Environmental, social, governance and sustainable development goals: promoting sustainability in universities

Purpose Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly aware of their role in developing and implementing a sustainable paradigm, with the potential to accelerate progress toward sustainable development (SD). Therefore, this study aims to investigate the environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainable development goals (SDGs) practices of the University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNISUL) and, based on this analysis, indicate how HEIs in general can contribute to the promotion of these concepts. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on the authors' experiences and participant observations made during the establishment of sustainability practices at UNISUL. Additional data collected from documentary research and literature review were analyzed qualitatively. Findings The results show that sustainability is present in UNISUL’s educational and management processes as actions related to all SDGs and, thus, to all ESG dimensions. On the other hand, it was noted that many actions identified in the literature are not present, with governance being the dimension with fewer practices, thus indicating possibilities for improvement. In this way, new practices were suggested. Originality/value New actions linked to SDGs and ESG at UNISUL were identified that can be adopted by other HEIs.