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For sustainable strategies to be developed in business schools, it is essential to understand which sustainability drivers and barriers are identified by academic managers and coordinators in the implementation of sustainable practices. In this scenario, the study aims to understand the barriers and possible drivers for the implementation of sustainability practices in Brazilian business schools. The subjects are managers and coordinators of business schools that are part of the Principles for Responsible Executive Education Network – Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Chapter Brazil/UN.

Descriptive research with a qualitative approach was conducted to achieve this objective. The study included academic managers, responsible for the general management of academic and administrative activities and coordinators, responsible for supervising and coordinating academic activities in a specific area, of schools that are part of PRME Chapter Brazil (interviews). For data analysis, the content analysis technique was used.

Taking into account the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) as categories of analysis, as well as management, curriculum and teaching as subcategories, the study identified 10 barriers and 12 drivers.

The results reveal that both the barriers and the drivers are supported by the social pillar, which focuses on the academic community and society as a whole. The “Management” subcategory was also the most mentioned, indicating guidelines for the strategic academic management of these organizations.

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.