This paper examines the relationship between university mission statements and sustainability practices by institutions of higher education. We examine mission statement constructs and the degree to which higher educational institutions meet specific sustainability criteria in line with the College Sustainability Report Card. Our sample consists of 347 universities from the Sustainable Endowment Institute's (2011) Green Report Card. Previous research suggests that mission statements are essential for superior organizational performance outcomes. We examine the relationship between university mission statement content and sustainability practices. Findings indicate that the greater the number of specific terms used in the university mission statements, the higher the statistical likelihood that those universities had higher sustainability ratings. Findings also indicate that private institutions and nonreligious‐affiliated institutions are more likely to include sustainability constructs in their mission statements than colleges and universities with religious affiliation and public institutions. Several propositions to guide future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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大学使命宣言和可持续发展绩效

本文研究了大学使命宣言与高等教育机构的可持续发展实践之间的关系。我们根据大学可持续发展报告卡检查使命陈述结构和高等教育机构满足特定可持续发展标准的程度。我们的样本包括来自可持续捐赠研究所 (2011) 绿色报告卡的 347 所大学。先前的研究表明，使命陈述对于卓越的组织绩效结果至关重要。我们研究了大学使命宣言内容与可持续发展实践之间的关系。调查结果表明，大学使命陈述中使用的特定术语越多，这些大学获得更高可持续性评级的统计可能性越大。调查结果还表明，与有宗教信仰的学院和大学和公共机构相比，私立机构和非宗教附属机构更有可能在其使命陈述中包含可持续性结构。讨论了指导未来研究的几个建议。