Universities in Transition to Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the Campus of the University of Brasilia in Planaltina

A significant expansion of Brazilian public higher education occurred in the last decade. It is necessary to analyze the performance of sustainability within new federal university campuses to identify successful cases that may influence the university system as a whole. The present study is important because it addresses the case of a campus with the potential to be a reference on sustainability in Brazil, but it still faces obstacles and challenges to reach this condition. The Faculdade UnB Planaltina (FUP) is one of the three new campuses of the University of Brasilia, and presents potential for sustainability given its location, courses, faculty profile and organizational structure. This study analyzes the performance of FUP in the field of sustainability from the seven dimensions of university activities proposed in the literature on sustainability in higher education: education, research, outreach, campus operations, on-campus experiences, Institutional framework, assessment and reporting. The campus's strengths are research, outreach, participation in management and the Institutional Pedagogical Political Project that reflects the intentionality of the campus in relation to sustainability. However, it is necessary to continue to strengthen sustainability in the curriculum and implement an environmental management system.