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This paper aims to highlight the contribution of ecological fairs to the promotion of sustainability in university campuses, based on a case study carried out at the University of Passo Fundo, located in Southern Brazil.

Producers and consumers of the ecological fairs were interviewed to analyse how the social, economic and environmental spheres of sustainable development are impacted by these fairs. In total, 24 interviews were conducted.

The results showed how fairs positively impact the academic and local community while bringing sustainability into university campuses.

The main limitations of this study were the number of interviews and the short period during when the study was conducted.

This case study demonstrated how the promotion of ecological fairs on a university campus plays an important role in the implementation and practice of sustainability and can serve as an example for other institutions that intend to work on similar projects.

This paper contributes to the literature by providing a discussion on how ecological fairs represent a good addition in the process of universities to become more sustainable and which aspects of each sustainability sphere are involved.

Considering the different roles universities can perform to contribute to sustainable development, it is through teaching and outreach that they might be able to connect to the academic and local communities the most. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which energy sustainability is being considered in campus teaching and outreach activities of different higher education institutions worldwide. In this context, this exploratory study was developed.

Through an online survey, a group of 36 universities from all continents was inquired about the level of sustainability in energy aspects of teaching and outreach activities, including curriculum change, training courses for staff and the regularity of outreach projects.

The results allowed global analysis concerning challenges and opportunities of these educational activities. This study also touches upon the interconnection between these practices and the contribution of universities towards the 2030 Agenda, and how universities can expand their activities and contribute practically to society. In terms of practical contributions, this study provides recommendations for higher education institutions to develop further in the area of energy sustainability through teaching and outreach.

Energy is a sustainability aspect relatively well covered by actions on campus operations, but there is a paucity of studies connecting this topic to teaching and outreach activities. This study is an approach to not only fill this gap but also reinforce the university role and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse recent actions of energy efficiency implemented by University of Passo Fundo, a higher education institution located in the south of Brazil, and their contributions to Goal 7.

The analysis is based on collected energy data and information of energy efficiency actions applied at the university.

The paper shows the progress related to the energy practices and discusses opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of applying energy efficiency at universities and its contributions towards sustainable development goal (SDG) 7.

The findings of this study can inform readers about University of Passo Fundo’s initiatives towards energy efficiency focussed in lightening, photovoltaic solar power generation and free energy market. Readers are able to improve their knowledge with the discussion of internal and external factors related to the initiatives.

The originality of this paper is connected to the idea of sharing the experiences from University of Passo Fundo, connecting energy efficiency practices at universities to SDG 7 and also exploring opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of applying these practices in the context of a higher education institution.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being considered at higher education institutions (HEIs) and propose and test the possible acceptance of a list of indicators to evaluate the contribution of HEIs to the SDGs.

The methodology consisted of the collection of indicators of sustainable development based on the existing bibliography. Afterwards, a set of indicators related to the SDGs were selected, based on the most frequent SDGs’ expressions found in the selected indicators. A sample of researchers was also asked to indicate to which extent this set of indicators is perceived as relevant.

The results indicated an initial list with 432 indicators, of which 268 were selected for having at least one of the keywords searched for, related to the SDG descriptions and targets. Thus, redundant indicators were excluded and, when necessary, indicators were aggregated, resulting in a final list of 61 indicators.

The set of indicators resulted from this analysis was considered appropriate to evaluate the contribution of HEIs towards the SDGs, demonstrating that it might not be necessary to create new indicators for that purpose.

Smart campuses can be seen as the future of higher education efforts, especially for their contributions to sustainability and to encourage innovation. This paper aims to present the benefits of smart practices in a Higher Education Institutions and highlights its connections to the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The methodology is divided into three steps: first, an international search and assessment of smart practices at universities; second, the identification of smart practices in a university campus in southern Brazil; and third, the presentation of the benefits of smart practices and their relationship with the SDGs.

The results showed that globally, the area most covered by smart practices in universities is the environment and, specifically, focused on waste reduction. in the context of this case study, the benefits of implementing smart practices mainly reach SDGs 4 and SDG 9, especially due to aspects of teaching technologies for the new classroom models and the optimization of campus infrastructure management.

The study encourages other universities to implement smart practices in their campuses, to becoming smart campuses while they also collaborate in achieving the SDGs while raising the discussion on the importance of committed actions taken on a university campus with the UN SDGs, to leverage synergies on campus operations at universities.

This paper presents a set of smart practices that universities are applying both globally and locally (in southern Brazil). In addition, it contributes to sustainability research by showing how smart practices have the potential to promote SDGs in universities, especially through campus operations.