Commitment to sustainability in a Brazilian technological university: a case study

Higher education institutions have been steadily integrating sustainable practices into their operations. Despite these ef-forts in the implementation, several challenges must be over -come to achieve sustainability. There is a lack of studies that investigate sustainable development in higher education, and the efforts of a small, specialized university have been scarcely analyzed in detail. This manuscript addresses the path toward sustainability followed by a private Brazilian technological uni-versity. The university in Sao Paulo is one of the region's most traditional and oldest universities, focused on engineering, computing, and business. Data from 2019/2020 on energy and water consumption and solid waste generation for the universi-ty campus were discussed and benchmarked with GreenMetric indicators. The data was analyzed by a theoretical framework composed of 6 dimensions. Challenges were identified, and re-medial actions were proposed to transform the university into a greener campus. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the higher education institution kept sustainability projects active, some of which received international awards. However, this study reveals that although sustainable development is consid-ered very important to HEI and society, it is not yet embedded in the system's strategies, activities, and policies.