University of são paulo: Sustainability masterplan for policies, plans, goals and actions

Abstract

The University of Sao Paulo (USP) is the largest and one of the most prestigious universities in South America with an academic population of nearly 150,000 people (127,000 students, 17,000 staff members and 6000 teachers). The USP has 14 campuses around the state of Sao Paulo and an annual budget of US$250 million, totally funded by the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Almost twenty years ago, USP started to take action in the area of sustainability and in the reduction of its environmental impacts. Due to its immense size and the presence of diverse properties in rural and urban areas, it was necessary to define environmental policies for all campuses prior to decision-making and the establishment of indicators and targets. Since 2014, USP initiated a comprehensive Sustainability Management Plan. Coordinated by the Superintendence of Environmental Management of the university (SGA), this plan was designed with the following phases: (1)Definition of Sustainability Issues Policy for the university (November 2015)(2)Definition of Sustainability Issues and Plans (June 2016)(3)Sustainability Masterplans with 11 thematic chapters for each campus (July 2017)(4)Specific Sustainability Programs of each Faculty or Departments (December 2017) All these actions are ongoing and the deadline for their completion is December 2017. It is an ambitious plan, with almost 1000 people involved and working in the process. This work intends to present the methodologies developed to achieve the sustainability goals of the University of Sao Paulo and the results already achieved.