the implementation gap in schools: conceptual misalignment between ESG terminology and pedagogical priorities; limitations in measurement infrastructure and shared indicators; fragmented multi-level governance; resource and capacity constraints; and the risk of metric distortion that may incentivize compliance rather than meaningful sustainability improvement.

Keywords:

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Sustainable schools, K–12 education, sustainability metrics, educational governance, systematic review, PRISMA.