Sustainability-oriented universities: value propositions, policy levers and good practices

To contribute to the SDGs and the green transition, this chapter argues that universities will need to revise their value proposition – the public value they seek to produce from their education, research and engagement missions. The extent to which that value reflects sustainability principles – the sustainability value – can be increased by implementing a mix of policy levers, ranging from strategy-making and monitoring instruments to capacity building and introducing incentives. We introduce the sustainability value tree as a framework for classifying the policies and practices undertaken by universities and we present several examples of initiatives of sustainability across missions. We highlight several transformative, challenge-based approaches in education and research that have been implemented by European universities in recent years. This allows us to reflect on a wide set of critical issues around the objective of creating sustainability value. The chapter concludes that embarking on the green transition implies accepting new goals and ways of working focused on collaboration and generating public value.